Yemen’s Defense Minister Mohammed Nasser al-Atifi says the country has made great strides in the defense sector and will “surprise” Saudi Arabia and those of its allies that are waging a war on the impoverished nation. RNA - Speaking at the committee on Yemen’s defense doctrine in the capital, Sana’a, on Saturday, Atifi said that the military had developed advanced weapons as well as technology that met the country’s need to defend its sovereignty, unity, and independence.
He stressed that Yemen had surprises in store for aggressor regimes.
“We have surprises for... [them] that they can never see coming,” the Yemeni defense minister said.
Yemeni armed forces are moving forward with manufacturing missiles as well as armed and offensive unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), rockets, and other kinds of weapons, Atifi said.
The Yemenis are currently in the final stages of developing various air defenses, he added.
The Yemeni forces would free the whole country and defend its territorial integrity, he said, emphasizing that they are now capable of launching attacks deep inside Saudi Arabia and targeting its vital facilities.
Yemeni fighters regularly target positions inside Saudi Arabia in retaliation for the Saudi-led war, which began in March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall the former regime and eliminate the Houthi Ansarullah movement.
While those strikes often target Saudi Arabia’s border areas, a number of drone strikes were carried out deep inside Saudi territory on May 14. The drones used in the attacks flew undetected until they reached the designated target, namely two oil pumping stations, disrupting the flow.
Yemen has warned that it would carry out more such attacks.
The defense minister expressed Yemen's readiness for peace based on a United Nations-brokered ceasefire agreed between the Houthis and the former regime in Sweden last December.
He said that under the truce, Yemeni fighters unilaterally retreated from Hudaydah. However, he added, aggressor forces maintain the siege of the Durayhimi district in violation of the truce.
The minister also said that the Saudi-led coalition still prevented food and medicine from entering the impoverished state.
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