Local Editor
The Saudi-led aggressors have become frustrated and disappointed with over nine months of war of attrition in Yemen, which has brought them no result despite spending billions of dollars on military hardware.
Not only the Saudi leaders, but also the US and other Arab countries in the Saudi-led coalition are tired with the prolonged war against the Yemeni people and revolutionary forces.
Some US decision-making centers in the US have blatantly warned Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman that the time is up for the Saudi regime in Yemen.
The Saudi officials have held several rounds of talks with UN special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed in Riyadh to find ways to get out of the Yemen quagmire. The Saudi regime has now given up its previous preconditions for settling the Yemen crisis.
In the meantime, the lengthy war has worn off patience among Riyadh’s allies. Reports said last week that gaps have widened between Saudi Arabia and its allies, specially the UAE, over the wealth and resources of Yemen’s Southern provinces.
On Monday, a Yemeni politician said the Emirati government had plotted ISIL’s rocket-propelled grenade [RPG] attack that killed the Aden governor.
"The UAE army has played a key role in the assassination of Mohammed Saad and the ISIL has just carried out the terrorist attack," Naji Hessam al-Tayri.
He noted that the governor of Aden was a supporter of fugitive former president Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi and he implemented the orders of the Saudi army.
"The widening differences between Saudi Arabia and the UAE have resulted in the recent surge of terrorist attacks and massacre of people," he added.
The UAE had previously sent mercenaries from Latin America, especially Colombia, to Yemen without prior coordination with Saudi Arabia.
Abu Dhabi has quietly built an army of Latin American mercenaries to fight for the deposed government in a proxy war.
In September, a Latin American newspaper disclosed that at least 800 Colombian nationals could soon be fighting alongside the Saudi-led coalition against Yemenis, with dozens likely already in the war-torn country.
Over 800 Colombian mercenaries could take up front-line positions in Yemen under the Saudi command, the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo said in a report.
The troops are expected to be involved in an ongoing offensive against the revolutionary forces, which currently hold Sana’a.
On Friday, a well-known source in the royal family disclosed that the Riyadh government’s invasion of Yemen has cost the kingdom tens of billions of dollars and the lives of over 2,000 Saudi soldiers killed in combat with Yemeni army and popular forces over the past 9 months.
"Saudi Arabia has spent over 200 billion Saudi rials (over $60 billion) for its aggression against Yemen in the past nine months," Mujtahid wrote in his latest tweets.
Mujtahid, a Saudi political activist, noted that the Saudi army has lost over 2,000 soldiers in the war with Yemen, while over 4,850 more have been wounded.
"The daily cost of the war for Saudi Arabia is 750 million Saudi Riyals [over $200 million] which is spent on purchasing bullets and for logistics," Mujtahid said.
Since March, the Saudis have led a bombing campaign in Yemen killing thousands of civilians on the pretext of targeting the revolutionary forces.
Human Rights Watch has said Saudi "airstrikes have indiscriminately killed and injured civilians" in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a and elsewhere.
In November, the US State Department approved the sale of $1.29 billion in smart bombs to Saudi Arabia, despite reports that the kingdom has killed and injured civilians in airstrikes against rebels in Yemen.
The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency [DSCA], which facilitates foreign arms sales, notified lawmakers on November 13 that the sale had been approved.
The approval cleared the way for the sale to go through - that is, unless lawmakers block it in the next 30 days, which is a rare move.
The sale included 22,000 smart and general purpose bombs, including 1,000 GBU-10 Paveway II Laser Guided Bombs, and more than 5,000 Joint Direct Attack Munitions kits to turn older bombs into precision-guided weapons using GPS signals.
Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for 259 days now to restore power to fugitive former president Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 7,130 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.
Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi warplanes are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
