
© www.washingtonpost.comIt's about these guys: Left: former president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi; Right: former president Ali Abdullah Saleh...and a what amounts to a war soap opera cast of factions and characters.
Advisor to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Akbar Velayati, met Russian colleagues in Moscow, during which the parties agreed on
the need to end the bombing in Yemen. "We expressed our opinion on the events unfolding in Yemen. We stated that the Saudis have sunk into a slump and ultimately, the people of Yemen must come out on top. The aim of the actions of the people of Yemen is an early end to the Saudis' defective blind bombardments which now plague Yemen," said Ali Akbar Velayati in a press conference recently held in Moscow.
In connection with this, we must remember that an armed conflict continues to rage in Yemen, where on one side, there are the
Huthis rebels of the Shiite movement, Ansar Allah and the part of the army loyal to ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh. On the other, are the
troops of the ousted President, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who are being supported on the ground and from the air by the
Arab coalition forces led by Saudi Arabia. In the south of Yemen, there are militants of the
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Islamic state terrorist groups. There are also clashes with government forces by
militants of the "Southern Movement" that have been pushing for the independence of the southern Yemeni provinces since 2007.
Only supporters of the Shiite movement, Ansar Allah (Huthis), are fighting in Yemen with the terrorist organization, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, said the Russian ambassador to Yemen, Vladimir Dedushkin, who is well-versed in the complicated situation.
"Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have recently strengthened their position as never before in Yemen. The entire eastern part of Yemen, nearly 70% of the country, is largely controlled by extremists. Currently,
Al Qaeda's sole opponent is Ansar Allah, who is simultaneously stemming the onslaught of the coalition, and the army of President Hadi," he said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
Comment: Are there some sane individuals in the Pentagon? It would be nice to think so, but we won't get our hopes up. Then again, there was this: Sy Hersh's expose on Pentagon sharing of intel with Russia and Syria: The realists: Military to military US intelligence sharing in the Syrian war