Amr Al-Bidh Holds Saudi Arabia and Yemeni Government Responsible for Failure to Protect Red Sea
Amr Al-Bidh, a leader in the dissolved Southern Transitional Council, has blamed the Yemeni government and Saudi Arabia for what he described as the failure to protect the Red Sea from Houthi attacks. He argued that targeting and removing southern forces from the scene weakened the deterrence system and created a military and security vacuum that the Houthis exploited.
In statements to the BBC, Al-Bidh said that Saudi Arabia committed a "strategic mistake" when it carried out strikes and military intervention against the dissolved STC's forces. This was aimed at forcing them to withdraw from Hadramout and Mahra, coinciding with a request for Emirati forces to leave.
He claimed that STC and UAE forces had played a major role in recent years in liberating large areas from the Houthis and combating terrorist organizations, considering their removal from the scene to have weakened the existing deterrence system.
Al-Bidh noted that Riyadh sees the STC's control over most areas of southern Yemen as conflicting with its interests and seeks to replace them with loyal military forces. He added that removing one of the most effective forces against the Houthis created a vacuum that alternative forces have been unable to fill in recent months.
He said that developments in the Bab al-Mandab region reveal, in his estimation, the consequences of the decline of the military force that was confronting the Houthis on those fronts.
Al-Bidh accused Saudi Arabia of pursuing a policy over the past three years based on trying to appease the Houthis and providing them with funds for de-escalation. He said that the level of trust in Riyadh within the south has declined following its targeting of the dissolved STC's forces.
He added that the problem lies in Saudi Arabia's continued belief in the correctness of its current policy, despite its results, according to him, indicating the opposite.
Al-Bidh's comments come at a time when media outlets and accounts associated with the dissolved STC have recently intensified their highlighting of government forces' retreats or loss of positions, using this politically to criticize the government's performance and pressure Saudi Arabia.
المصدر: Al-Mahriah Net + Open Sources
