Yemenis Hold Massive Rally in Protest at US-backed Saudi Blockade, Persisting Economic Hardships

Sunday, 08 August 2021 5:59 PM

 Yemenis are holding a massive rally against a US-backed Saudi blockade, persisting economic hardships and raising of customs tariffs, in capital Sana’a, Yemen, on August 8, 2021. (Photos by al-Masirah)

Yemenis have held a massive rally in the capital Sana’a in protest at the US-backed Saudi blockade on their impoverished Arab country and economic hardships resulting from it, including the rising rate of customs tariffs.

Thousands of Yemenis on Sunday marched through the streets of capital Sana’a to express their deep dissent over the US-supported Saudi apartheid blockade, Yemen's Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported.

The protesters held the US responsible for an economic war against Yemen through its full support for the Saudi-led military coalition that has been ceaselessly bombarding the impoverished Arab country since 2015 and at the same time placed a crippling siege for the past several years.

Chanting slogans against Washington, the protesters said Saudi Arabia is a mere tool in the hands of the White House, which has raised the customs tariffs by 100 percent against the Yemenis through the Riyadh regime.    

Chairman of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee of Yemen Mohammed Ali al-Houthi delivered a speech to protesters, stressing that the US is constantly trying to depreciate Yemen’s rial against the American dollar.

Syrians, Palestinians and the Lebanese began suffering when the US stepped on their respected countries, he said, adding that the Yemenis were now suffering because of the US aggression against Yemen through Saudi Arabia and its allies.

“We are under siege, but we are accused of having a role in the siege in an attempt to distort the facts. We do not need help from the aggressor countries. If the aggressors return the revenues of the Yemeni ports, oil, and gas, then, we will be able to pay the salaries of our employees. It is the US that has put a blockade against our country and killed our people. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are nothing more than tools for implementing US schemes and agendas,” al-Houthi said.

At the end of the protest rally, a statement was read out, saying that the US-supported Saudi-led military coalition “is constantly targeting and damaging Yemen’s economy and Yemenis’ business activities.”

It also stressed that such measures have a crushing impact on the humanitarian situation in the country.

“We condemn the continuation of the sanctions, the prevention of the entry of ships carrying oil derivatives, and the escalation of economic aggression by the aggressor countries, which is aimed at intensifying the suffering of the Yemeni people,” the statement further read.

“The United States is responsible for attacking and besieging the Yemeni people, and we consider the increase in the customs tariff rate to be an American decision made by its mercenaries,” it also stressed.

Saudi Arabia and many of its allies have been waging a war on Yemen since 2015 to restore power there to the country’s Riyadh-friendly former officials. The war and a simultaneous siege that the Saudi-led coalition has been enforcing on the Arab world’s already poorest nation, has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis.

The invasion has pushed entire Yemen close to the brink of outright famine, turning the country into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Yemen’s defense forces have, however, vowed not to lay down their arms or stop their resistance operations until the country’s complete liberation.