Malaysia may pull troops out of Saudi Arabia, says Mat Sabu

Zulkifli Sulong Zulkifli Sulong Updated 5 years ago · Published on 20 Jun 2018 7:00AM · 10 Comments

Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu says if Malaysia were to get its military involved in any conflict, it would only be through the United Nations. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, June 20, 2018.

PUTRAJAYA is considering pulling back Malaysian troops from Saudi Arabia, which is engaged in air strikes against Yemeni rebel fighters, said Mohamad Sabu.

The defence minister said the government is not interested in being involved in conflicts in the Gulf region, and is reviewing the deployment of army personnel to Saudi Arabia.

“Why would we want to be involved in attacking Yemen, another Islamic nation?” Mohamad, also known as Mat Sabu, told The Malaysian Insight.

“We don’t want to be involved in such conflicts.”

Mohamad, who was named as defence minister last month, said if Malaysia were to get its military involved in any conflict, it would only be through the United Nations.

On April 14, the Malaysian army was involved in an exercise called “Gulf Shield 1” in Damman, Saudi Arabia.

Since 2015, Riyadh and nine Arab nations have been engaged in air strikes assisting the Yemeni government in its fight against Houthi rebels and those loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The Houthis – Shia Zaidi Muslims who comprise almost half of the Yemeni population – are working with Ali to topple the current Saudi-backed president, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

Saudi media has named Malaysia as one of the 34 countries working with Riyadh in “fighting terrorism”.

However, the Saudi-led coalition’s military attacks have been condemned by the UN as war crimes, after investigations revealed that most of the strikes in Yemen between March and October last year were carried out in civilian areas, killing 292 people, including children and women.

The UN has also warned other nations against aiding Riyadh.

Former defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein previously denied Malaysia’s involvement in the Saudi-led operations, saying army officers were sent to the Yemeni conflict zone to rescue Malaysian civilians.

Lawyers for Liberty executive director Eric Paulsen yesterday said “Malaysia has no business being involved in the war in Yemen”, and urged Mohamad to cease all military participation by Malaysia in the conflict zone.

He said the excuse that Malaysian troops are in Yemen to carry out humanitarian work is “absurd”.

“If it is indeed true that our troops were deployed to assist in evacuation efforts, then the work should have been done by now, and there is no need to remain deployed for over three years.” – June 20, 2018.

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Comments

  • Najib and Hishamuddin lied to the people of Malaysia. Just ask our army veterans why our soldiers are in the Gulf Shield campaign. It's Muslims killing Muslims and Malaysia is used by the Saudis to show "Islamic solidarity" against Iran. We do not want to be part of their bloody feud. Is this why Najib got the "donation"?

    Posted 5 years ago by Da Hi · Reply

  • What the heck are we doing there? Pull our troops out!!

    Posted 5 years ago by Kenneth Tan · Reply

  • Religious conflicts between nations is completely off limit to our armed forces n we will only be involved under the auspices of the United Nation .Our armed forces primary objective is to protect our own country from aggressors n social security for our rakyat. we should not meddle with the internal affairs of a foreign country

    Posted 5 years ago by Lee Thian Siong · Reply

  • The most sensible move.
    in addition to that Malaysia should condemn the actions of the Gulf state interfering in Yemeni internal affairs.

    Posted 5 years ago by Edwin Pereira · Reply

  • Saudi media has named Malaysia as one of the 34 countries working with Riyadh in “fighting terrorism”.
    --------------------------------

    One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. So, who is the terrorist? We have no business getting involved. Please bring our men home as soon as possible.

    Posted 5 years ago by Henry Mancini Jr · Reply

  • Good one. !!! Make sure that Saudi Arabia is also awared that we are looking into their useless Princes role in the 1MDB debacles. They are lying thru their gritted teeth on supporting the claim of 2.6B in exchange for the Malaysian troops aids to kill fellow Muslims. Rogue country collabrating with our ex rogue PM.

    Posted 5 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

  • Right move by the Defence Minister get our people home and cut expenses

    Posted 5 years ago by Fuad Dass Bin Abdullah · Reply

  • Guys, we have problem defending Sabah waters from the pirates and yet we go allllll the way to defend YEMEN??? We have leaks along our Nothern borders with illegals sneeking into the country, cannot defend Sabah waters and wosrt case money flowing out of the country and yet we send our line of defence to defend Yemen.......Mat Sabu please save our troops from being killed and dying a non-halal death !

    Posted 5 years ago by Crishan Veera · Reply

    • Hey friend!!! wrong statement lah. Not defending Yemen but supporting SA to fight against Houthis of Yemen. Aiyoo yoo !!! Your happy hours was a bit early lah!!!

      Posted 5 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

  • Malaysia should pull out its armed forces from the conflict lest it gets caught up in a geopolitical conflict which would only favor Saudi's selfish interests. This fight has nothing to do with religion. It's just a pretext for Saudi Arabia to extend its hegemony over the Middle East, punishing and bullying countries like Qatar. and Iran

    Posted 5 years ago by Anthony Long · Reply