Saudi Ceasefire in Yemen Nothing but Political, Media Maneuver - Ansarullah

By Staff, Agencies

Spokesman for Yemen's Ansarullah revolutionary movement, Mohammed Abdul Salam, dismissed a two-week ceasefire announced by the Saudi-led coalition waging a bloody military onslaught against the impoverished country as a publicity stunt.

“The ceasefire announcement by Saudi Arabia is a ploy indeed as it is pressing ahead with raids on Yemen, and conducting operations on various fronts, including areas where there were no clashes at all,” Abdul Salam said in an exclusive interview with Arabic-language al-Jazeera TV news network on Thursday night.

“The Saudi ceasefire is just a political and media maneuver. It pursues more than one goal. It seeks to undercut the ongoing serious negotiations with the United Nations and burnish the blood-stained image of Saudi Arabia in this critical moment when the world is facing the coronavirus pandemic,” he added.

Abdul Salam underlined that the sensible decision for the Saudi-led coalition would be to stop the military aggression on Yemen, and lift the crippling blockade.

The Ansarullah spokesman went on to say that Saudi Arabia’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire in Yemen is inconsistent with the plans being followed by world countries to fight the coronavirus outbreak since the period will not provide the Yemenis with the opportunity to take proper measure to avoid COVID-19 epidemic.

“Yemenis are dying of blockade and epidemics… There can be no humanitarian truce as long as the [Saudi-led] siege continues,” Abdul Salam pointed out.

Earlier on Thursday, Spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yehya Saree dismissed the Saudi-led alliance’s claim that it had suspended hostilities in Yemen.

Saree wrote in a post published on his official Twitter page that the Saudi-led forces had stepped up their offensives and attacks across various parts of the impoverished Arab country over the past few hours.

“Saudi and Emirati forces have carried out at least five large-scale airstrikes on Yemeni areas near the kingdom's southwestern border region of Najran since the early hours of this morning,” he noted.