Offering rare comments on the invasion of Yemen in a public interview, Saudi Defense Minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman defended the 2015 invasion as “necessary” ti restore former President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power.
The war is taking a lot longer than the Saudis expected, and the prince is left trying to explain that. His narrative is that the powerful Saudi military could quickly overrun the Shi’ites and win the war if they so chose, but that the number of casualties would be unacceptably high.
That’s interesting on a number of fronts, both in that the Saudis are feeling pressure to publicly explain their lack of victory, and that the Saudis have admitted that there is a conceivable death toll in the Yemen War which they’d regard as unacceptable, given the thousands slain so far and the millions facing starvation because of the naval blockade.
With the Saudis presenting their attack on Yemen as a war against Iran, by virtue of the other side being Shi’ites, Salman also appeared to rule out peace talks, saying that the Saudis could never hold talks with the “extremist” Iranians.
I have no idea why the United States thinks they should be involved in a war between the Shiites and the Sunnis . I can’t see why it should serve any of our interests . However the United States seem to think there job is to pick the winners and the losers in every endever
It is not Shiite vs. Sunni. It is US + Saudi Arabia vs. Iran.
The death toll in Yemen has been given as 10,000 for most of this lop-sided war on Yemen’s civilians. I’m just guessing, given the too frequent reports of drone strikes, air strikes, IEDs, starvation and famine in that poor, troubled land, that the real death toll is considerably higher.