Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

‘US turning Yemen into another Somalia’

Press TV – August 3, 2011

A political observer says the US militaristic approach to the ‘democratic revolution’ in Yemen is antagonizing the population, turning the Middle Eastern country into another Somalia.

“Instead of dealing with the democratic process, which they (the US administration) say they believe in, they [have] hurried and built a drone base in Yemen and now they are using drones to attack the people of Yemen,” Eugene Michael Jones, editor of Culture Wars magazine, told Press TV on Tuesday.

“You (the US) are radicalizing the [Yemeni] population by doing this thing, … the danger [is] that Yemen [is] going to become Somalia. It can split up into two countries; it can split up into tribes,” Jones added.

Considering that there can be no military solution to the situation in Yemen, the analyst said that the US has to close down its drone base in the country and to allow the formation of a transitional council that the Yemeni demonstrators have been demanding.

For several weeks, Yemeni protesters have been calling for the establishment of such a council to prevent the country’s longtime dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh, from remaining in office.

Earlier this week, thousands of Yemenis took to the streets of the city of Taizz to condemn US and Saudi interference in the country.

The demonstrators, who were carrying banners calling for the boycott of the US and Saudi products, accused Washington and Riyadh of attempting to prop up Saleh.

The protesters also chanted slogans denouncing Ali Abdullah Saleh’s three-decade dictatorship, stressing that the regime’s officials should be brought to trial for the killing of hundreds of people during months of anti-government rallies.

The protests have intensified since Saleh vowed to return from Saudi Arabia — where he has been receiving treatment for burns and wounds he sustained in an attack by tribesmen on his palace in Sana’a in June — to oversee a national dialogue and elections.

The Yemeni revolution began in January, when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in the major cities to call for an end to corruption and unemployment.

Hundreds of people have been killed and many more injured by forces loyal to Salah in the violent repression of the anti-regime protests.

August 3, 2011 - Posted by | Militarism, War Crimes

No comments yet.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.