SANA’A (Dispatches) – A Yemeni news website has revealed Saudi Arabia’s intention to annex several important eastern Yemeni provinces to its territories.
The Yemeni news website “cratersky” has reported that Saudi Arabia intends to annex the Yemeni provinces of Hadhramaut, Shabwa, al-Mahra and Abyan with the aim of gaining access to the waters in the south of Yemen under the pretext of granting the right to self-determination to the people of those provinces.
The Arab news website quoted its sources as saying that Saudi Arabia had met with a number of people in the provinces telling them that the kingdom has decided to do this and there would be no reverse course.
Official sources have not yet confirmed the news.
Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms and logistics support from the U.S. and other Western states.
The objective was to reinstall the Riyadh-friendly regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and crush the Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of a functional government in Yemen.
While the Saudi-led coalition has failed to meet any of its objectives, the war has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
In a latest development, a Yemeni military official has said the Saudi-led coalition forces and their allied militants have violated the ongoing UN-brokered ceasefire, which went into effect at the beginning of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, hundreds of time.
The official, who asked not to be named, told Yemen’s official Saba news agency that the violations included 80 flights of Saudi-led military aircraft and reconnaissance drones in the skies over the provinces of Ma’rib, Ta’izz, Hajjah, Jawf, Sa’ada, Dhale, Bayda, ‘Amran and across the borders.
Ansarullah’s political bureau member Ali al-Gahum denounced repeated violations of the ceasefire, saying Sana’a will not sit idly by in the face of these transgressions.
“The Yemeni armed forces have a lot to say in response to the Saudi aggression. The strategic weapon produced by the Yemeni forces can be used in response to aggression and ceasefire violations,” he told al-Ahed News.