Operation Decisive Storm succeeded in eliminating threats to the kingdom and other countries in the region, by destroying heavy weapons and ballistic missiles held by the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to a statement by the mostly Sunni Muslim coalition read out on Saudi state television.
A new operation will seek to protect civilians, distribute aid and restart political talks, Ahmed Asseri, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, told reporters at a televised press conference. He said that may also include the use of force, though on a smaller scale than the past four weeks of bombing. The coalition will “stand against military movements and actions by the Houthi militia and its allies,” according to the statement.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, and its mostly Sunni Muslim allies in the coalition have been seeking to roll back gains by the Houthis. The intervention has escalated a conflict in a country located among major oilfields and adjacent to key shipping routes.
Oil Decline
Oil prices extended declines after the Saudi announcement. Brent crude dropped 2.5 percent to $61.88 per barrel at 2:30 p.m. in New York. It had risen more than $6 a barrel since the start of the Saudi-led bombing of Yemen in late March.
The Saudis accuse the rebels of being tools of Iran, a claim viewed skeptically by Western diplomats. In the past year the rebels have advanced from their northern base to occupy the capital, Sana’a, and then push Saudi-backed President Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi from his remaining stronghold in the southern port of Aden. He fled to Saudi Arabia.
Ambassadors of the six Gulf Cooperation Council member states told United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday that the Saudi-led coalition’s military activities won’t be ending anytime soon, according to a UN official who asked not to be identified commenting on private diplomatic conversations.
In Aden, where there had been fierce fighting between Hadi’s local allies and pro-Houthi forces, there have been no airstrikes for about two hours, though fighter jets can still be heard hovering overhead, Saleh Salem, a local resident, said by phone.
Perk Earl on Tue, 21st Apr 2015 6:20 pm
Oil price started back up, then stalled and now has gone down some, but up overall from lows. Really very thrilling ride to watch where oil price goes.
It’s interesting how some of these threads are chalk full of the usual posters, but there’s a lot of threads that are more like ghost threads with one or two posts. Too many articles or too little participation?
BobInget on Tue, 21st Apr 2015 7:41 pm
Let’s see if the Saudis are capable of un-ringing a Yemeni genocidal bell.
Don’t forget how long it has taken for the US to recoverer from other Saudi inspired attacks on a Pentagon, a field in Pennsylvania and The World Trade Center.
All taking place on a single day September 11.
Weeks of Yemen bombing will soon be short history in the West. The Islamic world’s memory
is longer, writ large in minds of survivors.
The shame of the United States Navy too busy
to evacuate its citizens but not to busy to prevent
Iranian ships freedom of the seas.
(note that four Navies, dozens of warships, including an aircraft carrier, submarines, missile
cruisers are preparing to hijack eight Iranian freighters loaded with cargo)
That shame, almost too much. That America continues to protect, indeed arm, encourage,
placate, give vital intelligence, offer military cover, is equal only to another war loving nation, Israel, Saudi Arabia’s newest crime partner.
(I hope readers live long enough to witness these two mob gangsters turning on each other)
Yemen, one of the poorest nations on the planet. KSA one of the richest.
Saudi Arabia turned an internal power struggle into another religious war the same way 9/11 galvanized a nation against all Muslims.
Sparked an Afghanistan invasion that still smolders. Gave excuse for the most ill advised war in US history, The Invasion and Occupation of Iraq, subsequent rise of al Qaeda and IS.
Saudi Arabia used the people of Yemen in its war
against Iran, destroyed Syria for generations.
With a world’s overriding need for oil, Saudi Arabian Prince’s crimes will wait. Act one curtain draws close.
Chapter one, act two in the wings.
Oil went down, not up on news of Saudi incursion. BTW, check on it.
Oil goes down again on news of chapter one ending.
In Act Two the plot thickens. Act two may take months to play out, be patient.
It’s in Act three where Saudi Arabia loses control of oil markets and perhaps much more.
rockman on Tue, 21st Apr 2015 8:37 pm
We’ll see what goal has been achieved or not. If Iranian ships make it into the Yemen port the rebels will be rearmed. The Saudis know it, the US knows it, the Egyptians know it and, finally, my dog knows it. If the blockade does work then MAYBE the Saudi goal was won.
Just a simple bet: if an Iranian merchant ship is accosted and there’s an Iranian warship present shots will be fired. I have no doubt that every Iranian naval captain knows that if he doesn’t engage even an overwhelming intercepting force he’ll be executed when he gets back to Iran.
Just my take on Iranian egos.
BobInget on Tue, 21st Apr 2015 9:50 pm
I would take that bet rockman. Except, these
are cargo ships with no navy vessels in sight.
Propaganda has rockman believing these 8 ships are filled with weapons.
Just the act of boarding a foreign flagged vessel
w/o the consent of owners (or master) is an act of war.
(casus belli)
IMO, if these ships are transporting weapons
the Iranians missed one of the best propaganda
moves of the decade.
The Saudis bomb and destroy, Iran sends food and medicine. How will that play in Iraq or Egyptian street.
How about I shut up for a week if Iran’s cargo
holds or containers are holding military weapons?
theedrich on Wed, 22nd Apr 2015 1:34 am
As usual, the lie factory called the U.S. government is propaganding the notion that the axis-of-evil Iranians are trying to take over the world via Yemen. So we have to help our noble ally, the KSA, to reduce the Yemeni population. The kept media act as the administration’s megaphone, of course. Must keep the mushrooms entranced.
This story has no end, and if history is any guide, we can be sure that Ø & Co. — now with Republican-Zionist help — will bring us even closer to the abyss.
Ralph on Wed, 22nd Apr 2015 4:27 am
CNN are reporting that SA have started bombing again.
I guess the declaration of victory was just to make a high profile target relax his vigilance , or some such target.
Quagmire awaits.
Until US?Iran start shooting at each other.
Majed on Wed, 22nd Apr 2015 7:04 am
Everyone knows that the war in Yemen started last year by part of Houthis who were nurtured and taught in Iran in the eighties and were converted to Shi’a fundamentalist then sent back to Yemen to prepare to take over at later stage. Iran kept sending weapons of all kinds during the past 20 years including scud missiles. The Yemeni government, at that time, caught some of ships and sent complaints to United Nation.
The story of Houthis is a complete duplicate of Lebanon Hezbollah the known terrorist group that is now controlling Lebanon.
Same thing was done in Iraq and Syria
Bahrain is another example that was about to fall but Saudi Arabia intervened and saved the country.
There are many other examples in several countries like Morocco, Mauritania, Malaysia, Argentina, and Sudan …and the list goes on.
Many of these countries realized the threat and stopped all pro-Iranian activities like Malaysia, Morocco and Sudan.
The strategy of Iran is to revive the dream of Old defeated Persian Empire. The biggest defeat they had was by the Arabs some 1400 years ago. Until now, the Iranian fundamentalists hate the Arabs.
Iran is using religion as a tool to achieve their goal. In reality there are no problems between Sunnis and Shi`a. The Middle East never had any distinction between them and they live as neighbors and marry from each other.
The situation completely changed when Khomeini ruled Iran in 1979 and that marked the start of Middle East De-stabilization.
Back to Yemen story, Houthis after collecting enough weapons waged their war last year by concurring cities after another including the Capital city where they took the legitimate president to jail and dissolved the elected Parliament.
The Iranian fascist government were bragging that they are controlling four Arab capitals Baghdad (Iraq), Damascus (Syria), Beirut (Lebanon), and Sanaa (Yemen) and controlling the straits that control oil flow from Arab gulf countries.
During the past 8 months, Saudi Arabia and the whole world including several UN resolution were calling to stop violence and use of force to get a political gain.
The Houthis did not stop but kept moving south the legitimate President who ran out of his jail and went to Eden, asked for International Military help and we they started entering Eden the allied forces led by Saudi started their military campaign.
When the military campaign started, the Iranian Government got crazy as they see their 30 years of planning and investment is evaporating .The Iranians has never built a hospital or school or roads in Yemen, all their investment were arms and weapons.
The Middle East will continue to be under tension as long as the Iranian Government continue their aggression and by the way, they do all these bad things indirectly through creation of local agents.
What Saudi Arabia has done lately proves that the Arab world problems should be solved by the Arabs themselves, without waiting for the world help. That waiting cost us so far 250,000 lives and 9 Million refugees in Syria thanks to Syrian puppet dictator with the support of Iranian militia and Hezbollah under a fake Shi’a umbrella.
That is the reason more people are joining ISIS .They are fueling each other.
The solution for all the above is to do something with the single common root cause, which is Iran.
rockman on Wed, 22nd Apr 2015 7:54 am
Bob – “Except, these are cargo ships with no navy vessels in sight.” Last report I saw there was an Iranian missile destroyer in the area. And if the Iranians are actively supporting the rebels, as the Saudis claim, why wouldn’t they be shipping weapons and ammo? If you’re conducting a surrogate war why would you hesitate to feed the machine?
And those merchantmen don’t need Iranian naval vessels to start a shooting war. I would make the same bet: any merchant captain that allowed his vessel to be boarded without approval of the Supreme Council knows he’s a dead man. All it takes is a few AK’s and RPG’s to take out an approaching boarding party. And that would certainly draw a violent Saudi/Egyptian reaction IMHO.
IMHO it all boils down to who is willing to start a shooting match over this issue. And even if none of the parties don’t want to go there it may still happen: I refer again to the movie “The Bedford Incident”. All it takes is the squeeze of one nervous finger: sh*t happens. Just ask the relatives of the hundreds of Iranian civilians, including children, killed when a US ship shot down an unarmed Iranian commercial jet.