TEHRAN - Recent remarks by the new Malaysian Defense Minister Mohammad Sabo on the Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) withdrawal from the offensive of the Saudi-led coalition are highly debatable. “Malaysia has never been involved in the attack on Yemen, which is also a Muslim country.

Nevertheless, the ATM presence in Saudi Arabia has indirectly involved Malaysia in the Middle East conflict. If Malaysian troops are to be involved in such attacks, they should be solely through the United Nations,” he said in a statement.

He added that the Malaysian government has been actively involved in the Non-Aligned Movement and even chaired it once.

Head of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi said that other countries will leave the Saudi-led coalition after Malaysia. “There are strong signs that others states will get out of the Saudi-led coalition after Malaysia,” said al-Houthi on his Twitter account in a reaction to remarks of the Malaysian Defense Minister, Mohammed Sabo, that his country is assessing the withdrawal of its troops stationed in Saudi Arabia as part of the coalition.

Al-Houthi descried the Malaysian minister’s statement as positive, saying that “it is in the interest of the Malaysian people and army.”
“We appreciate these positions and we ask other countries to withdraw from the coalition of Saudi Arabia and not participate in the crime of killing and blocking Yemen. Malaysia is a country that is struggling to stay in the coalition with the loss of their resources without respect or withdrawal from the coalition” he added.

The Malaysian stance comes within a month of removal of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak from his position with corruption charges. Malaysia in its new era seems to be trying to compensate some of its mistakes toward the Middle East, including the coalition membership with Saudi Arabia; an action that is very likely to be followed by other countries

The new defense minister's remarks clearly show that the presence of Muslim or Arab countries in the offensive of the Saudi aggression against a Muslim and Arab nation is an act that has undermined the interests of the Arab and Islamic nations, and that it does not unite these countries but weakens them. Other members of the coalition have yet to come to realize the consequences of this brutal aggression in one of the poorest countries in the world. The four years of Saudi Arabia's assault in Yemen, which began March 25, has brought nothing but devastation and destruction in Yemen along with massacres of thousands of men, women and children. Even the recent military strike of the coalition into Al Hudaydah province to seize one of the most important humanitarian relief routes, the Bandar Al Hudaydah, has had no achievements other than rise in death toll.

Through the media, the Saudi coalition has been trying to demonstrate that they have progressed in the Yemen and managed to control Al Hudayda airport, however, the release of the videos and images shows otherwise. This is a clear proof that the Yemeni Resistance Forces will never retreat and the war in Yemen will be a war of attrition for Saudi Arabia.

After the Malaysian Defense Minister’ statement, Sudanese authorities said they will continue to play a role in the coalition to encourage Riyadh, but the protests of Sudanese politicians against the participation of their country in the Saudi coalition shows that sooner or later Khartoum will leave this coalition too. In recent days, Sudanese troops have suffered losses in the course of the conflict with the Yemeni Resistance Forces. The coalition chiefs have specifically targeted Sudanese troops for the Al Hudaydah Front, where Sudanese commander Muhammad Hamdan Hamidati has officially acknowledged that so far dozens of Sudanese troops, several senior officers have been killed in clashes.

The increase of death toll without making a definite achievement for Sudan has caused parliamentarians to voice their protest against Sudan's continuing presence in the Saudi coalition. As Sudanese parliamentarian Hassan Othman Rizq and Abdul Rahman al-Fadhil, two Sudanese representatives, have announced that Khartoum should withdraw from the coalition because of the casualties of their country's military in Yemen, because there is no indication that this military invasion will come to a halt in Yemen. The Yemeni war has, too, put Sudan at risk, as the Yemenis are after targeting Khartoum with ballistic missiles, however, Sudan lacks a powerful defense system.

Saudi Arabia's hostile policies toward different countries seem to have left Riyadh's friends behind. Qatar's stance against Saudi’s policy in the region, while facing blockade by the Arab states of the Persian Gulf region, led by Riyadh, has raised Morocco's anger on Saudi Arabia's move to vote against the country to host the World Cup in 2026, calling Riyadh traitor. Senegal, Chad and Sudan are too ‘turning their back’ on Saudi Arabia.

In a nutshell, the so-called kangaroo Saudi-led coalition against Yemen is slowly breaking down, the rift among the coalition members is getting wider over time, all leading to Riyadh’s failure in Yemen.