AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The head of the Yemen's National Delegation, Mohammed Abdusalam, has dismissed a two-week ceasefire announced by the coalition of aggression 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,” Abdusalam said in an exclusive interview with the Qatar-based and Arabic-language al-Jazeera television 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.
Abdusalam underlined that the sensible decision for the US-Saudi aggression would be to stop the military aggression on Yemen, and lift the crippling blockade.
He 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 measures to avoid the COVID-19 epidemic.
“Yemenis are dying of blockade and epidemics… There can be no humanitarian truce as long as the siege continues,” Abdusalam pointed out.
Abdusalam considered this Saudi endeavor a "contradiction inconsistent with logic," wondering "If Saudi Arabia is not a party to the war, then why does it announce the cessation of its military operations? Therefore, the national vision came on the basis of dialogue with Saudi Arabia, as it is the one who leads the war on Yemen and besieges us."
He extended an invitation to Saudi Arabia, saying, “We invite Saudi Arabia to sit at the dialogue table with the other coalition countries involved in the aggression as a party and the national parties present in Yemen as another party in order to stop the military operations as a first step and then open the way for the United Nations to lead a political dialogue between all parties.”
Asked about whether there is now communication between Sana'a and Saudi Arabia, Mohamed Abdusalam stressed that “extensive communication through local and international mediators, and has been ongoing since 2016, but Saudi Arabia is buying time. It does not want legal communication through international bodies and decisions but rather communicating personally and via WhatsApp messages."
He added that these means will not stop the war and are devoid of any real vision of peace, but Saudi Arabia wants, through the use of these means, to lose Yemeni rights. “If Saudi Arabia stops the aggression and lifts its blockade, we will stop implementing all military operations that come as part of the right to respond. We are not the attacker.”
The head of the National Delegation and Ansarullah spokesman concluded his telephone conversation with his assertion that the Yemeni forces and the Committees are not in an attacking position but are now in the defense position "If there is a real cease-fire and the siege is lifted, this will be considered a positive step, putting the ball in the coalition’s court.”
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10 April 2020 - 12:01
News ID: 1024120
The head of the Yemen's National Delegation, Mohammed Abdusalam, has dismissed a two-week ceasefire announced by the coalition of aggression as a publicity stunt.
