US withdrawal from Afghanistan indicates occupation forces’ failure in our region: Houthi

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah movement says the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan after 20 years of war clearly shows that occupation forces have failed to advance their plans and agendas in the West Asia region.

“Our (Yemeni) nation is making progress. The United States is in decline, and recent developments in Afghanistan attest to this fact. Americans depend on their agents and mercenaries while fighting proxy wars,” Abdul-Malik  al-Houthi said during a televised speech broadcast live from the Yemeni capital Sana’a as he addressed ceremonies held to commemorate the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Shia Imam, on Thursday afternoon.

The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, when US-led NATO troops ousted their government. In recent weeks, however, and as foreign forces abruptly withdrew from Afghanistan, the militants rapidly overran the country, facing little or no resistance from Afghan army troops. The Taliban ultimately recaptured Kabul on Sunday, shortly after Afghanistan’s former president Ashraf Ghani fled the country to an undisclosed destination.

It was later confirmed that Ghani is in the United Arab Emirates.

The foreign military withdrawal put an end to a futile two-decade war in the South Asian country.

Ghani has vowed to return to the country and demand “justice” for Afghans, a few days after he fled just as advancing Taliban militants arrived at the gates of Kabul to complete a takeover of the country.

“I am in consultation with others until I will return so that I can continue my efforts for justice for Afghans,” the 72-year-old fugitive president said during a Facebook video statement addressed to the public on Wednesday, claiming that he had decided to leave his countrymen in a bid to prevent any further bloodshed.

Elsewhere in his speech, the Ansarullah chief called on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to stop hatching plots and conspiracies against the Muslim world.

“We advise the Saudi and Emirati regimes besides their allies to cease plots against the Muslim world, as such a conduct would result in nothing other than failure and letdown,” Houthi highlighted.

He went on to say that the Yemeni nation strongly supports the Palestinian cause and Palestinians’ legitimate struggle to liberate their territories from the Israeli occupation.

“It is a virtue to help the Palestinian nation, support their resistance and expel Zionists [from the occupied territories]. It is, on the other hand, a vice to show loyalty to the United States and Israel,” the Ansarullah leader stressed.

Houthi added, “It is a virtue to stand on the side of oppressed people in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and anywhere else in the world. It is righteous to strive for the unity and solidarity of Muslims. It is a vice to spread hatred and resentment among Muslims, and to try to provoke division among them.”

He noted that Yemeni people have every right to stand against the US-backed and Saudi-led aggression, which is "illegitimate and has led to perpetration of heinous and barbaric crimes.”

“It is righteous to strengthen our capabilities, and defend our struggle against the enemies’ conspiracies. It is a virtue to confront enemies' bids meant to humiliate our nation and the Muslim world. We will never capitulate and will not endure humiliation,” Houthi highlighted.

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 the 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 have, however, gone from strength to strength against the Saudi-led invaders, and left Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the country.

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