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Reporter: I would like again to welcome our guest, His Eminence Sayed Hassan Nasrallah. Welcome to you, your Eminence the Sayed. We discussed, just before the break and the last part of our interview, questions of paramount importance to our region. You said that if Pakistan is to intervene alongside Saudi Arabia, it will do so on the pretext of there being an internal threat to Saudi security [and only to defend Saudi Arabia, not invade Yemen], and you said that this is not just a remote possibility, but that it could happen in the near future. The coming days will show whether such development occurs in Yemen, if the Houthis can enter into Saudi Arabia. What do you mean by this?

Sayed Hassan Nasrallah: Listen, at the end of the day, I do not have specific (exclusive) information, but it could happen, in the sense that what has been happening in Yemen so far… – let us make an analysis of the situation.

Well, (Saudi Arabia) started with bombing, and they set various objectives. So far they have not realised any of these goals, not a single one of them. And this is the experience of the July war (2006) in Lebanon, the experience of wars in Gaza in Palestine – and by the way, the war against Yemen, whether in its Media aspect, the psychological warfare, the military leadership or tactics, is exactly like the war against Lebanon, and the war against Gaza, and this reveals to us those who lurk behind the scenes and make the decisions. Well, they set a number of goals, and they have so far fulfilled none of these objectives. Aside from the fact of killing people, of course, but they had not announced that as an objective. They said that ... and this proves that – today we enter the 17th day of the war – it is a failure. It is a humiliating defeat for the Saudi-American aggression against Yemen.

(The Saudis) said (as objectives) that, first, they wanted to reinstall the President who they consider legitimate: but he is still in Riyadh with his supporters.

Second, they wanted to force Ansarallah, their allies and their supporters to surrender: but they did not surrender.

(Third, they wanted) the countrys leadership to withdraw, and surrender their heavy and medium weapons. It may be that many of us in this region, are unaware of a lot of what happens in Yemen, but the Saudis are very familiar with Yemen, and I laughed myself, because from what I know about Yemen, medium and heavy weapons are personal weapons (held even by civilians), that is to say, the (Saudis) claim to remove even personal weapons: in Yemen, all tribes have heavy weapons and medium weapons, and then (the Saudis) declare to groups that after they have imposed a war on them, they should deliver their heavy and medium weapons? In my opinion, this is manifest stupidity.

Well, third, or fourth, they said that the aim was to prevent the Iranian occupation of Yemen, which is a foregone conclusion, since (the Iranian occupation project) is imaginary, so they cannot say they have prevented the occupation of Yemen by Iran.

Fifth, on the ground, they said they wanted to restrain the Yemeni army and peoples committees in some provinces and at Aden. But (the Houthis) reached Aden, the airport is in their hands – I am using the information from the [Saudi] channel Al Arabiya –, the port is in their hands, most of the city is in their hands, as well as most of the southern provinces... What have you then accomplished (you Saudis)?

Until this moment, I can speak, from my own knowledge – and we also have the experience of the July War (2006) in Lebanon, the Israeli wars against Gaza, so we understand these things in one way or another – and my assessment of the situation is therefore that what has happened so far is a humiliating failure of Saudi-American aggression against Yemen.

If we believe the official (Saudi) spokesperson, who every day makes a speech about the evolution of the battle – that poor guy is in trouble, he seeks for the smallest success (to harp on about). He then said there was an such-and-such force that was heading to Aden, and that we striked it. This is not an accomplishment! This is a detail. Youre fighting a war, in any case. In war, there are martyrs, vehicles are destroyed, you kill, you are killed, thats war, its normal! So tell me about the military achievements that have any significant political or military implication ! But they have not accomplished anything like this up to now.

Instead, I will reveal what the Saudi aggression has really accomplished against Yemen so far.

The first achievement, is that they have made the vast majority of the Yemeni people radically opposed to Saudi Arabia. When have we seen before in Yemen hundreds of thousands, if not millions, manifest by proclaiming “Death to the House of Saud!” Incidentally, the Saudis do not tolerate anyone talking about them. They pay fortunes, and the whole world gets insulted, no problem, but if a TV station, newspaper, speaker, politician or writer says a (negative) word about Saud, they tear it to pieces. Well, millions of people manifest in Yemen proclaiming “Death to the House of Saud!” This is a huge strategic loss for the Saudis in Yemen.

Second, there is a huge uplift and mobilisation of the Yemeni people, seen through the TV channels, although they try to prevent this from appearing: tribes, cities, provinces, the people as a whole and this mobilization and this uprising will grow because of the crimes committed in this aggression against the Yemeni people. So this is a second achievement, and a result of the aggression.

Another achievement of the aggression, is that there is now a demand on the Yemeni leaders of the battle, who have not taken the decision to close (the strategic Strait) of Bab al-Mandeb, which they could do at any time: it is only 20 kilometres-large, they are quite capable of it. And they could also hit with missiles targets inside Saudi Arabia, or even enter the interior of Saudi Arabia, but this Yemeni leadership, this people of Yemen leading this battle have not yet taken such action, so far. But they may take such measures in the future, I do not know. This is related to the development of the war and the battle. The most important thing here is that there are very strong popular demands to respond to, whether to launch missiles or make an incursion into Saudi Arabia. And there is currently a strong and widely adopted discourse about Yemeni provinces, which belonged to Yemen in the beginning, but which the Saudis have annexed to their kingdom. And the Saudi military leadership – I heard this information, but I do not know if its true: nearly 90 border villages have been evacuated, their homes even destroyed for fear that Yemenis would take them. There is currently a Yemeni popular demand: ”Let us go to Saudi Arabia.” Leadership thus far has not taken such a decision. I wanted to indicate this.

Amongst other major accomplishments of the aggression, let us evoke support for Daesh (the Islamic State) and Al-Qaeda, while they know that al Qaeda and Daesh are truly a danger to Saudi Arabia and all Gulf countries, and we have seen what happened in Iraq. But these people, when they become blind, its for good, and they do not even see what there is in front of them.

In front of you, you have , Yemen, Daesh and Al Qaeda, and you have the Yemeni army, you have Ansarallah, and you have other friends and allies, political forces in Saudi Arabia, but the ones you fight were ready to negotiate, to dialogue, to come to a settlementwith you, before you launched the war against them. And they are always ready to move toward a Yemeni-Yemeni dialogue in a neutral country. But Al Qaeda and Daesh are a danger to Yemen and all the Gulf countries, governments, Kings, Emirs, peoples... But where has their blindness taken them to? In order to hit Ansarallah and the Yemeni army, they protect Al Qaeda and Daesh in Yemen, and more, they drop them weapons by air. Well, is this an achievement? This goes against the interests of Saudi Arabia.

Therefore my assessment of the situation is this: there are two aspects, a humanitarian aspect, and this aspect is very painful, and we need to highlight and address this, this is the responsibility of every individual: the massacres, bombings, assault, demolition of infrastructure and the Yemeni army– I forgot to remind of this in the objectives. These people, I mean the Americans and Israel, all allies and armies of which being known, do not want for there to remain in this region any strong army that could one day pose a threat to Israel or to US domination of the region. And thats why the Yemeni army is now a target, one of their goals is to destroy the Yemeni army.

Anyway, to conclude, I repeat that what is happening in Yemen is very painful and sad but from another aspect, I said from the beginning that I foresee…. – not like the astrologers, but by political analysis, experience, data, what we know of the situation in Yemen and Saudi Arabia and equations of current struggles in the region. I stand by the opinion I expressed a few days ago at the beginning of events (about the future outcome of this war): the Saudi defeat for me is the clearest evidence, as the Yemeni victory is absolute certainty, and this will impact on all events in the region and will be a door of salvation for many peoples and governments of the region.

Reporter: These are major expectations that you predict for the entire region, your Eminence, on the basis of your political analysis.

[…]

Sayed Hassan Nasrallah: Yes, on this aspect, and I do not make myself worry about the outcome of the battle, and thats why I said there is no risk. I consider that there is a very painful humanitarian aspect, but I am absolutely certain that Saudi Arabia will undergo a major defeat. And its defeat will impact on its internal situation, the royal family, on all those who believed they could perform feats and historic victories, and there will also be an impact on the entire region. It is my conviction. And we can take notes and wait to see what will happen. Those days are close now.