Tawakkol Karman, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said the expulsion of the Saudi-UAE coalition from Yemen has become a popular demand.This came in an interview with the Qatari "Al-Sharq" newspaper, published in its issue today as follows:

*[Al-Sharq] After the coup of Aden, as Yemeni forces, how do you see the current stage and what is required?

- What is required at this stage is the liberation of Yemen from the coalition that acts as an occupier of the country, and tries to break it up and divide it in a systematic, planned and premeditated manner. There is a growing conviction among Yemenis that the expulsion of this treacherous alliance is no less important than the process of overthrowing the Houthi coup. The question is: Can the Yemenis liberate their country? Yes, they can, and there is no one in the neighborhood who can, and the Houthi militias cannot continue to rule by force and oppression. Yemenis are difficult people and the geography of Yemen is very complex. No one can defeat us, not the occupation nor the rule of domination and oppression.

Saudi sponsorship

*[Al-Sharq] What do you think of what happened in Aden and was the coup planned in advance?

- Aden's coup is a natural result of five years of Emirati work in this direction, under the supervision and patronage of Saudi Arabia. The south was liberated in mid-2015 with popular resistance, but the coalition's efforts helped to form the security belts militias as a parallel and anti-legitimacy force to carry out assassinations and racism against the northerners and prevent the legitimacy institutions from stabilizing in Aden and carrying out their tasks. The coalition paved the way for the security belts militias by dismissing Naif al-Bakri, one of the most prominent leaders of the resistance, and the assassination of Aden governor Jaafar in assassinations program that targeted more than 400 figures, most of them from the Islah Party and those opposed to the UAE-Saudi custody.

*[Al-Sharq] But Saudi Arabia denies knowing in advance of the coup?

- The coup was planned by the UAE and there is no evidence that Saudi Arabia objected or was conservative, especially since it was rehearsed in January 2018 to wage war against the government of Ben Daghr and the seizure of Aden, then stopped the rehearsal at the gate of the Palace of Maashiq, to be completed later by President Hadi. He implemented the directives of the UAE and Saudi Arabia to dismiss Ben Daghr and increased by referring him to the investigation, although Ben Daghr tried to put forward legitimacy in Aden and was brave in his prudent rejection of the guardianship of the coalition and proceeding with it, and he resisted the UAE occupation of Socotra island and exposing it globally, which put the UAE in an embarrassing position and in the dock.

Joint conspiracy

*[Al-Sharq] But what exactly is the role of the UAE in what happened?

- The UAE, under the patronage of Saudi Arabia and its blessing, has been in charge of the file of the south, coasts and islands, since the beginning of the war, and has worked in this direction to achieve its objectives contrary to the objectives of Yemeni legitimacy, and in a way that affects the sovereignty, independence, interests, islands, ports and coasts of Yemen.

The UAE is a Saudi soldier and its advanced battalion, and the network by which the international forces hunt and drag Saudi to death. Unfortunately, since 2011 Saudi Arabia has been blindfolded, going in the direction of the abyss and reaping the consequences of its retaliation.

*So the coup was with Saudi approval?

- Yes, it is a combination of conspiracy, blind consent, negligence and miscalculation of a kingdom that has reached its fall and no longer differentiates between what harms it and what benefits it, even though it is a big Arab country. We did not wish it to reach this state of adventure and tampering with its interests and those of its neighbors and the entire Arab world.

We wonder, is it for the transfer of power it tampered with all this absurdity in Yemen and Libya and before that Syria and Egypt?! The past five years have not been a war against the Houthi coup. It has turned into a war against legitimacy, against Yemen and against Saudi Arabia itself, which is plunging one step further into the quagmire it has dug for itself with great care and the UAE made it wider and deeper. Do the Saudi leadership think that we rejoice for its expected sinking?! No, of course, but we hoped that it would not stand a stumbling block to the dreams of peoples and projects of change in the region, but it seems to be determined to move in this direction. By doing so it is digging its grave, and squandering its wealth, as players in global casinos do.

Call for dialogue

*[Al-Sharq] What do you think of its call for dialogue with the transitional council? Is it a recognition of the fait accompli?

- Dialogue with a racist coup group that seized Aden by force under the auspices of the coalition is more dangerous than the coup itself, because it legitimizes it and assimilates it under an absolute separatist racist authority in Aden. Yemen will not return as it was before unity. If they succeed in separating it, it will be divided into states and will be fragments in the face of the whole Gulf and will lead to divisions in Saudi Arabia and its neighbors.

*It is understood from your words that Saudi Arabia and the UAE have agreed to divide Yemen?

- Yes, they agree on the fragmentation of Yemen, but perhaps there is no consensus between them on the number of parts that the country should be fragmented, into one southern state as the UAE wants or to only two countries as Saudi Arabia wants, one to be dominated by the UAE, including Aden, Abyan, Lahj and al-Dhale, and the other to be ruled by Saudi Arabia, including Shabwa, Hadhramaut, Mahra, and Socotra.

Overwhelming defeat

*[Al-Sharq] This explains what happened in Shabwa recently to defeat the legitimacy of the Transitional Council forces?

- Certainly, when the UAE militias went beyond Abyan to the coup in Shabwa, Saudi Arabia said that Shabwa is a red line, and indeed the UAE militias suffered a crushing defeat there and all their camps fell within hours. It is true that Saudi Arabia did not provide weapons to the National Army in Shabwa, but it did not intervene and did not ask them to surrender similar to what it did in Aden and Abyan.

Here we recall that the fighting between the forces of legitimacy and the coup in Aden was in favor of the legitimacy in the first and second days, and almost all important camps of the UAE-backed militias were about to fall before Saudi intervention to tip their hand.

Hadi change

* [Al-Sharq] Finally, what is your assessment of the role of President Hadi?

- Hadi is helpless, failed and an accomplice, if we do not say that he conspired against his country Yemen.

He missed the opportunity of the transitional period and threw himself and his authority over the sponsors of the Gulf initiative and ambassadors of the major countries and UN envoys. And finally he surrendered to the Saudi-Emirati alliance and colluded with the Houthis and handed over the capital without war and depended upon accounts of the two Gulf states which overthrew the Yemeni states under the pretext of excluding the Islah Party.

In my opinion, the Yemenis should agree to oust Hadi and choose an alternative to complete the mission away from the treacherous coalition, in addition to the basic task of confronting the two coups, the Houthi and separatists.

The task may seem difficult and the legacy is heavy, but it is not more difficult than the illusion of the coalition to occupy Yemen, and not harder than the Houthi illusion to rule the state, and not harder than the separatists' aspirations to divide Yemen and restore the imagined paradise.

Our case is fair: Yemen. Their issues are unjust and losing: occupation, imamate, and separation.

*After the developments that took place in Shabwa and the defeat of the coup there…Do you expect to announce the failure of the coup in Aden soon?

- The coup of Aden failed from the first day. The coup leaders say they want to separate the south from the north, and they want to keep legitimacy until they rule in their name and collect money and get the support of Saudi Arabia and the UAE in its name. These have no issue and no affiliation, they belong to those who pay them and finance them, and they have prepared to sell the south, Socotra and the islands to those who pay more, they do not represent the south, because the majority of the population reject them in Hadramout, Shabwa, Mahra, Abyan, Socotra, and in Aden as well, so they sought to impose their authority with terrorism, assassinations, Emirati money and weapons that flowed on them, not on the legitimacy that legitimized the coalition's interference in Yemen. But the fate of those is certainly to disappear.

The UAE role

* [Al-Sharq] How do you see the UAE's role in Yemen and in the Arab countries as well?

- The UAE is a malicious penetration in the Arab body because it is run from international capitals and used to finance and sponsor terrorist groups and nurture civil wars and divisions in more than one Arab country since the Arab Spring revolutions in 2011, and even today they do so in partnership, alliance, agreement and consensus with Saudi Arabia.

*[Al-Sharq] Some believe that the coup of Aden is an alternative to the withdrawal of Emirati forces from Yemen?

- Aden's coup was planned in the UAE, and announcing its withdrawal was a prelude to the coup .. Abu Dhabi withdrew from the battles against the Houthis only, but did not withdraw from Yemen, but has repositioned its Emirati forces, so as not to appear as a conspirator.

*[Al-Sharq] In your opinion, is the Houthi revelation of Saudi space is a result of Saudi disregard of legitimacy?

- It is the result of the state of wandering and misguidance that Saudi Arabia is going through and as a result of its treachery against Yemen and its people, and its madness in fighting the Arab Spring and the Arab revolutions, which blinded them from seeing their interests and what harm them or benefit them. The Kingdom came to Yemen to uphold legitimacy, but it prevented it from establishing its authority in the supposed provinces. Saudi sees that legitimacy should be under its control. It intervened with bad intentions to destroy Yemen and empower sectarian and separatist militias in Sana'a and Aden, and it takes legitimacy as a cover for it.

*[Al-Sharq] In your opinion, who benefits from what has happened in Yemen over the past five years?

- No one.. Not Yemen or Saudi Arabia or the Arabs. The beneficiary may be the enemies of the Arabs, and their rivals from neighboring nations, and global dominant.

The position of the international community

*[Al-Sharq] But why is the international community silent about the coup of Aden?

- The international community has spoken about its support for the Yemeni state and its unity and stability through international resolutions. We cannot ask the international community to talk while the legitimacy keeps silent. The international community did not support the separation and it did not support the Houthi coup. The task now is for the Yemenis to face coups and the deviation of the coalition and to correct the course of failed legitimacy. Then the world will be with them. Society does not support coups and they will not succeed, because they are only a conspiracy of attrition.

Yemen is a large and historical country that will not be easily defeated. It will get out from all these conspiracies and conquer them. The imamate could not defeat the Yemeni people for hundreds of years and the evil British colony could not divide them as the 26 sultanates collapsed just when the British colony departed the country. The Yemeni people restored the respect to the great Yemen and its history through the unification in May 22, 1990. 

The Division plan

*[Al-Sharq] Is the coalition already planning to divide Yemen?

- Yes, it is strange that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two Arab countries, are seeking to divide Yemen. They did so in 1994 and failed, but they are trying again. This time, will not only fail but they, and specifically neighboring Saudi Arabia, will pay the price of this betrayal to its nation and its great neighbor, Yemen.

*[Al-Sharq] Is President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi responsible for what happened in Yemen?

- As I said earlier, Hadi is an incapacitated, failed and complicit president, if not to say that he is a conspirator against his country Yemen. He has colluded with the Houthis and handed them the capital Sanaa without war betting on Saudi Arabia and Emirates. He was subject to calculations of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which overthrew the state under the pretext of excluding the Muslim Brotherhood.

Hadi summoned Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to return him to the state in Sana’a, but they destroyed Yemen by bombing infrastructure and civilian neighborhoods and funerals and weddings. Their goal was to destroy Yemen. They left most of the north as prey to the Houthis and only controlled the ports, coasts, islands, airports and oil and gas facilities in conjunction with keeping Hadi and his government prisoners in hotels, away from reality and actoin.

Dialog invitations

*[Al-Sharq] Finally, do the Saudi calls for dialogue result in an agreement to end the Yemeni conflict and the coup?

- They are trying to gain more time to wage wars to subdue Hadramout, Shabwa and Mahra, and to arrange for a separated state. They are dreamers. Time is not going back. The coalition and behind it some international powers want to divide Yemen into warring states. Yemen will not return as it was before unity. If they succeed in dividing it, it will be divided into states and fragments in the face of the whole Gulf and that will lead to a succession of divisions in Saudi Arabia and its neighbors.