WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The United States has inflicted thousands of deaths and other casualties in Yemen through its supply of cluster bombs to the Saudi armed forces in violation of the laws of war, Gulf Affairs Institute Director Ali al-Ahmed told Sputnik.
"The US role in Yemen is making a sham of international law. It is an exercise in hypocrisy," al-Ahmed said on Friday. "It was clear from the beginning that the United States was involved in the war in Yemen. They haven’t found any way to justify this role."
US policymakers had claimed that they we replaying a restraining role on Saudi military operations against its much smaller neighbor, but this was the opposite of the truth, al-Ahmed insisted.
"They claim the US involvement is justified by reducing casualties, but instead US empowerment and support of Saudi Arabia is allowing Riyadh to inflict more civilian casualties in Yemen, not less. In other words, you throw fire and claim you are doing so to minimize the fire," al-Ahmed said.
The role of the United States in supplying weapons such as cluster bombs that are being used against a civilian population is a clear violation of international law, the professor pointed out.
"It is an amazing argument. The superpowers are playing with the lives of thousands of people especially those who are weak. And will this continue? Absolutely!"
This state of affairs was likely to continue for the foreseeable future, al-Ahmed claimed.
However, Riyadh would fail in its ambition to install a compliant puppet government over the Yemeni people in Sanaa, al-Ahmed predicted.
"The Saudis have a sense of entitlement that they are the regional superpower and they should decide on the type of government and policy for everyone. But they are deluded."
Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz and his son, Defense Minister Mohamed bin Salman, had stumbled into a conflict they could not win, the professor warned.
"The Saudis cannot choose a form of government for Yemen. They want to decide other peoples’ governments for them. But that model is unsustainable. It’s gone. I don’t think the Saudis leaders even realize that. However, reality will set in very soon."
However, US media organizations were mainly covering the conflict from Riyadh – through Saudi eyes – and they were accepting uncritically the Saudi eversion of events, al-Ahmed observed.
