ANKARA
"Yemen is in chaos, near collapse, with the economy breaking down," Khaldoon Mohammed, technical coordinator for the Acceleration of Aid Absorption and Support for Policy Reforms in Sana'a, told The Anadolu Agency.
Mohammed, who says that there is no longer electricity or running water in Sana'a, said that Saudi Arabia’s airstrikes Wednesday night had caused civilian casualties.
Mohammed claimed that he saw looting in Sana'a, where in some places order has virtually broken down.
Mohammed said that hospitals are full of casualties from the airstrikes. He also warned that the conflict would be a long one.
Political dialogue among the various factions in the conflict has effectively ceased, Mohammed warned.
"There is not one party who is willing to talk to the others," he said.
Conditions in the country are in chaos, Mohammed said, and Yemen is on the brink of economic collapse.
"Now that the ports and airports are nearly all closed, there is serious danger of famine -- which already exists in some parts of the country - for the rest of us," he said.
Mohammed did not believe that the international military alliance that is emerging to counter Houthi rebel advances in Yemen had significant chances of success.
"Foreign intervention is not going to work in this country,” he said. “The Houthis are already supported by Iran for the past eight years -- this helps make them impervious to dialogue. Now Yemen’s president, Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, is being supported by Saudi Arabia. Each side has already shown that they cannot work together and foreign intervention simply complicates the issues."
Yemen's President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi has appealed to Gulf countries for military assistance to stop the advance of the Shiite rebels. Countries from across the Middle East and Pakistan were said to be prepared to commit troops for a ground assault.
The U.S. is providing “logistical and intelligence support,” the White House confirmed on Wednesday.
The Houthis have pushed south to within 50 kilometers of the port city of Aden, a key location for the transport of oil.
President Hadi is reported to have left his palace in Aden, where he had been staying since he fled from the capital Sanaa last month.
"There is real danger of proxy war breaking out between Iran and Saudi Arabia," Mohammed said. "Each side has little to lose at this point."
He warned that human rights are not being respected by the Houthis and that a humanitarian crisis was already starting.
