Malaysia’s right to review troops in Saudi Arabia, says Yemeni envoy

Muzliza Mustafa Muzliza Mustafa Updated 5 years ago · Published on 21 Jun 2018 8:55PM · 0 Comments

Yemenis inspecting the damage from Saudi-led airstrikes in a neighbourhood in Sana’a earlier this month. The Saudi media has named Malaysia as one of the 34 countries working with Riyadh in ‘fighting terrorism’ in the neighbouring country. – EPA pic, June 21, 2018.

THE Yemeni government has welcomed Malaysia’s decision to review its military presence in Saudi Arabia, saying that the new Pakatan Harapan administration has all the right to reassess the previous Barisan Nasional government’s policies.

“We understand that Malaysia wants to be friends with everyone. We respect that and we also know as a new government, it has all the right to review or reassess on the matters related to the previous administration,” said Yemen’s ambassador to Malaysia Dr Adel Mohamed BaHamid.

He was responding to the statement made by Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu yesterday that the review is needed as the troops were in Saudi Arabia to help evacuate Malaysians trapped in Yemen.

However, Malaysia is now caught indirectly in the Middle-East conflict, which started in 2015 when Riyadh and nine Arab nations engaged in air strikes assisting the Yemeni government in its fight against Houthi rebels and those loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

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

“Malaysia has never taken part in the operation against Yemen which is a fellow Islamic country,” said Mohamad.

“Nevertheless, the presence of the Malaysian armed forces in Saudi Arabia indirectly entraps Malaysia in the Middle-East conflict.”

The statement confirms the previous administration’s insistence that Malaysia is not involved in the Saudi-led coalition war against the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Adel also told The Malaysian Insight that he met Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad during Ramadan to convey congratulations from President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi over PH’s victory in the May 9 general election.

“I had the chance to brief the prime minister on the political situation in Yemen,” said Adel.

He also met Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and plans to meet Mohamad soon.

According to Adel, there are 17,000 Yemenis in Malaysia with 6,000 enrolled in various institutes of higher learning. The remaining had made Malaysia their second home and base to expand their businesses.

“There are quite a number of us involved in the food and beverages sector. We set up restaurants,” he said. – June 21, 2018.

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