Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews - 2/8/24 Nasser Arrabyee on How the US Airstrikes are Affecting His Country

Episode Date: February 10, 2024

Nasser Arrabyee returns to the show to give some on-the-ground insight into the U.S.-U.K. air campaign against Yemen. Arrabyee then explains the true level of influence that the Iranian regime has in the country. They also discuss some of the internal politics in Yemen and delve into the path to peace. Discussed on the show: “US Blocks Yemen-Saudi Peace Deal” (Antiwar.com) Nasser Arrabyee is a Yemeni journalist based in Sana’a, Yemen. He is the owner and director of Yemen-Now.com. You can follow him on Twitter @narrabyee. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Moon Does Artisan Coffee; Roberts and Robers Brokerage Incorporated; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; Libertas Bella; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott. Get Scott’s interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, y'all, welcome to the Scott Horton Show. I'm the director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of anti-war.com, author of the book, Fool's Aaron, Time to End the War in Afghanistan, and The Brand New, Enough Already, Time to End the War on Terrorism. And I've recorded more than 5,500 interviews since 2004. almost all on foreign policy and all available for you at scothorton dot four you can sign up the podcast feed there and the full interview archive is also available at youtube dot com slash scott horton's show okay you guys on the line once again i've got nasser arabi from yemen alan that's yemen hyphen now dot com and he is a reporter from sana yemen

Welcome back to the show, Nasser. How are you doing? Thank you very much for having me, Bill Scott. Happy to have you here. So we have a ton of news to cover. It's to be our third Yemen war in a row. Now we keep switching sides back forth. Well, now I guess this is the same side we've been on for a while. But the third Yemen war, really, in just the last, what, 12, 13 years. so can we start with the American air strikes I think everybody already knows the news about who the missile attacks on American shipping and military power in the Red Sea and the Brits

too but you can talk about that if you want but also I guess what we're most interested to know is about the bombing campaign how bad it's been what kind of targets are being hit and that kind of thing well first of all let me say something very bored the u.s and ukrairstrikes did not work and i think they would not work they did not work at all they did not harm the houthis they did not destroy anything what they bomb is the bombed out things, they use the same label as Saudis and Emirates, exactly the same, which means they don't know what to strike and where these things. Of course, Houthi have been in war for about 10 years now.

are very hardened and they know where to hide their things at their arsenal and the evidence for this is of course when they strike, when U.S. and U.K. strike, they strike, Houthis strike back on the same day or in the same hour sometimes. So these air strikes did not work and I think would not work at all as long as there is no, if they want to do something against Saudi, as long as there is no people

and boots on the grounds. And just on the face of it there, anybody could have told you that, anybody who watched the war for the last 10 years or since, or nine years, right? Since 2015, America backed Saudi and UAE

in a massive air campaign and including backing fighting forces on the ground as well but all they ever did was make the Houthi stronger this whole time and they actually

they were signing a deal to end the war exactly it's the same playbook same blebo it's very funny because they are bombing the same places

as if they are as if they are opening the same playbook and do what the Emirates what the Emirates and the Saudis were doing for the last nine years. So they tried to, for example, to bomb in the places.

For example, in Sana'a. What they bombed in Sana'a? They bombed the military airborne, where they think the drones and the missiles are being concealed or being hidden. But what we see, what we see now is the same places which are completely bombed out. So, of course, it's impossible to think that Houthis are hiding their drones and missiles on the same place. Of course, nobody would believe.

Nobody would believe it at all, because Houthis are not that. crazy to to to to to both the missiles and the drones and the things even the radars and the same places so they tried to do these things that they say the drones the missiles blindly no they have no knowledge of where they have no idea where these things are so I think what they are doing is making things worse and they They look now as they are protecting the genocide in Israel, the genocide being committed against the Palestinians in Gaza. And they are not protecting the navigation, as they say, because the Houthis keep saying all the time that they don't want any, they don't want to strike any ship. What they want is only the ships heading to Israel.

they strike the U.S. and the U.K. ships because, of course, the U.S. are striking Yemen and they are violating the sovereignty of Yemen. Well, Nasser, the Pentagon says, we are not at war with Yemen, and these strikes do not represent an escalation of conflict with Yemen. In fact, they are trying to de-escalate by bombing Yemen, because it's supposed to convince the Houthis. that they should back down and back out of this thing. And then that way all the fighting will stop. So, I mean, I'm interested in what you think of that, but I'm also interested in what the Houthis are saying about that,

if they are addressing that question. This is very funny thing to say that we are not in a war with Houthi. We don't want to escalate. We are in self-defense. Also, this is also very funny thing. We are in self-defense. No, because Houthi is responding simply to them by saying, what we want is to help our brothers and sisters in Gaza.

What we want is the war to stop. We will stop. We will stop doing all these things as long as you stop, as long as you try to stop the genocide in Jaze. So this is what they want. Because Houthi now is saying, if you don't stop, we'll escalate more. Our escalation will be more and more.

Today and yesterday and almost every day, the Houthis officials are saying this. We will escalate more and more. if the war in Gaza is not stopped and the blockade is not lifted. I think this is very, very easy to understand. We don't need any further explanation for these things. But US and UK maybe want to protect Israel. So I think what they should say clearly, yes, we want to protect our ally Israel.

That's it. We want to protect them. We want them to continue killing people. want them we want them to continue their genocide i think this is what the uk and u.s officials should be saying well of course the way that they put it is well we're simply responding to piracy and what's happening in israel and palestine has no relevance to it that's their narrative but of course the whole world can see through that and you know as i told you the last time you were on the show i strongly disapprove of this intervention by the houthis and i know

that hell, they can even claim to be enforcing international law and moving to intervene in what even the International Court of Justice says is a plausible on the face of it, a case of genocide being committed. And it is absolutely horrible. And yet, from the American point of view here, all Shiites work for the Ayatollah in Tehran. And violence back and forth, tit for tat, whatever you want to call it, between Israel and Hezbollah, in Lebanon, between America and the Houthis in Yemen, between America and various Shiite Iraqi militias in Iraq and in Syria. All of this, from the point of view of the American War Party, is the Shiites war against America and Israel. And I think that they're probably, especially the pro-Israel hawks, people like John Bolton are leading the parade and saying, and Lindsey Graham, saying we really need to go to war against Iran itself, and then they do things like cite the Houthis and Khatib Hezbollah in Iraq and these other organizations as justification for that, and that would mean real regional war and, you know, a whole other round of hundreds of thousands

killed. And so it seems like everybody should be doing their best to dial this thing down right now, and they're not. So I don't know what you think of that. Yes, I think they are helping Iran. Yes, Iran is now, maybe with the upper hand in the region, yes. But US and UK is helping Iran even more by doing all these things, by not responding to the calls of the world, stop the genocide in Gaza, stop the blockade in Gaza. left the blockade in Jaze. This is very simple things.

And for the virus, as you say, or the violation of the international law, I think this is something that nobody will believe them because if there is anyone who is violating the international law, it's Israel now. It's Israel and their allies, U.S. and UK. Because, you know, everybody knows what the ICE said, the International Court of Justice. They said, stop this, stop this, allow the aid to get in, to be inside Gaza.

But no, they just tend a blind eye and a deaf air for all these calls. And so they can't talk about the international law. And they can't talk also about Iran, because they are helping Iran, Iran. and the brooksies, if we suppose there are brooksies. For example, Houthis, he is not a proxy, Houthi is not a proxy, but if he is a proxy, he is now getting more popular, and he's getting a lot of support from all over the world,

not only from the region and from the Yemen, because he has a good thing. He has a good reason to strive the ships heading to Israel. And, you know, what people are saying in the streets, in the streets of some cities in the United States. When they call Yemen, Yemen, make us proud and all these things. You know, so, I mean, there is, there are a lot of calls supporting Houthis.

And the U.S. and UK should be, should. do something else. They should help end this war. This is the solution, simply, help end this war. And they will, they will do whatever they can. They will do whatever they want. Yeah. Well, look, I mean, this is the history of the last 20 years, and I know I'm a broken record on this. Menon, give a damn about the Ayatollah. But the people who do, and are so upset about Shiite power in the region are literally the very same individual men and women who have made it this way by giving them Baghdad, by forcing Assad to be more dependent on Iran and Hezbollah than ever before, and by consolidating Houthi power in Yemen. You know, I don't know if I ever told you

this, Nasir, but John Kiriakut, the former CIA officer, who he's actually the only guy who went to prison for the torture program, and it was because he talked about it, not because he tortured anyone. But anyway, he told me that the first drone strike in, well, there was one in 2004 against some Al-Qaeda guy, I guess, and his friends. But then in 2005, in 2005, Kyriaku told me that he knows of at least one drone strike against the Houthis in Sada Prize. province in the north of the country, that the dictator then Abdullah Salah was at war with them at the time, or I don't know exactly what the state of this conflict was, but the CIA was helping them target the Houthis back then. And now here we are. It's 19 years later, and these guys rule the place. And it's pretty easy to see how America's conflict and Salas conflict was counterproductive this whole time. And by the way, one more thing. As you were pointing out there, well, I'm sorry, I forget if you said this or not, but it was years, wasn't it, 2019, so five years into the war before the Ayatollah invited Abdul Malik al-Houthi, is it, to come and accept his recognition of statehood, right, that they were the legitimate country, the legitimate government of Yemen. It was years into the war. Exactly, this is how U.S. is making their enemies, yes, how they help people to be stronger and stronger in a very stupid way.

This is their problem, you know, this is what they are doing now. They are helping, as I told you, helping Iran, not hurting Iran. Not hurting Iran, they are helping Iran by their stupidity. unfortunately. Yeah. Hey, y'all, I got a new coffee sponsor. Moondos Artisan Coffee at Moondosartisan Coffee.com. When I wake up in the morning, I feel like my brain is all dried out.

I need to pour a hot mug of rich, tasty coffee all over it to get it back working again, like 10W30 for the Noggin. Though not necessary, it helps if the coffee tastes good. Well, Moondos Artisan coffee does taste good. They get the best beans from all around the world, and they don't burn them. Support the show and support your brain at Moondoseartisancoffee.com. Just click the link in the right margin at Scott Horton.org. Hey guys, I had some wasps in my house.

So I shot them to death with my trusty bug assault 3.0 model with the improved salt reservoir and bar safety. I don't have a deal with them, but the show does earn a kickback every time you get a bug of salt or anything else you buy from Amazon.com. by way of the link in the right-hand margin on the front page at scott horton dot org so keep that in mind and don't worry about the mess your wife will clean it up well folks sad to say they lied us into war all of them world war one world war two korea vietnam iraq war one syria afghanistan iraq war two libya syria yemen all of them but now you can get the e-book all the war lies by me

for free. Just sign up the email list at the bottom of the page at Scott Horton.org or go to Scotthorton.org slash subscribe. Get all the war lies by me for free. And then you'll never have to believe them again. Well, and now, so let's talk a little bit more about Iran's influence in Yemen because, of course, the accusation is that the Houthis are just the Ayatollah sock puppets and every bit of money and every bullet and missile that they have all come from Iran and That's what they would have us believe, I guess. So what really is the extent of Iranian influence over the Houthis or with the Houthis, do you think? Or could you compare it to, say, for example, Hezbollah in Lebanon?

Yeah, I will tell you something. And I said it many times with you here in your show. There is good relations between Houthi and Iran. Nobody can deny this. Media, political. maybe technological or whatever, but not to the extent, the influence is not to the extent that Iran would dictate what Houthi should do and what they should not do, no.

So the influence is, the influence is, because it's the only country now that has, relations with Yemen, with Houthis. Iran is the only country, of course, and they have embassy there, and they are cooperating in everything. But not to the extent that the American put it, because it's not to that the, I mean, Houthis, for the know-how of how to make missiles, drones, and all these kind of things, They are, of course, they are butting all their resources for these things. There are no salaries in the country.

It's only weapons industry. It's only missiles and drones. So Iran would help in know-how. Know-how is easy to give them the know-how. by Emil as I told you or by someone who might have come or who yes

but the influence for the I mean there is no Iranian influence over that Yemeni decisions and everybody knows it everybody knows this because Houthi have their own agendas and their own ambitions and they don't

want to or they we can't see them as this I'm telling you very honestly now. We can't see them because we feel it. We are here. We see, we hear. It's not that simply. It's not, they are not working with Iran, but they are, they are cooperating with Iran. They are in good relations with Iran, yes, for many reasons, of course. But not to the extent that they are brooksies or they are just working for Iran, not for their agent. No, they have because if they are that easy i mean i don't think they would have they would have existed

until now all right so let's talk about this new thing in the bbc i'm sure you must have seen it this special where they went and interviewed these mercenaries who were assassinating members of al isla that's a muslim brotherhood group there uh party there uh working for the um and as we've discussed in the past Saudi hates the Muslim Brotherhood except in Yemen where they support them but UAE hates them and here's more confirmation of that

for sure they even show a poor I don't know how poor the guy is but they show one civilian clearly saying geez why they want to murder me man I ain't doing anything he sure doesn't seem like a terrorist you know and the guy says the justification is well he's a member of the Muslim

Brotherhood and they're terrorists like he's just equating them to al-Qaeda which is not really true, but then here's my real point I'm trying to get to here, Nassar, forgive me for rambling, is in that same BBC story, they say that, you know, there are multiple al-Qaeda guys sitting in the Southern Transitional Council now, which my understanding was used to be dominated by the socialists, but I guess is not anymore. So, in other words, the UAE's two favored groups, the STC and AQAP, they're now really getting along together and looks like maybe it's going to end up maybe a north-south Yemen situation

as it had been back during the Cold War. What do you think? Yes, this is very good question. The enemy of the UA and Saudi Arabia are not the crisis. The enemy of the Saudi Arabia and UAE is the brother number one. Number one enemy of UAE and and Saudi Arabia, he's a brotherhood. And I think for the assassinations in Aden, and after that movie of the BBC... I'm sorry to interrupt here, Nasser, but hadn't you told me in the past

that the Saudis actually were supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, kind of ironically here, but now you're saying that's changed. Many times I told you about these assassinations in particular, they killed mosque leaders, mosque imams. Every mosque imams.

In Aden, they killed him because he's a brotherhood, not because he is Qaeda, not because he is Qaeda. No one, so the enemy of Al Qaeda is working and fighting alongside UAA and Saudi mercenaries, and everybody knows this. But this is what happened. This is what happened in Aden. They killed every single imam leader in Egypt under the context of Qaeda or ISIS. And this is not right. And I think I told you about this many times, and it's still now, until now, they are trying

to do the same, UA and Saudi Arabia. okay so now i'm sorry we're real short on time here last subject is the peace deal you know one of the major outstanding issues was the salaries for the public employees the electricity the sewage and and water and whatever all the utility workers that kind of thing and the Saudis were holding out then they had given in and all the reports here were that everybody was signing on the dotted line. And in fact, when the recent fighting broke out, you and I may have discussed this last time. The Saudis were urging Biden restraint and said, we're trying to sign a peace deal here, man, stop bombing them. Now there's a report at Dave DeCampNews.antywar.com talking about how

because Biden, now that he's at war with the Houthis directly and is putting them back on the terrorist list, that means that they won't be able to. the transfer these funds. And the salaries finally being delivered part of the deal is now off, which is going to ruin the whole damn peace deal. Is that your same understanding, Nassar? Yes. If there is, the only sanction, the only sanction that can be impactful or that the only impact of the sanctions would be only this, to stop the salaries that the Saudi Arabia wanted or promised many times to pay

so the only thing that would happen is this and this is why I'm telling you the United States is making is making fires not not putting out the files it's making fires

this is this is one of the problems you know the Saudi Arabia wanted to end to end the problem with Houthis. Now, now the United States

wanted them not to do that because it's in a direct confrontation with, with the Houthis. And why? For Israel, for the genocide of Israel. So a problem inside a problem. Because, I mean,

the United States is making a problem for itself from all sides. Yeah, I know. I was just going to say, you know, in all the years of America helping Saudi and UAE, bomb and blockade the hell out of that place. There was only one attempted missile attack on an American ship years ago and didn't do much damage. And as far as the American people were concerned, they never heard of the Houthis and certainly did not consider them our enemies, even if they chant death to America or whatever.

like they actually hadn't done anything to us. Now, they shot at us, and as most Americans understand it, for no reason, just now, out of the blue, this crazy group of Yemenis picked a fight with us, or maybe because, you know, they love terrorism so much or something like that, that they're fighting on the side of Hamas. So now, as you say, we're making this new problem. But in the minds of the American people, this is now a group of horrible people. who chant death to America and death to the Jews and other things like that, who have fired rockets and missiles at our ships. And the next step in the thinking, you know, goes that they

cannot be allowed to remain in power, right? Like, it's just, I don't know what they think they can do about it. They obviously have witnessed their own failure at helping Saudi and UAE achieve regime change there over the last almost decade. And yet at the same time, you know how these people are withholding a grudge nasa they get really upset now let me tell you what united states can do now or what they want to do seemingly they want to do now they want to play them against each other they want to play the the missionaries or the saudi missionaries or let me say the anti-houti in yama the anti-houti groups the Saudi and you backed anti-Houthi groups, they want them to fight Houthi again.

And this is what they are doing now. They already have started to do this. But I think they will make also another problem because this is not going to solve the problem at all. For Saudi Arabia, it's completely refusing this because it knows that. that this is not good for it and for its plans and for its so-called 20-30 visions and all these kind of things. But I think the key things if the United States want to end the problems for the navigation in the Red Sea and for the Saudis and for everyone, they could do one thing.

which is end the war in Gaza. Why they didn't do this? If they didn't do it, then nobody would believe what they are saying. Nobody would believe them at all. All right, Nasser, thank you so much for coming back on the show to talk about this. And, of course, I agree with you about all that. The whole thing is just such a tragedy.

I guess I'm happy to hear that the damage and the death and destruction at America's direct hands, in Yemen is not that bad and let's hope it doesn't get worse here but appreciate your time on the show as always it's not until now it's not because it's in the same it's in the same bombed and empty it's empty places and bombed out places bummed out that's that's really good to hear thank you yep okay well thank you so much great to talk to again as always and we'll be in touch soon the scott horton show anti-war radio can be heard on kpfk 90.7 FM in L.A.

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