Najran might turn the tide of the Saudi war

It seems the US-supported Saudi-UAE invasion of Yemen, now in its fifth year, has entered a crucial stage that promises the total humiliation of all the aggressor parties.

Now we have the viewpoint column in this regard that appeared in Iran’s English language daily ‘Kayhan International’ on Sunday, June 9, titled: “Najran might turn the tide of the Saudi war”.

Kayhan International wrote: “Reports from the frontlines of the war imposed on the ancient land of Yemen by the US through its proxy Saudi Arabia (created in 1932 by London), indicate that forces of the popular Ansarallah Movement are only a few kilometers from the historical Yemeni city of Najran, which during the 1934 war with the Zaydi Imam was seized by the British-supported Najdi clan.

“If Najran is liberated, this would be a major victory for the defenders of Yemen, none of whose rulers, including the last (executed) President Ali Abdullah Saleh, had ever recognized Saudi control of the entire province of the same name, as well as the two other northern Yemeni provinces of Jizan and Asir, which are also under occupation of the Wahhabi cultish regime of Riyadh.

“The Saudi-UAE “coalition of the cowards” had violated the ceasefire of Eid al-Fitr on the assumption of catching the Yemeni defenders off guard, only to see their troops suffer setbacks and retreat on all fronts, including Taez and Hodeidah in central Yemen, as well as in Najran, where the Yemeni army has taken control of at least 20 military outposts after inflicting heavy casualties on the Saudis.

“It is not known whether the governor of Najran, Jelawi bin Abdul-Aziz bin Musa’ed, who stays at the Holiday Day Inn hotel, has fled the city, or is still enjoying the extended Eid al-Fitr holidays in some luxurious resort elsewhere. 

“The Saudis have no popular base and depend upon mercenary forces in Najran, mostly recruited from the local tribes of Yemeni origin, whose loyalties are not guaranteed, especially in the current atmosphere of war with Yemen.

“Moreover, the Saudis still remember the deadly confrontation with the Ismaili community a few years ago that resulted in deaths on both sides, and barricading of the city’s sprawling Khushaywah quarters, which serves as the seat of the Ismaili religious leader, the ad-Daʼi al-Muṭlaq (Absolute Guide), and the spiritual capital of the Sulaymani sect, which has a large following in India, Pakistan, Yemen, East Africa, and of late in the US, Canada, and Britain.”

Kayhan International pointed out: “The majority of the population of Najran Province is made up of Ismaili Shi’a Muslims, followed by the Zaydi Shi’a Muslims, and the Sunni Muslim subsects of Shafe’is, and Hanefis – all of whom are opposed to the minority Wahhabi cult.

“The Ansarallah advance seems to have been facilitated by intelligence reports received regularly from the local people, who resent Saudi rule and are engaged in underground activities under banner of the “Najran Liberation Movement”.

“However, with the unending supply of lethal weapons from the US, Britain, and France, including cluster and napalm bombs, the Saudis are not expected to sit back and cede control of Najran, which means brutal aerial bombing is in store for the people of the said region.

“The Saudis are dead scared of the possibility of uprisings that Najran might trigger, especially in the eastern oil-rich Shi’a Muslim majority region, in the Ha’il where members of the erstwhile Aal-e Rasheed clan are still popular, and in Hijaz the Land of Revelation, which the Najdis siezed in 1925 by butchering thousands of Muslims in the precincts of the sacred Ka’ba in Mecca, in the holy shrine of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) in Medina, in the then mostly Shi’a Muslim mountain resort of Ta’ef and in the cosmopolitan Red Sea port of Jeddah.

“But raining fire from the skies, without the courage to place boots on the ground, can neither break the resistance of the people nor bring any victory for the attackers, as the Saudis who have been relentlessly bombing Yemen for the past four-and a-quarter years very well know – and so also their masters the Americans from their own bitter experience in Vietnam and currently in Afghanistan.”

According to Kayhan International: “The onus is now on the Ansarallah to consolidate the gains in Najran, brushing aside all accusations of ‘invasion’ by the reactionary Arab regimes, the US, the West, and the UN, which throughout the bloody war have unabashedly supported the Saudi crimes against the people of Yemen, without the least sympathy for the plight and mounting death toll of the resolute defenders.

“As usual, the quixotic US president, Donald Trump, would thunder threats and tweet theatrics, accompanied by flexing of military muscles in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea by dispatching the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln or a squadron of B-52 bombers, but he will not dare land any troops in Yemen, for obvious reasons that boots on the ground means their return home in body bags to kill his dreams of a second term in the White House.

“His team of thugs, despite their bravado, are fully aware of the lack of motive for American soldiers to risk their life and limbs in a foreign land, as well as the ingenuity of the Yemeni forces in warfare techniques, especially the use of drones and missiles to target military and industrial installations of the Saudis and the Emiratis, as well as their steadfastness on the battlefields.

“Who knows the Yemenis, who have braved the economic and military terrorism of the aggressors, might be having the projectiles to sink the Abraham Lincoln to shatter the military might of the American intruders, in order to defend their homeland and in the process bring peace and freedom to the people of the Arabian Peninsula from decades of Imperialist/Zionist/Wahhabi thralldom!”

AS/ME