Well-informed Yemeni sources confirmed that Bahah’s visit was just a propaganda aimed at raising the morale of pro-Hadi militiamen.
News agencies were busy on Saturday in covering a “symbolic” visit by the Yemeni fugitive prime minister Khaled Bahah. However, Bahah’s visit was too short that it lasted for only three hours.
Pro-Saudi media outlets described the visit as a new victory to the militiamen of the fugitive president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who fled Yemen to Saudi Arabia just as Aden was fallen to the hands of the popular committees.
Meanwhile, well-informed Yemeni sources confirmed that Bahah’s visit was just a propaganda aimed at raising the morale of pro-Hadi militiamen.
The three-hour-long visit proves that the situation in Aden is not under the full control of pro-Hadi militiamen as circulated by media, the sources said.
The sources added that Bahah did not arrive in Aden by an airplane as reported by media, stressing that the fugitive PM came to Aden via sea.
Aseeri Remarks
For his part, spokesman of the Saudi led-coalition launching the aggression against Yemen, Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, said that the coalition aimed first to help bring Yemen's government back from exile to Aden and then return it to Sanaa if possible via peace talks with the Houthis.
“Aden was the first step. Now the government will start rebuilding their military capability, their security capability, the stability in cities,” he said, and this would need time.
“We believe that going surely, step by step, if the Houthis get out of Sanaa through peace talks, then this is important,” Asseri said referring to Ansarullah movement whose fighters have forced al-Qaeda militants out of Sanaa last September, and have been since March repelling a brutal Saudi-led aggression against Yemen.
“But if they keep controlling (Sanaa), I think the legitimate government has the right to get them out of Sanaa.”
Riyadh Training Militants
On the other hand, The Washington Post reported that in mid-July, hundreds of militants who had been secretly trained in Saudi Arabia arrived in Aden.
This week, Saudi-backed militants attacked areas north of the southern port city of Aden, the daily said, adding that residents said the militants are preparing to assault al-Anad base, Yemen’s biggest military airfield, 30 miles north of Aden.
It is not clear whether the gains against the Houthis will help end the war anytime soon, the report added, noting that the “Houthis are tough fighters who are poised to put up stiff resistance.”
“The tribes and militias fighting the Houthis alongside the newly trained force do not all share Saudi Arabia’s goals in the conflict,” The Washington Post said in the report published on Thursday.
Yemen has been since March 26 under brutal aggression by Saudi-led coalition. Thousands have been martyred and injured in the attack, with the vast majority of them are civilians.
Riyadh launched the attack on Yemen in a bid to restore power to fugitive Hadi who is a close ally to Saudi Arabia.
However, Yemeni army, backed by popular committees and tribal fighter has been responding to the aggression by targeting several Saudi border military posts and cleansing several areas across the country, especially the country’s south, from Hadi and al-Qaeda-linked militias.
