The military conflict continues in Yemen, where one side is represented by Houthi rebels and a part of the army which is loyal to the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and the other side is represented by the troops of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, which are supported by the Arab coalition headed by Saudi Arabia. Therefore, Moscow sees its main task in achieving an immediate ceasefire, reconstruction of inter-Yemeni consultations to start a full-scale political process which could lead to restoration of the Yemeni statehood and legislation in the country on the basis of resolutions by the UN and the Conference for the National Dialogue.
Vladimir Yevseyev, head of the SCO department of the CIS Institute, a military expert, explains the situation in Yemen in the following way: “There is a certain state, which wants to determine how to live by itself. And at the same time there is a very powerful neighbor, which wants to teach that country how it should live and who should run this state. No one has actually condemned what is happening in Yemen, although there is interference in the internal affairs of the state. Wasn’t it possible to resolve the issue a year ago? Look how many people have actually been killed. And those people were not covered by means of air defense. They were shot almost as in a dash. Clearly, when combat operations are conducted, it is impossible to distinguish, for example, the areas where there is fighting from the areas where there is a civilian population. But how well was the intelligence of targets organized? I have a very strong suspicion that the intelligence was carried out extremely inefficiently, because very often targets that should not have been affected were shelled. I'm not talking about weddings, which were periodically attacked in Yemen. You know, it had nothing to do with direct combat operations.”
According to Yevseyev, “if some state starts military actions, it should evaluate its potential at least. Secondly, the high-precision guidance, which they have quite a lot of, should be determined. If you do not have normal intelligence means, at least military-technical intelligence, you probably do not need to start fighting. Because it is quite clear that in this case a large number of civilians will die. It is necessary to launch a ceasefire, otherwise there will be no peace on Yemeni territory at all.”
From a military point of view, Yevseyev does not see any possibility of solving the problem by force: “There is no such force. All the possible means have been used. Even Sudan sent its troops. It is necessary to negotiate. But we should distinguish the outside interference from the fight with some rebels, who overthrew the legitimate government, and have now decided to return to legitimate government. How will it rule the country? If we want peace, strikes must be stopped, and we should think about negotiations.”
