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Iran’s leader: Saudis, UAE, their backers‎ committing horrendous crimes in Yemen

2,000 Saudi-Led Coalition Soldiers Defect to Sanaa

Some 2,000 militants backed by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have defected to Sanaa after dozens of the Saudi-led coalition positions collapsed in Yemen and Southern Saudi Arabia in the past two weeks, Spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced on Tuesday.

Thousands of defectors are in a rush for receiving amnesty from Sanaa, to such an extent that the return of the Saudi-backed militants to the Yemeni capital for joining the Yemeni Army and the Ansarullah Popular Forces has been a common scene in the capital, al-Akhbar, a Lebanese newspaper, reported.

The report said that the recent successes achieved by the Yemeni army and Ansarullah popular forces in capturing 37 military sites in the Saudi border region of Najran and al-Jawf have shattered the morale among militants serving the Saudi-Emirati coalition.

Militants’ morale went down on both sides of the coalition, it said, adding that those loyal to Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in Marib and al-Bayda along with the UAE-backed militants on the Western coast are frustrated with the recent developments.

The Lebanese paper added that the defense ministry of the National Salvation Government has formed an operational committee tasked with welcoming and coordinating the affairs related to defectors to ease their union with the Yemeni army and Ansarullah popular forces.

Sanaa has welcomed tens of commanders who have abandoned the Saudi-Emirati coalition from fronts in Southern Saudi Arabia – Asir, Najran and Jazan provinces – and from Yemen’s Western coasts – Taez, al-Beyda and Marib provinces.

Defectors have told officials in Sanaa that Saudi commanders have been using Yemeni militants as a human shield, and that in some cases hundreds of Yemeni militants have been “mistakenly” attacked by Saudi forces.

After opening “mistaken” fire on friendly Yemeni troops, Saudi commanders left the bodies on the scene and ignored the status of the wounded, the report added.

In addition to militants abandoning the Saudi side, tens of commanders from the Emirati side of the coalition have also defected to Sanaa.

Many of the defectors are from the UAE-backed forces of General Tariq Saleh, a nephew of former Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, who have escaped from the Western coast seeking amnesty from Sanaa.

On Thursday, Commander of the 4th Republican Guard Brigade, a UAE-backed military group in Yemen, abandoned the forces commanded by Abu Dhabi as clashes intensify among the UAE and Saudi-backed groups in Aden.

Major Qassem Ahmad al-Khezri, the Commander of Logistical Forces of the 4th Republican Guard Brigade of Yemen affiliated to Tareq Saleh forces and supported by Saudi-Emirati coalition, deserted the Saudi-Emirati side and joined the Yemeni army and Ansarullah popular forces.

Al-Khezri told alkhabaralyemeni news outlet very early on Friday that the UAE-backed forces are now divided as they have found themselves just abiding by Abu Dhabi’s orders which are against the national interests of their country.

He added that Yemeni forces are considered as weapons and fuel for the “aggressing coalition” which is after annihilation of the Yemenis and is supporting armed groups which are fighting against each other.

According to Brigadier General Saree, division among Yemeni forces backed by the Saudi-Emirati coalition is gaping and around 2,000 forces have abandoned the Saudi side in the past couple of weeks.

Amid a widening rift in the Riyadh-led military coalition waging war on Yemen, new reports are recounting that the port city of Aden — which bases the ex-government of the war ravaged country — has been rocked by deadly clashes between the UAE-backed separatists and Saudi-backed militants.

According to reports, the infighting broke out Wednesday after the Southern separatists attended a funeral for dozens of fellows, including a senior militant commander, who were killed in last week’s retaliatory missile attack by Yemen’s Ansarullah movement on a military parade.

Both the UAE-backed separatists and the militants loyal to the former Saudi-allied Yemeni government serve the Riyadh-led coalition, which has been engaged, since 2015, in a bloody military campaign against Yemen aimed at reinstating ex-president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who resigned in 2014 and later fled to the Saudi capital.

During the funeral, the mourners chanted slogans against the self-proclaimed Hadi administration and exchanged gunfire with the guards at the presidential palace in Aden — where Hadi was supposed to be based but which remains largely empty as the ex-president lives in Riyadh.

The two sides pursue different agendas for Yemen’s future; the separatists want independence from Yemen, while the other militants seek to bring Hadi back to power, but the two camps have joined forces in the Saudi-led battle against Yemen’s Houthi movement, which has been both running state affairs and defending the country against the aggression.

Local officials and Aden residents told Reuters that Wednesday’s violence had left three people dead and nine others injured.

Hani Ali Brik, vice president of the separatist so-called Southern Transitional Council (STC), called for a march on Hadi’s palace to oust his administration.

“The people of the south are all on the street. This is a movement by the people that cannot be stopped, except with the government’s downfall,” noted mourner Abdelhakim Tabaza.

Commander of Presidential Guard Brigadier General Sanad al-Rahwa told al-Masdar Online news website that his forces had clashed with armed groups, who were trying to storm the presidential palace and the central bank.

Ties between the pro-Hadi side and the UAE-sponsored militants have grown increasingly tense over a number of issues, including what the Yemenis view as Abu Dhabi’s intention to occupy Yemen’s strategic Socotra Island and gain dominance over the major waterways in the region.

The latest clashes erupted weeks after the UAE — a key party to the Saudi-led coalition — announced a surprise plan to withdraw its troops from Yemen in a major blow to its coalition allies.

It is not the first time such clashes break out between rival militants in Aden. In January, the UAE-backed southern Yemeni separatists took control of the two city after days of frighting and confined the Hadi administration to the presidential palace.

Last Sunday, Abdul-Khaleq Abdullah, former aide to Emirati Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Zayed, said in a tweet that the war against Yemen is over for Abu Dhabi.

Abdullah asserted that the UAE involvement in the Saudi-led war against Yemen is over and it will be soon announced officially.

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Farsnews Arab Paper: Bin Salman Quietly Retreating against Iran

A leading Arab newspaper wrote that Saudi Arabia’s failure in Syria and Yemen and its disappointment at a US war against Iran have forced Riyadh to soften tone and policies towards Tehran.

“Saudi Arabia has started the policy of a quiet retreat given the Yemenis’ advances and the world’s recognition of Iran as a regional power in the Persian Gulf after its confrontation against the US and Britain,” the Arabic-language al-Quds al-Arabi wrote on Tuesday.

“Riyadh has now come to realize that neither Washington nor Tel Aviv is interested in war against Iran,” it added.

The paper underlined that Saudi Arabia has now come to repeat the same choice that it was forced to make after years of proxy war against Syria and Assad in the case of Iran: “retreat”.

That’s part of the reason why it has decreased its attacks against the Yemenis, it continued.

Al-Quds al-Arabia wrote that the Saudi media no more pursue the policy of free insult and attack against Iran and are now acting cautiously, noting that the UAE which has also come to develop the same notion has started withdrawing its forces from Yemen which, the paper said, paves the ground for Riyadh’s military pullout from the war-ravaged country.

Iran has long called for dialogue in the format of a regional forum to resolve differences with Saudi Arabia and the UAE through talks.

“Iran welcomes resolving issues with Emirates and Saudi Arabia peacefully because that will be in favor of all regional countries,” Iranian President’s Chief of Staff Mahmoud Vaezi said in July.

“Saudi Arabia’s policies have left them alone in the Muslim world and the region,” he added.

“The Saudis started a war that they thought would be ended in a few weeks,” Vaezi said, adding that “Yemen war was harmful to Saudi’s economy and distorted the country’s face”.

“Saudi ambassador to UN admitted what Iran has repeated many times i.e. regional issues must be resolved through negotiations and by regional countries,” he underlined.