The United States supports Saudi Arabia’s military action against Yemen because the operation is on behalf of US oil companies, a geopolitical commentator says.
“Yemen has always been a sort of a doormat in that region. The people there have been badly exploited by the [P]GCC nations, the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council kingdoms,” Dean Henderson told Press TV.
“Essentially the big Western oil companies cooperate throughout that region, so the Saudi’s bombing campaign… is on behalf of oil companies,” he added.
On Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry supported the airstrikes against Yemen.
The top US diplomat praised the Saudi monarchy for making a shift from a full-scale air campaign to striking targets when the Ansarullah fighters of the Houthi movement try to seize more grounds inside Yemen.
Henderson also explained other reasons Kerry favors the Saudi bombing campaign.
“The Houthis are the enemies of al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula and we have to remember that the Saudis, the US, the British, [and] the Israelis, all back al-Qaeda, have created al-Qaeda,” he said.
“So by diminishing the power of the Houthis, you are crushing the workers, the people who are sick and tired of getting exploited by these kingdoms in oil fields,” the analyst noted.
Henderson also said that Yemen’s enemies are reinforcing al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula, which is the tool they’re using to keep Yemen down and keep the people underdeveloped, divided, and make sure that they do not become a developed nation.
Henderson described this situation as another case of neo-colonial intervention by the West.
Saudi Arabia started its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 – without a UN mandate – in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and to restore power to fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
More than 1,000 people, including at least 115 children, have been killed in Yemen since Saudi Arabia began its illegal military offensive, the United Nations said on Friday.
M.W