By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer
   
As the US-UK-planned and Saudi-UAE-led war against Yemen is all poised to enter its sixth suicidal year on March 19, the defenders seem to be gradually turning the tables on the aggressors.
The five full years of destruction; the death of over a hundred thousand men, women, and children; and the displacement of several million people, have failed to dampen the spirit of resistance of the popular Ansarallah Movement, which of late has achieved some significant victories.
With the strategic province of al-Jowf along with its border with the 1934 Saudi occupied parts of Yemen under full control, coupled with important gains in the oil-rich region of Marib, the legal Sana’a-based government is now in a position to dictate terms to not just the rebellious forces of the fugitive from justice, Mansour Hadi, but to the retreating army of armed-to-the-teeth Saudi Arabia.
That was the reason the not-so-neutral if not perversely partial UN envoy, Britain’s Martin Griffiths, made an unannounced visit to Sana’a to urge freezing of all military activities, but was courteously told by Yemeni officials that it was not the right time for ceasefire, since any cessation of hostilities at this crucial juncture would prolong the unwarranted war by giving the needed respite for the aggressors to regroup and cause further misery to the Yemeni people.
The ingenious Yemenis with their innovative and constantly improving arsenal of weapons that shoot down the American and British supplied war planes of Saudi Arabia, and penetrate with precision strategic industrial and defence targets as far as a thousand kilometers away from Yemen’s borders, are in no mood to let the initiative slip.    
As a result, Saudi Arabia has realized the futility of facing the valiant forces of the Ansarallah on the battlefields and has resorted to the cowardly tactics of indirect talks, hoping to buy time for possible deception as well as to push towards Yemen’s coasts on the Arabian Sea in al-Mahrah Province near the borders with Oman.
This has aroused the suspicion of the local tribes who view the Saudi soldiers’ uninvited arrival as a bid by the Wahhabi regime in Riyadh to annex al-Mahrah or parts of it to the spurious fiefdom Britain had created in 1932 for its salaried servant, Abdul-Aziz, the desert brigand from Najd.
It should be noted that historically the Najdis were a landlocked tribe with no access to the seas. In 1914, the British helped them seize the future oil-rich eastern region bordering the Persian Gulf from the independent Shi’a Muslim Sheikhs of Qatif. In 1925, London again backed the Saudis in the brutal and bloody seizure of the Land of Revelation Hijaz and its crucial coastline in the west on the Red Sea from the Hashemite state.
Now, although both the US and the UK are militarily supporting the seditious Saudis and their drive towards the Arabian Sea, Riyadh is unlikely to succeed in view of the resistance it is facing from the Yemenis of al-Mahrah, who are likely to make a common cause with the Ansarallah against the invaders.
Sheikh Ali Al-Harizi, a leader of the resistance movement in al-Mahrah recently declared that the peaceful resistance against the Saudi occupation has now entered a new stage of armed struggle following air raids by the Wahhabi regime.
He confirmed in an interview with YemenNet that the "sons of Mahrah” are at war with Saudi occupation forces, which he said had violated the sovereignty of Yemen and usurping ports, airport, port and camps.
Last month, Saudi Apache helicopters bombed a peaceful gathering of Mahrah locals who were trying to block Saudi armoured vehicles that were on their way to storm the border port of Shahan.
The province, known for protecting its autonomy, is made up of hardy tribes who are determined to thwart the Saudi bid to gain access to the Arabian Sea in a bid to by-pass the Strait of Hormuz.
However, given the growing awareness of the people of Yemen, including those in the UAE-occupied southern parts in and around Aden, who are contemplating talks with the Ansarallah to drive out the aggressors, the Saudis will definitely be defeated.