Saudi Arabia Forcefully Evacuating Residents near Yemen Border
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Saudi Arabia has launched the forced evacuation of locals in its Jizan region, which borders Yemen, as Yemeni forces advance further into Saudi territory in response to the war on their country by Riyadh.
Yemen’s Khabar Agency news website reported the development on Friday, incorporating pictures of departing locals as well as a video showing Saudi military personnel evacuating a residence in the region, according to Press TV.
It said the measure was affecting those villages and towns in the region that are closest to the common border with Yemen.
The Saudi military has threatened to strip the locals of their citizenships and invalidate their identification and travel documents if they refuse to leave. Saudi forces have, meanwhile, deployed to the region’s residential areas.
Some activists say that the Saudi regime has already cut the locals’ access to food resources and water reservoirs and limited their freedom of movement.
Yemen’s army and Houthi Ansarullah fighters have been retaliating for Saudi Arabia’s war against their country.
About 10,000 people have been killed since March 2015, when the Saudi war was launched in an attempt to undermine Ansarullah and restore power to Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who has resigned as Yemen’s president but seeks to forcefully regain the presidency. Yemenis say most of the victims in the Saudi airstrikes are civilians.
Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN)’s special envoy to Yemen said on Thursday that he planned to suspend the peace talks between the Houthis and the representatives of the Saudi-backed former Yemeni government.
The talks have been underway in Kuwait since April 21, without a major breakthrough.
Houthis say any potential peace process should, first and foremost, facilitate the formation of a national unity government and the appointment of a new consensus president, who would oversee transition.
A UN proposal has called on the Houthis them to withdraw and surrender their arms. Ansarullah have rejected the plan as unacceptable, saying it lacks any initiative for establishing a unity government in the war-torn country. They have also accused the UN of having altered the terms of a draft agreement earlier worked out in Kuwait.
