Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews - 4/30/22 Nassar Arrabyee on Yemen’s Future

Episode Date: May 1, 2022

Nassar Arrabyee joins Scott for Antiwar Radio this week to discuss the ongoing ceasefire in Yemen. Arrabyee explains why he still considers this ceasefire to be different and he gives Scott an update on the effects on the ground. They then discuss the presence of ISIS and Al-Qaeda which Scott worries could dampen the prospects for peace. Lastly, they discuss the humanitarian cost of this war so far, which alone is enough of a reason to end the thing once and for all.  Discussed on the show: “Yemen’s New Leaders: Our First Option Is Peace” (Antiwar.com) “US maintains intelligence relationship with Houthis” (Al-Monitor) yemenfoundation.org  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: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For Pacifica Radio, May 1st, 2022, I'm Scott Horton. This is Anti-War Radio. All right, y'all it is Anti-War Radio. I'm your host, Scott Horton. I'm the editorial director of anti-war.com, and author of the book, Enough Already. Time to end the war on terrorism. You can find my full interview archive, more than 5,700 of them now, going back to 2003 at Scott Horton.org and at YouTube.com slash Scott Horton Show.

And you can follow me on Twitter at Scott Horton Show. All right, y'all introducing again Nasser Araby. He is a reporter out of Sana'i Yemen. And as we like to joke, the New York Times used to run his pieces back when they wanted to know what he had to say. but I've been interviewing him for seven years now since the start of the latest phase of the war in Yemen when Obama turned around and took al-Qaeda and Saudi and UAE side against the Houthi regime that had seized power in Sana'a. And two weeks ago we talked to Nasser, and he had some good news for us that this ceasefire is different and better than the other ceasefires. So now it's time for our update.

Welcome back to the show, Nassar. How are you doing, sir? Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you for having it. I appreciate you joining us. So what's the news? How is the ceasefire holding up there? It's still holding, and it's still completely different.

As I told you last week, completely different than any of the previous ceasefires. So it's different. because of the compromises being made from all bodies it's different because it's agreed now by all bodies it's different now because the president is gone and vice president is gone president was um was no longer wanted by by the bodies almost by all bodies by Saudis the vice president was not wanted by the Americans so these two are gone all bodies wanted the ceasefire and they started to implement it the ships are being allowed in as I told you the airport is supposed to be open yes it is until now it is not open because of

technical things and because they kept they only kept the The Yemeni, the airline, kept apologizing for delaying, which means there is no violation of the ceasefire. There is no violation of the truce. But maybe the Sunai Airboat is not open until now. It was supposed to be open last Sunday. It is not until now. Maybe next Sunday. and nothing big or nothing big has happened

but because of some there is, I would say there is big pressure being applied to Houthis because they want Houthi to open the roads in Teiz. Teiz is also blockade. The central city of Teuze is still blockaded by Houthi and maybe they want the blockade to be lifted

and over ta'is so that they can open the airboat of San'a. This is what I can say why Sana Airboat is not open until now. But the truth is still holding and it's now more than one month.

It's about one month, exactly. It's about one month now and it's still holding. It's a good indication that it's okay and things are going forward. Oh, I didn't realize it was that long.

thought we were only about two or three weeks in. So we're almost a full month in to the ceasefire. And the agreement was for two months. I guess the question is whether they're still negotiating and whether they're going to be able to extend the ceasefire or if everybody's just rearming to go back to war in June. Exactly. Exactly. This is why it's different. And this is why also it could be extended even more than two months. And maybe it could be extended to a permanent truth to when they reach a peaceful solution for this war and start to build and rebuild the country. All right. Now, when it comes to airstrikes or when it comes to the UAE or Saudi Arabia or even the al-Qaeda

armed factions on the ground, everyone is just holding still. There are no skirmishes going on or set-piece battles anywhere in the country right now. Is that correct? No, no skirmishes, no fires, no operations at all from all bodies. For example, the south and the cessationist in the south, they are, of course, their head is one member of the presidential council that was formed now instead of President Haddi and his vice president. And Marib, for example,

the most volatile place is quiet now and nothing is happening except with some small skirmishes in Marip but not that big. In Houdaida it's okay. No air strikes at all. No single one airspace. strikes. It was recorded from the beginning of this ceasefire one month ago.

Amazing. This is something that never happened before. Never happened before. All right, you guys, I'm Scott Horton, Anti-War Radio, talking with Nasser Arabi, a reporter out of Sana' Yemen, and we're talking about the possible end of this horrible war. It's probably the least covered war, but it's every bit as bad as Iraq War II for the last seven years. Now, Obama started it. Trump continued it. Biden promised to end it a year and a half ago and then didn't. And now it looks like the Saudis, the UAE, the Houthis, the southern secessionists and these other groups are finally working out a ceasefire

and we'll see if they're able to continue it. But this is really the greatest thing that's happened this year so far on the planet Earth, as far as I can tell. I'm so happy to hear you say that the war seems to be over here, at least temporarily speaking. Now, when you say that there's no airstrikes and no fighting going on in Hodeda, and that's the most important place to know that there's peace and stability. That's the major port on the Red Sea that feeds the entire northern half of the country, right? Exactly, and the ships are being allowed in the commercial and the AIDS. And also, we can say also that it's also different this time because there are some international developments that can be observed as factors that would help end this war in Yemen.

Oh, yeah. Like the compromises, like the Saudi and Iran dialogue and Saudi and Turkey dialogue. The Turkish president, Erdogan was in Riyadh yesterday. and this means, of course, a lot in terms of what's happening in Syria and in Syria and Lebanon. And then in terms of what's happening in Iran, and also this will reflect on what's happening on Yemen. These developments should also be considered as big things that would or could at least help end the war here in Yemen. Yeah, that's at least one thing that Biden has done positively was just about a year ago. He sort of signaled a lesser interest in the Middle East. Not that he's going to completely wrap up the terror war or anything like that, obviously, but that he wanted to shift away and focus more on China and now Russia, of course. And that it was in response to those signals, really, that the Saudis decided, hey, let's go to Baghdad and meet with the Iranians and start. softening up this relationship in anticipation of his claim that he was going to call off support

for this war, right? Exactly. So he didn't end the support. He didn't end the support, but he said that he might, and that was enough to get them talking at least. And the United States also, the position of Biden administration, that at least ended what they called the offensive. operations and this is this is something that that that that could be also good for helping this

solution that this problem to be solved well my understanding was that they did not end any of that support really that they said they were going to at first and then they didn't but they continued it you know all along the offensive they said they said the offensive it is not it is not yes there but at least that that what they They say, apparently, they say, they say that we want, we want to end it, we want to end it. Biden said that he wanted to make Saudi Baraya. Now he's trying to help because he needs them, he needs Saudis. But we should look to these things as things that could end because Yemen war is easy to end

if there is a good willing, a good political willing. All right. Now, it says here that there's a headline at anti-war.com by Jason Ditz. Yemen's new leaders say

our first option is peace. And this new leadership council that has been appointed, I guess, by the Saudis here, are going to talk to the UN soon. They're going to be meeting with the UN. Maybe they already did in order to move forward.

talks with the Houthi. So can you talk a little bit about the importance of the Saudis essentially dropping the main demand of the war, which was that they were determined to see Mansur Hadi reinstalled in power in Sana'an? Exactly. So this is the most important thing is this. Haddi being gone now means a lot to the issue of ending the war in Yemen because Hadi, two years or three years ago, he appointed the vice president just to tell the Americans and the Saudis and the Emirates that if you want me gone, if you want me gone, you would find who is worse than me. That is the vice president who has some links to al-Qaeda. So now they thought of this many times how to make, how to repair this problem

and they removed them both. And this is, and they established the council, the presidential council that is supposed to make the dialogue with Houthi. And until now, the indication that the indications tell us that this could happen because the Batis, the Houthi side, and the Emirates and Saudis want, or seemingly want to end this war because of the regional and international developments, as we can say. Yeah. All right. Now, what about the bin Ladenites there? You call them al-Qaeda, ISIS. You've told me on the show before that unlike in Syria, there's not really a split. In fact, I think the split in Syria is somewhat overblown, but that they get along just fine, these different bin Ladenite groups there. And if we know anything about them, a bunch of suicide bombers and crazies, is that they don't really take orders too well. So I wonder if it's clear that the Saudis and or the Saudis and or the crazies, and or the crazies, is that they don't really take orders too well. So I wonder if it's clear that the Saudis and or, the UAE, just have these guys under wraps, and if the Crown Prince declares ceasefire,

that they're going to obey that? Well, this depends on one thing. Al-Qaeda and ISIS can be used easily by both, by Saudi Arabia and by UAE. But now they are calm because there is willingness to end the war. But it doesn't mean now that they are gone and you can't see them because they are there. And the sympathizers of these people are within, even within the presidential councils. You know, there is one of the eight members of the presidential council who is close to the so-called giant brigades.

and giant brigades are Salafis, and Salafis, of course, are close to al-Qaeda and ISIS. But the Al-Qaeda and ISIS that are under the control of Saudi and the UAE, because they used them, you know, Stooty, from the beginning of this war, seven years ago. So it's okay, it's quiet, nothing happened, no operations, no society, coming during Ramadan, during this ceasefire. But my explanation for this is that there is a strong willingness from Saudis and from

the Ui side to end this war. This also means that the Qaeda and ISIS that are not under the control of Saudis and the Emirates would also do their way to continue, of course, because they have their own way and they have their own supporters and their own sympathizers inside the society, but they are not there now, at least during this ceasefire. Hang on just one second. Hey, guys, I had some wasps in my house, so I should 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.org. So keep that in mind. And don't worry about the mess. Your wife will clean it up. Green Mill Super Critical is the award-winning leader in cannabis oil extraction. Their machines are absolute top of the line. They simply work better and accomplish more for less than any competitor in the world. We are talking anywhere from a couple hundred thousand dollars for the base model and up. So this is for serious business people here. But the price, as they say, will be worth it. Green Mill's supercritical customers' investments pay for themselves oftentimes in just weeks. Simple enough for almost any operator, deep enough for master

technicians. Their new novel techniques for inline real-time winterization or leaving their competitors in the key. That's greenmill supercritical.com. Man, I wish I was in school so I could drop out and sign up for Tom Woods' liberty classroom instead. Thomas done such a great job on putting together a classical curriculum for everyone from junior high schoolers on up through the postgraduate level. And it's all very reasonably priced. Just make sure you click through from the link in the right margin at scott horton dot org tom woods this liberty classroom real history real economics real education well that's good i mean i guess one of my biggest worries about this whole situation is that as soon as this war is solved we're going we're going to switch sides again and go right back to the

war against a qap which as you covered for the new york times was already a catastrophe for the country before obama switched sides in the war and launched the current frankly genesis campaign of destruction of the entire country. But the terror war before was already bad enough and was only counterproductive in helping grow the al-Qaeda forces larger and larger and more, more powerful and more dangerous from 2009 through 2014. Isn't that right? Yeah, this is right.

This is right for sure. And it could happen, of course, especially if the government or if Yemen in, is divided into two, or if the government is fragile or weak, or is not formed at all, this is for sure, this would happen, because al-Qaeda and ISIS, I mean, the good environment for al-Qaeda and ISIS is the chaos and lawlessness and the anarchy. So this could happen, of course. We, maybe the thing that we want most is to have a government in order to avoid these things and in order to avoid the chaos and the extremism and terrorism of al-Qaeda.

But it's not in our hands to, it's just, this is just wishing and it's not in the hand of Yemenis or anyone who want to establish government. Because there is big intervention from outside, from Iran, from Saudi Arabia, from UA, and they play with these cards, unfortunately, if things are not coming in their interest. or not going in their interest? Well, let me ask you, hypothetically, if America could lean on Saudi and UAE very seriously and somehow force them to stop backing AQAP and similar forces there, would the Houthis and or the Southern Socialists, secessionists, and other groups be able to handle them,

or AQAP is a powerful enough organization now that they're going to rule a chunk of southeastern, Yemen kind of no matter what now. Yes, it's, yes, Houthi can't, can't control them, especially with the limited resources they have. Houthi is their enemy, number one, yes. But if there is no consensus, if there is no strong willingness from all bodies, from, from all bodies, the main bodies, I mean, Houthis, Saudis,

And also, U.S., this kind of will grow and thrive more and more until it establish, or until it controls the whole country, or at least a main part of it, like the south or east, because Yemen is very big. So I think the only thing to avoid or to prevent al-Qaeda from establishing a government or from controlling about of Yemen, the only good thing is to end this war, because the biggest winner, as we always say, the biggest winner from this chaos and from this war is al-Qaeda and ISIS, of course. That's right.

And from the very beginning, I mean, listen, no American who cares about foreign policy at all can claim ignorance on this. In March of 2015, the Yemen expert, Michael, Horton, no relation to me from the Jamestown Foundation. He told a great Pentagon reporter Mark Perry. He said, well, John McCain complains we're flying as Iran's Air Force in Iraq right now, which, of course, that was all John McCain's fault, too. But he said, well, we're flying as Al-Qaeda's Air Force in Yemen. And that was just as clear as it could be. And here, as we've talked about over and over again, in January of 2015, the Wall Street Journal and Almonitor both ran stories about how the U.S. our current Secretary of Defense. Lloyd Austin was a four-star general

head of Central Command, and he was working with the Houthis, passing them intelligence to use to target and kill al-Qaeda guys with. And that was just two months before Barack Obama turned right around and switched sides in the war. So for anyone paying attention at all, it's been just absolutely clear as day. It's just a black and white, up or down issue. This war is treason. being fought on behalf has been fought for the last seven years on behalf of the same guys who blew up the USS Cole at Port and Aden who helped coordinate the September 11th attack who tried to blow up a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009 with the underpants bomb and did the printer cartridge bomb plots the massacre at Charlie Hebdo headquarters there in Paris, France

and a couple of those other massacres in Europe. And these are real Al-Qaeda guys, not, oh, Al-Qaeda-linked forces, like our government claims about whoever they want to kill. These are real dangerous guys, and they're who we've been fighting for this whole time. So, never mind accountability, the only question is just how powerful are they now? And what sort of, you know, what does the next chapter in the war on terrorism in Yemen look like? I think not good. Yes, I think not good, especially if this war is not ended. it would be even worse and worse because it's the war is the thing that that feeds them.

The war is the thing that that help them grow more and more. And of course, the war divide people and help many others to join al-Qaeda and ISIS out of or out of poverty or out of whatever reason. There are a lot of reasons, of course. So if the United States want to fight to eradicate al-Qaeda and ISIS and terrorism in Yemen, it must do everything that they could to help end this war. Otherwise, of course, it would be just a victory for al-Qaeda and ISIS, as we know, always.

Yeah. All right. Now, again, it's Antwera Radio talking with Nassar Arabi, a reporter out of Sinai, Yemen. And along with treason, as we mentioned previously briefly, as we've discussed on the show plenty in the past, this war amounts to a genocide as well. And I don't really like throwing that term around loosely. There are different definitions of it. But I don't like to use it unless we really mean absolute mass killing of civilians, deliberate mass killing of civilians.

And in this war, as documented, for one, by Martha Mundy from the London School of Economics and Tufts University, she did a study about how they target the farms, the trucks, the flocks of sheep in the field, the grain silos, the horses in their stables, the fishermen's boats. And this has been going on for years. You know, for all the destruction of the other terror wars of the 21st century, this is unique in the deliberate and systematic targeting of civilian infrastructure, water, electricity, sewage, you know, garbage, and the hospitals in the middle of a cholera outbreak, the Americans helping the Saudis bomb the cholera hospitals. I mean, this is, what do you call it when

the most powerful nation in the world, especially, deliberately inflicts a famine on another nation, this poor, weak nation. And so I wonder if you could talk about it. where the humanitarian situation stands now, your best estimates, I know you've kept track, your best estimates of the number of people killed in violent combat versus also those who have died of cholera and of otherwise easily treatable diseases and malnutrition and so forth, Nasser. Yes, it's the worst. It's the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. This is something that is known by everyone. And the reason for this is

the blockade and the airstrikes that is targeted everything in everything, everything like schools, homes, hospitals, water, food, everything, deliberately.

And now we are talking about half a million now people killed either directly or indirectly. And We're talking also about, say, more than 20 million. That's more than two-thirds of the population of Yemen who are in need for AIDS, who are in direct need for,

who can't manage to feed themselves. So this is a very big thing. And I think it's enough for anyone who want to. help. It's enough for the international community to do everything they could, everything they could to end

this catastrophe and this disaster that is happening in Yemen for seven years now. Also, the homeless people, we are talking about more than three million who are, yes, homeless

inside Yemen, of course, there is no there is no big number going outside Yemen, but also it's a big problem. Three million is a big problem, three million people who are homeless because of this war. It's half a million.

It's about 500,000 people who are killed so far, directly or indirectly. When I'm saying directly and directly, of course, it's because of the war, because of this war, but not necessarily. literally being killed by, by, by, by, by, by, by, by, by, and people, people have to

understand that when, when a small child is malnourished, then they can be killed off by the common cold. Exactly. If, if a, if a, if a child dies because he's, he's, he's, he's, he's hungry, because there is no good nutrition because of the blockade, it's a war, it's war, yes. Yeah. Um, it's just terrible. Well, I want to mention real quick here, YemenFoundation.org.

I know this lady, Aisha Juman is the president, and a friend of mine investigated this group very carefully and showed that 98% and more of the money that they raise goes directly to help people in Yemen. They don't take any salaries or any of this, and not all charities are that effective. But this is really a great one, and Aisha Juman is a really. great lady and that's yemenfoundation.org if people want to help support for the humanitarian cause there. And with that, we're out of time. We have to wrap it up. But thank you so much again for your time on the show. Best of luck to you and to all your countrymen there, Nasser. And I sure hope that you guys can figure out a way to extend this ceasefire into a real armistice and a real end of this war. So peace to you, my friend. Thank you very much. Thank you for your interest in him.

And thank you very for your support in Yemen. All right, you guys, and that has been anti-war radio for this morning. I'm your host, Scott Horton, editorial director at anti-war.com, and author of Enough Already, Time to End the War on Terrorism. You'll find my full interview archive. More than 5,700 interviews now. Going back to this time, 2003, at Scott Horton.org, and at YouTube.com slash Scott Horton's show.

And I'm here every Sunday morning from 8.30 to 9 on KPFK, 90.7 FM, in LA. See you next week.