Marib Liberation ‘A Milestone’ In Battle to Expel Occupiers, Free Oil Wealth - Ansarullah

By Staff, Agencies

A senior member of the political bureau of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement said the liberation of the strategic central province of Marib will mark an important “milestone” in the battle to expel the occupiers and retake the country’s energy resources seized by the Saudi-led military coalition and its allied militants.

“The liberation of Marib will have significant impacts on [efforts to] expel occupation forces and return oil wealth” to the country, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti told Beirut-based al-Mayadeen television news network on Tuesday night.

Al-Bukhaiti said the Saudi-led coalition of aggressors runs a key command center in Marib, which is tasked with directing the operations against the Yemeni armed forces and “that is why the liberation of the rest of Marib constitutes a major objective for Yemen and will mark a milestone and the start of a new phase” in the Yemeni army’s liberation struggles.

He added that Yemeni army troops and fighters from Popular Committees will soon mount a major operation against Saudi-led coalition forces and their mercenaries.

Al-Bukhaiti said the Saudi-led coalition’s air power will not last long, and the Yemeni armed forces continue to strengthen their military capabilities.

“We tell those involved in the fighting with the coalition that we do not want to target them,” said al-Bukhaiti, apparently addressing the militants serving the Saudi-led coalition on the battle ground. Besides foreign mercenaries, many Yemeni militants loyal to the former Riyadh-friendly government Sanaa have been serving the Saudi-led campaign.

The balance of power is tilting in favor of Yemen and the country will enter a new phase once enemy forces are defeated, he said.

“The Sanaa initiative is still on the table” Bukhaiti said, calling on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to “quickly seize the opportunity and embrace peace.”

“Yemen’s goals are defensive at present, but the objectives of the battles may change as time passes,” he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yehya Saree, said in a press conference that Yemeni armed forces had made significant territorial gains in Marib Province, seizing control over large swaths of territory from Saudi-backed mercenaries.

Saree said the latest military operation dubbed Fajr al-Intisaar [Dawn of Victory], which came in the wake of a series of attacks by Saudi-backed aggressors in recent days, was launched after the success of the previous operation dubbed al-Bass al-Shadid to liberate Marib strategic province from the grip of Saudi-sponsored Takfiris.

Saudi Arabia, backed by the US and regional allies, launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing popular Ansarullah resistance movement.

The war has left hundreds of thousands of Yemenis dead, and displaced millions more. It has also destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure and spread famine and infectious diseases.

Yemeni armed forces and allied Popular Committees, however, have grown steadily in strength against the Saudi-led invaders, and left Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the country.