AnsarAllah in Yemen: “We Will End the Saudi Blockade and Occupation”

Source: Al-Mayadeen Programs

Translation: resistanceaxis.substack.com

• A Major Breakthrough on the Western Coast
  The Instant Collapse of Pro-Saudi Forces
  The Red Sea and the Security of International Shipping
  Saudi-Emirati Rivalries on the Ground
  The Iranian Axis and the Saudi Axis
  The Next Step: Toward Lifting the Blockade

Presenter: From Al-Mayadeen, we greet you wherever you may be, dear viewers. Developments are accelerating, and more specifically on Yemen’s western coast, where the gains are not measured by the surface area of the ground alone, but by its position on the Bab al-Mandab route, from Hays to Al-Khokha to Al-Mokha via Al-Wazi’iyah — the Yemeni armed forces announce the extension of their control over the entire length of the western coast, encompassing the military camps of Khaled and Jabal al-Nar, alongside the sweeping of the islands facing it.

An advance that an intense campaign of Saudi strikes failed to stop. The spokesman for the Yemeni armed forces, Brigadier General Yahya Sari’, states that locally manufactured surface-to-air missiles forced a Saudi combat formation to withdraw from Ta’iz. In Al-Khokha, images from the Mohammed bin Zayed Hospital revealed another face of the retreat: wounded men abandoned without care by the Saudi-backed forces.

To what extent does this advance alter Riyadh’s calculations on the ground? And what does the approach of Sanaa’s forces toward Bab al-Mandab mean for the balance of power in the Red Sea?

In this segment of our field coverage, we are joined from the Yemeni capital by a member of the Political Bureau of the AnsarAllah movement, Mr. Hizam al-Assad. Welcome to the program, Mr. Hizam. We will also be joined during this program by retired Brigadier General and military and strategic expert Ali Abi Raad, from the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Let us begin with the vast developments on the ground on the western coast, following the liberation by the Yemeni armed forces of the districts of Hays and Al-Khokha, and of the coastal city of Al-Mokha, over an area exceeding 2,550 square kilometers. Rapid collapses within the ranks of the Saudi-backed forces, despite intensive air support. A report from our correspondent in Yemen, Ahmed Zabiba.

A Major Breakthrough on the Western Coast

Ahmed Zabiba (voice-over): Military and strategic upheavals are taking place on the western coast fronts in Yemen, where Sanaa’s forces have succeeded in liberating the districts of Hays and Al-Khokha, in addition to establishing full control over the coastal city of Al-Mokha, according to concordant field and media sources. An achievement on the ground that allowed Sanaa to recover more than 2,550 square kilometers, following the rout and flight of the forces loyal to Saudi Arabia, which suffered massive collapses within their brigades, despite Riyadh launching some 100 airstrikes on all fronts in an effort to support them.

Abid al-Thawr, Yemeni military expert (on screen): The hasty retreat and rapid defeat of the enemy forces are what led us to expand our offensive operations and to sweep the areas they occupied, until we reached Hays and proceeded to sweep the entirety of Al-Mokha, Al-Khokha and Hays, cutting off all the supply routes and the main arteries that the Saudi enemy had been striving to keep open between Ta’iz and Al-Mokha. And praise be to God, by the grace of the Most High, our forces have established full control.

Ahmed Zubayba (voice-over): With the widening scope of the Yemeni armed forces’ military victories and their ability to confront concentrations of Saudi troops east of Al-Jawf and in the governorates of Ta’iz, Al-Hudaydah and Al-Bayda, observers believe that the gains on the ground give the Yemeni people strength and resilience to wrest away their rights.

Mohammad Mansour, Yemeni political analyst (on screen): Saudi Arabia is in a great impasse. It must withdraw its feet and hands from Yemen and from Yemeni sovereignty. It has no other choice: either it accepts this, or it will have to bear even higher costs, because Yemen has opened the chapter of recovering all of its rights.

Ahmed Zubayba (voice-over): The rapid developments undoubtedly impose a new geographic and political reality across the entire Yemeni map, strengthening the balance of power in Sanaa’s favor, both on the ground and at the negotiating table, and placing Riyadh before a new phase that forces it to reconsider the whole of its calculations, both military and political. With the continuation and intensification of the fighting on the ground, Sanaa has, in the battle for the western coast, foiled Riyadh’s wager on its loyal forces, thereby imposing a geographic and military reality that could constitute a window opening onto a new political momentum, or onto further confrontations. —Ahmed Mohammed Zubayba, Sanaa, for Al-Mayadeen.

Presenter: Dear viewers, we open this discussion with Mr. Hizam al-Assad. Mr. Hizam, welcome back to the program. What is the military and political objective that Sanaa seeks to consolidate through this advance — this great advance that has taken place in the region of Yemen’s western coast?

Hizam al-Assad, member of AnsarAllah’s Political Bureau, Sanaa: May God protect you. I greet you and the dear viewers, and we give thanks to God the Most High for the great victory He has granted our people at the hands of our armed forces.

In truth, these regions are Yemeni regions, and it is the right of the sons of the Yemeni people, represented by their armed forces, to recover them and to liberate them from the grip and occupation of Saudi Arabia. And indeed, God the Almighty and Most High has enabled our armed forces to liberate these vast lands, whose surface area is perhaps comparable to that of many countries of the Gulf or of the region.

And there is indeed a very, very great strategic importance concerning the western coast region in general, and the region of Al-Khokha, the region of Hays, as well as the region of Al-Mafqa up to Dhabab and Miyyun, as well as the Yemeni islands in the Red Sea. These areas are of very great importance, both from a geopolitical standpoint and from the standpoint of what the great powers were counting on in order to subdue and bring the Yemeni people to heel. And also in terms of what this land holds, notably because of the nature and composition of its population, which rejects the invader and the occupier.

Moreover, there was an attempt on the part of the Saudi regime to create a form of social dissociation in these regions, whether through their “Daeshization,” or through the exacerbation of many regional, sectarian and confessional particularisms, as well as many issues and problems it raised. But by restoring the authority of the state there, by liberating them, harmony among the sons of the Yemeni people will certainly be restored.

As we observed when the Yemeni army entered these regions, there was an immense welcome, an overflowing joy, from the descent of the army from the Al-Kadaha area to Hays, then Al-Khokha, and so on all along the coast, in Yakhtul before that, in Wadi al-Malik, up to Al-Mokha and beyond. In all these regions, the sons of this dear country welcomed our armed forces with joy and were delighted to see them, all the more so as they had suffered injustice, oppression, occupation, arbitrariness, prisons — prisons that were overflowing with detainees unjustly imprisoned for having opposed this occupation and resisted this occupier.

Presenter: But what about the reports circulating that the armed forces of Sanaa and the other cities have an outside agenda and do not represent the Yemenis as a whole? How does Sanaa respond to those who hold this discourse?

Hizam al-Assad: First, the land is Yemeni. Second, the cause carried by the government of Sanaa and the administration or leadership of the country in Sanaa is a cause that concerns the Yemeni people as a whole: first, because the leadership’s demand to lift the blockade on the sons of the Yemeni people is not limited to a given geographic perimeter, and does not involve international or regional frameworks. This blockade does not even claim to raise matters of a UN nature: it is a blockade imposed by the Saudi enemy on the Yemeni people. It [Sanaa] therefore defends this logic and this demand, which is a just demand.

Likewise, the claims arising from the aggression imposed on our people for 12 years, and which continues — this is a legitimate demand, guaranteed and well-founded, for the sons of the Yemeni people as a whole, from north to south, including in the regions still under occupation. Thus the military dimension and the advance of our armed forces to wherever they have reached, along this long and extensive coastal littoral, are Yemeni lands, and there is no justification, no leverage allowing the enemy — whether Saudi or its instruments and mercenaries — to claim that there are outside agendas in this context, while they themselves speak from the hotels of Riyadh, in the name of bin Salman and the leadership of the Saudi enemy. Whereas our logic is the logic of the Yemeni people: the fighters are the sons of the Yemeni people, the sons of the armed forces; those who welcomed them in these regions are the citizens who were subjected to occupation, injustice, oppression, arbitrariness, prisons and all forms of torture. The cause is therefore a purely national Yemeni cause in this context.

Presenter: But Mr. Hizam, as you know, some are trying to frighten the Yemeni people — the inhabitants of the other regions of Yemen — in the face of this entry of the armed forces into these areas today. How can Sanaa reassure those who are afraid, especially in the context of attempts to spread fear? How can there be some form of reassurance? What do you say today to your brothers in Yemen, in the various governorates, about the entry of the Yemeni armed forces into these regions?

Hizam al-Assad: Obviously, this approach of intimidation and worry, and so on, naturally emanates from the trumpets of the aggression. But on the ground, on the social level, this worry does not exist. It is quite the opposite. Millions of people have seen this grand welcome from the inhabitants of the district of Al-Khokha, of Hays, and of Al-Mokha as well — this joyous welcome given to the heroes of our armed forces.

There is also the initiative of the leadership, embodied by His Excellency brother President Mahdi al-Mashat, who issued a decree of general amnesty for convicted persons, as well as his instructions to the government to go into the field to provide services, and also his directives to the local authorities of Hudaydah and Ta’iz to go into the field and provide services to the community.

Society is also familiar with the true, concrete model of our armed forces in many regions, in addition to the substance, content and methodology of our leadership in this context. This is why a state of harmony exists among the sons of the Yemeni people, and there is no divergence except in the enemy’s media and what it propagates. But in the real framework, there is nothing of the sort.

The Instant Collapse of Pro-Saudi Forces

Presenter: Mr. Hizam, to what extent was Sanaa surprised by the speed of the collapse of the lines on the opposing side in the western coast areas? Were there estimates in Sanaa that the fall, or the withdrawals, or the defeat would be this rapid for the other side? Or did the speed of the collapse exceed the expectations of the Yemeni capital?

Hizam al-Assad: We certainly had estimates that the occupier would fall in these regions from within, because of its arbitrary practices, its injustice, its arrogance toward the sons of the community. We estimated that the community would rise up and expel it. In reality, it governed these regions by force of iron and fire, through arrogant practices, through brutal and criminal security operations. So, when our armed forces approached the outskirts of the area, many regions collapsed. The withdrawal was in fact rapid and disorderly for the enemy.

It has no cause to defend. The enemy has no cause in Yemen, especially the local instruments, who carry out Saudi agendas for money. So, when the mercenary, whether a commander or a mere soldier, weighs on one side the thousand Saudi riyals or the hundred thousand Saudi riyals, and on the other his own head and his life, he will certainly lean toward surrendering and fleeing this fight. Withdrawing is undoubtedly safer for him, especially since he has no cause to defend. And at the same time, the occupier felt that this population environment massively rejected it. This is why this collapse was an accelerated and very rapid collapse. God the Almighty prepared the causes for it. And our armed forces certainly fought with bravery in the framework of the confrontation on many axes — notably at the beginning of this battle — and with that, God the Almighty enabled the achievement of this great victory.

The Red Sea and the Security of International Shipping

Presenter: Mr. Hizam, there were confirmations from Yemeni officials — here we are speaking precisely of Abd al-Aziz bin Habtour and Mohammed Abd al-Salam [AnsarAllah spokesmen] — who affirmed that international shipping will remain secure and that Sanaa does not target shipping, but is exercising its sovereignty over these regions. What is the message that Yemeni officials, more specifically in Sanaa, are sending today to the coastal states and to the international powers present in the Red Sea through these statements?

Desperate MBS has called  Trump urging him to attack Ansarallah.

Hizam al-Assad: Of course, our message to the coastal states is the following: we are your partners in securing this important shipping corridor, in making it a free and normal passage, as it usually is. As for the countries of the world, they have no reason to worry. The military operation falls within its domestic framework, within the process of extending the authority of the state, lawful and legal, over our territories, of expelling the occupier and these renegade bands. It has no repercussion of any threatening dimension whatsoever on the security and safety of international shipping.

Presenter: How can they be reassured, Mr. Hizam, especially since for them things happened quickly and in a surprising manner? And among these countries, have there been contacts established with you — with the Yemeni government or with the AnsarAllah movement? Are there, for example, countries or officials in the region who have contacted you to find out about the reality of what is happening?

Hizam al-Assad: As for the world, it certainly has experience. At the level of the Yemeni people and our naval forces, they are a very important factor in securing and safeguarding the Red Sea. And there is also the experience acquired in the context of supporting our brothers in Gaza: there was no threat to any shipping vessel whatsoever, except during the period when Israeli vessels were targeted in this context, as part of the battle of support [for Gaza]. Our armed forces had what allowed them to turn the entire Red Sea into a strait, not only Bab al-Mandab. But the Yemeni people and the naval and armed forces have proven that they are a factor reinforcing the security and stability of this important shipping corridor, as well as the security and stability of the region and of the world in general. We are partisans of peace, not of war and unjustified violence, contrary to what the Saudi enemy tries to present as a stereotyped image of the Yemeni people, of our leadership, and of those who belong to this leadership and to this project, in approaches that perhaps aim to distort the image in order to present these mercenaries residing in some of its hotels as the legitimate government and as those relied upon to secure the Red Sea or the Bab al-Mandab strait, when in reality they have no anchoring in the reality on the ground. Only yesterday, the so-called “Minister of Defense” of the mercenaries was detained in the Dali’ region, in an area also under occupation. And many leaders of this clique, this group residing in hotels, do not even dare to travel.

Presenter: Mr. Hizam, some wonder to what extent the Yemeni armed forces will be able to expand geographically and extend their control over these vast strategic regions — we are speaking here of Bab al-Mandab, of the Greater and Lesser Hanish Islands, of Miyyun Island, and other strategic islands as you also know. Are the Yemeni armed forces capable, with their current capabilities, of extending their control over all these regions without allowing the Saudi-backed forces to attempt once again to retake control of these areas from which Sanaa has driven them out?

Hizam al-Assad: Of course, there is one piece of information that everyone must understand: we are the owners of the land. The armed forces are the owners of the land and come from this country. It is therefore not appropriate — and it would be inapt — to say that the armed forces are expanding and establishing their control: it is “our land,” “our country,” “our islands,” “our coasts.” Our armed forces also have, thank God, sufficient military capabilities not only to ensure stability and positioning in these regions and to consolidate their control there in a lasting and continuous manner, but also to face any internal or external challenge aimed at their presence, also aimed at the sovereignty of this country through occupation or otherwise.

Saudi-Emirati Rivalries on the Ground

Presenter: Mr. Hizam, since His Excellency the General mentioned the Emirates — have you observed in Sanaa — have the Yemeni armed forces observed a divergence between the Saudi position and the Emirati position? And has this been reflected on the ground through what was clearly visible: first, the matter of the Minister of Defense classified in the Saudi camp, and second, we also saw in certain videos that forces linked to the Emirates were preventing the Saudi-backed forces from entering Aden? Have the Yemeni armed forces, has Sanaa, observed that there was a divergence between the Saudi position and the Emirati position? And how has this been managed?

Hizam al-Assad: Of course, there are many contradictions and also many, many clashes at the level of the extent of the dependencies. When we observe, at the level of what are called the forces of Tariq Afash [son of the former Saudi-backed president Ali Abdallah Saleh], that their allegiance or combat doctrine was oriented toward the Emirates, while their funding recently came from the Saudis. In addition to what are called the “Giants” forces, which are Wahhabi-Salafist forces gathered in Salafist centers, trained and tamed for terror, massacre and all criminal practices — their allegiance within the framework of combat doctrine and operational command fell under the Emirates, but their funding also came from the Saudis. This is why Saudi Arabia hastened to create military units parallel to these mercenary military sectors, that is to say what are called the Emergency Forces and the Homeland Shield Forces, which also have the same sectarian, Wahhabi-takfiri allegiance. But despite this, we saw, in the case of disaggregation mentioned by the General: the mercenary soldiers were abandoned in these regions while their commanders fled, leaving these soldiers — including the wounded in the hospitals in Al-Khokha and elsewhere — abandoned in intensive care and emergency wards, while their commanders took flight. Many soldiers were even abandoned in the barracks without having been informed of the withdrawal operations, left as prisoners. There was truly a state of disorder. And let us not forget also that there was a state of clashes among themselves, because there is no objective uniting them, other than the execution of the agendas of the funder, whether Saudi or otherwise.

The Iranian Axis and the Saudi Axis

Presenter: Did Saudi Arabia attempt to contact Sanaa, Mr. Hizam? And let us note that some have circulated information from the Reuters agency, as you know, that there was an attempt to present this offensive as not being purely Yemeni, but coordinated with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Some have even gone so far as to say that there were officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps present with the Yemeni armed forces. How do you respond to this? First, did Saudi Arabia make contact or attempt to contact Sanaa? And second, how do you respond to those who say that this was not a purely Yemeni action, but coordinated with Iran with the presence of Revolutionary Guard officers?

Hizam al-Assad: Of course, talk of the presence of Revolutionary Guard officers in Yemen — this is a discourse that invites laughter and mockery of whoever holds it. The Saudi regime knows that the armed forces reached, by themselves, deep into Saudi territory. It is also evident and manifest that we have prisoners of many nationalities — Saudi, Sudanese, and other nationalities. So has the world seen or observed a single Iranian soldier or a single person from Iran in the context of any military dimension? Certainly not. This is why it tries to justify its failure and its defeat, sometimes through the Islamic Republic, sometimes through Hezbollah, and even before that, in the six previous wars [against Yemen], it spoke of Muammar Gaddafi — it talks a great deal and casts its failure onto the countries of the world, when the heart of the problem lies in its aggression, in its blockade of the Yemeni people, in the hardships of the sons of Yemen due to this ongoing aggression for 12 years, and in what it has caused and accumulated in terms of humanitarian aftermath and repercussions, and in the level of suffering it has raised for the Yemeni human being. This is why the Yemeni people mobilized in this context.

Also, whenever a rupture, a defeat, occurs for it or for its instruments, Saudi Arabia always hastens to brandish the scarecrow of Iran. If it truly had hostility toward Iran, Iran is within its reach. But it would not even venture to confront it officially in these contexts, nor to accuse Iran. But it tries to circulate these arguments among its “flock” through its trumpets, and also tries to save face by claiming that it was not defeated by the Yemeni people, but by great powers such as Iran and others. But in reality, it is this Yemeni people, with its leadership, with its sons, with its armed forces.

Presenter: Mr. Hizam, before I return to General Ali Abi Raad, you mentioned that the Yemeni armed forces had prisoners of several nationalities. Is there any published information, or do you, Mr. Hizam, have data on the nature of these nationalities? That is, which Arab or foreign nationalities, and precisely which countries? Do you have data on this subject?

Hizam al-Assad: I am not speaking of the most recent period, this last one. We have Sudanese and Saudi nationalities from previous battles. As for recently, I do not have a precise account regarding the nature and nationalities of the prisoners currently held. But what I do know is that there is indeed a large number of prisoners among those who were abandoned by their commanders, whether takfiris or others. And there was also, thank God, the liberation of prisoners of the Yemeni army, in addition to the liberation of many prisoners unjustly and arbitrarily imprisoned by the Saudi regime and its instruments in these regions. In addition to what the armed forces acquired through the infrastructure left behind, whether in Miyyun or elsewhere, which have become like military bases. And certainly, this is thanks to God the Almighty and Most High, and it could not be otherwise but that the right should return to its rightful owners.

The Next Step: Toward Lifting the Blockade

Presenter: Mr. Hizam al-Assad, in the final question of this program — unfortunately time has caught up with us quickly, time has passed swiftly in this program — what about the next stage for Sanaa, for the Yemeni armed forces? Announcing a halt to the confrontations and a halt to operations after the consolidation of control? Or are there other objectives perhaps on the coast or in other regions?

Hizam al-Assad: Of course, we have a trajectory within the framework of operations imposing the equation of “blockade for blockade” and “escalation for escalation,” and this is our primary orientation. And had the Saudi enemy not sought to disrupt this trajectory and break this equation by sending its instruments, whether on the western coast or in certain eastern areas that saw some skirmishes, whether in Al-Jawf or Ma’rib, our trajectory is clear: to wrest away the legitimate Yemeni rights, and to break the blockade imposed on our country by the Saudi enemy. This is a trajectory that can intensify, and perhaps the Saudis will yield to what is right in this framework and spare themselves catastrophes, all the more so as we of course have a leadership ready to pursue this trajectory until the objectives are accomplished — objectives that are legitimate and declared, concerning the sons of the Yemeni people as a whole.

And on the other fronts, each matter has its own discussion. When our armed forces face any escalation or any attempt to disrupt the reality, or to blur the equations — the “blockade for blockade” equation, as Saudi Arabia has tried to provoke in the past — our armed forces will certainly confront it with firmness along this trajectory. And our armed forces certainly possess, thank God the Almighty and Most High, military capabilities they have accumulated, an advanced military industry acquired within the framework of advanced technological military developments, from hypersonic missiles down to the pistol bullet, 100% locally manufactured, in addition to the human cadres who, thank God, have succeeded in forming a powerful army, capable of protecting this country and protecting this people.

And today certainly, the ball is in the court of the Saudi regime, and it must yield to what is right and cease its aggression and lift its blockade on the Yemeni people, and hand over to the sons of the Yemeni people the rights they are owed because of the ongoing aggression against our country. This is an unjustified aggression that has lasted 12 years, and these are just and legitimate demands.

Presenter: Mr. Hizam, the time for this program has run out, but I would like an answer in 30 seconds if possible: what is the secret of this calm observed in Sanaa on the media level? A great advance, the whole world is talking about it, and we observe calm and restraint in the handling of these developments. Why? What is the purpose? Was it deliberate? In 30 seconds.

Hizam al-Assad: Of course. First, our trust in God the Almighty and Most High, and in the justice of the cause. And our people also have great confidence in the leadership and in our armed forces. And noise serves no purpose, because it is reality and the ground that impose the variables and the equations. Not media noise.

Presenter: Thank you very much indeed, Mr. Hizam al-Assad, for being with us on this program. Thank you also to you, His Excellency General Ali Abi Riad — you will certainly have other appearances with us in this coverage, on the screen of Al-Mayadeen, for all these developments. Our greatest thanks to you, dear viewers, for following us. See you soon.