A senior official of Lebanon's resistance movement Hezbollah has slammed Saudi Arabia’s indiscriminate bombardment of Yemen as genocide, warning the US-backed kingdom of grave consequences.
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Hezbollah Deputy Secretary Sheikh Naim Qassem made the remarks during a wide-ranging interview with the Associated Press on Monday, in which he described Washington as an accomplice in the Saudi aggression against Yemen and insisted that the Persian Gulf monarchy has committed a “strategic mistake” by interfering in Yemen’s domestic affairs.
"Saudi Arabia has embroiled itself and will incur very serious losses that have started to show and will increasingly reflect on its status, its internal situation and its role in the region," Qassem emphasized. "What happened in Yemen is a crime that cannot be ignored ... Saudi Arabia is committing genocide in Yemen, we cannot be silent after that."
Qassem, who spoke in the southern Lebanese capital of Beirut, further underlined that the ongoing crisis in Yemen is not merely limited to the Arab country and is sure to impact the entire region.
He also hinted that the Saudi aggression against its Arab neighbor will ultimately affect the internal situation of Saudi Arabia as well as its regional role.
"What is happening in Yemen today will reflect on Saudi Arabia internally," said the senior Hezbollah official, noting that the despotic kingdom has its own domestic troubles and a number of "factors that may cause the internal situation to implode" there.
"So it would be wiser for it not to interfere in Yemen's affairs in a negative way, but rather in a positive way by calling for dialogue," Qassem stressed.
He then called on Saudi Arabia to "return to its senses" and put an end its aerial attacks on Yemen.
During the interview, Qassem also blamed the Saudi government for supporting the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups within Yemen.
The development comes as the Saudi military aggression against its Arab neighbor has drawn widespread regional and international condemnation.
Saudi Arabia’s air campaign against Yemen started on March 26, without a UN mandate, in a bid to restore power to Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
Hundreds of civilians, including women and children, have been killed in the attacks.
The spokesman for Yemeni armed forces and popular committees, Colonel Sharaf Luqman, has blamed Saudi Arabia for leveling Yemen’s infrastructure to the ground.
He said in a press conference in Sana’a on Monday that civilians and Yemeni infrastructure have been the target of the Saudi aggression against Yemen. “Saudi Arabia is the international supporter of terrorism,” the military official stated.
A significant number of governmental buildings, schools, shops, gas stations, markets, stadiums and mosques have been destroyed in the Saudi attacks, the spokesman added, describing the Saudi brutalities in Yemen as “war crimes.”
/SR
