US Officials ‘Knew Saudi Arabia Would Fail In Yemen’ - Report

By Staff, Agencies

Senior US officials have known ever since Saudi Arabia began a war of aggression against Yemen that Riyadh would fail in the military campaign, something that they have also “bluntly” told the Saudis, according to a report by The American Conservative.

The report, published by the magazine on Wednesday, cited one “senior US military officer” as expressing “ire” at Saudi officials for making the decision to go to war with Yemen.

According to the report, the Saudis did not inform Washington of the decision in advance.

“We didn’t see the [Saudi] invasion [of Yemen] coming and we were shocked when it happened. But we were pretty blunt. We told them, ‘you can’t win and you’ll bankrupt your country. It’ll be a quagmire.’ And we were right,” the official, whose name was withheld, said.

Saudi Arabia started the war on Yemen in March 2015 in a bid to reinstall a former regime and eliminate the Ansarullah revolutionary movement. Four years later, and despite massive purchases of advanced American weaponry, Saudi Arabia and its allies are bogged down.

US intelligence reports were also cited as having said that “Saudi Arabia’s intervention [in Yemen] was throwing into doubt the long-term stability of the Saudi government.”

The report highlighted the major attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities on September 14.

The retired US military officer referred to those attacks and said the Saudi decision to go to war with Yemen initiated all the tensions now simmering in the region.

This is “how all of this nonsense got started in the first place,” the officer said, referring to the initiation of the Saudi war.