News:

The decision by King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud to order airstrikes against Houthi rebels is the most important foreign policy decision undertaken by the House of Saud since revolutions swept across the Arab world four years ago.

Saudi media claim the kingdom has mobilised as many as 150,000 troops to its southern border primarily for the purpose of homeland defence, but also clearly to afford the kingdom the option to stage a ground war should it so choose. It is not possible to verify the troop numbers, which may not accurately reflect the actual size of the deployment.

Whether such a ground intervention will come is as yet unclear, but the kingdom has decisively played its hand against the Houthis, and in the process dramatically upped the stakes in a regional power struggle with Iran which now involves Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and Yemen. (Source: BBC NEWS, 27 March 2015)

Comment:

What exactly is Saudi aiming to do? Are they trying to force the Houthis to the negotiation table by massacres from the air? Air strikes alone achieve nothing apart from killing more innocent lives. A ground invasion would prove to be tough and protracted again, raising the question who is the actual ‘hand' behind this Saudi aggression? Are our enemies trying to embroil the Islamic Ummah in permanent state of war with each other?

We are One Ummah. We are not to be divided by tribes or clans or race or geography or indeed even by the permitted differences of opinion. For as long as we hold to the Shahadah and our lives revolve around it, we worship Allah alone and we follow the message of Muhammad (saw) and we are brothers to one another to the exclusion of all others. We should be wiser and not allow ourselves to become pawns and tools in the games of western nations vying for influence in the Yemen. Most importantly we should not move our armies nor turn our fire to our own Ummah to please the enemies of Allah and His Messenger.

Nor should our brothers in Yemen fall into that same trickery and deception of the Kuffar, who are not interested in further the interest and well being of Muslims, only their own self interests.

If indeed the Saudi has strength in its armies, then it should answer the call of our mothers and sisters in Palestine and Syria. Why do they not show their courage and fight in obedience to Allah (swt)? They should move now, without hesitation nor delay to liberate Palestine and rid the Ummah in Syria of the tyrant Bashar. Were the Ummah to unify, Turkey and Saudi could swiftly and easily conclude the massacres in Syria and free Al Quds.

Allah (swt) informs and commands us in Surah Al ‘Anbiya verse 92:

((إِنَّ هَذِهِ أُمَّتُكُمْ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً وَأَنَا رَبُّكُمْ فَاعْبُدُونِ))

"Verily, this brotherhood of yours is a single brotherhood, and I am your Lord and Cherisher: therefore serve Me (and no other)."

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Muhammad Hamzah