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THE YEMENs Crisis between Regional and Global Players

(Tahir Yousaf)
Yemen is one of the oldest civilizations in the Near East. Because of its fertile
lands, adequate rainfall and sustainable and stable population it is known as the
Fortune of the Near East. The 2011 Yemeni revolution followed other Arab
Spring mass protests in early 2011. Those protests were initially against
unemployment, corruption and economic conditions but later got the power
when government gave proposal to modify the constitution in which President
Salihs son could inherit the presidency.
Yemen has always had an unstable form of government. But ever since the start
of Arab Spring, the situation became more violent than ever before. The origins
of the current crisis go back in 2011 when a massive protest movement in the
capital of Sanaa demanded an end to the countrys political elite. Like more Arab
Spring uprisings, it started with good intentions to reform to enforce law to root
out corruption and like most Arab Spring uprisings of the exact opposite
unfolded. When Yemeni citizens took to the streets, a dispute ignited between
the Former President Ali Abdullah Salih and General Ali Mohsin Al-Ahmar. To be
more exact there was already a long dispute between the two. Basically Salih
wanted to appoint his son Ahmad Ali Salih as the Supreme Military Leader in the
country at the cost of Al-Ahmar. So this dispute goes back years and years. But
the 2011 uprising marked a point of no return. Both factions mobilized their
forces and that led to an internal war within the government of Yemen. The
countrys military was divided in two factions and over time this division crippled
the effectiveness of the military. At the backdrop of the military intrigue, the AlHouthi movement led by Abdul Malik Al-Houthi and his tribesmen spread
throughout the tribal regions of the country especially in the Shia majority
regions in the North. The divided Yemeni Military perceived the Al-Houthi
rebellions as a nuisance and for the most part just ignored it. Since both Iran and
Saudi Arabia didnt want to open or engage each other in a military campaign,
they used proxy groups and the third countries as platform for conflict. So what
happened next, Iran deployed naval vessels in the Gulf of Aden under the pretext
of combating piracy but in reality it was the support of Al-Houthi movement with
weapons, financial aid and military advisers. As a response, Saudi Arabia started
air strikes against the Al-Houdi movement near the border of the country.
The country was on the brink of an all-out civil war. So what happened next was
the Saudi Arabia under the pretext of Gulf Cooperation Council stepped in and
mediated agreements between the two factions. Now Saudi Arabia wasnt
concerned about Yemen as much as it was concerned about the spread of proIranian proxies. So the Saudis arranged an agreement that would ensure the
resignation of president Salih from office but at the last minute Salih refused to
sign the agreement. Those led to renew the protests throughout the country and
surely after in June 2011 multiple see fore charges were ignited in a mosque with
the president and major members of his government were praying. Four of his
bodyguards died and Salih suffered from burns on about 40% of his body but he

survived. Due to Salihs severe injuries, vice president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi was
appointed acting president. Several months later in November 2011, Salih signed the Saudi
agreement which he had previously refused to do so. The agreement was that the president
Salih was to step down in favour of the vice president. In early 2012, Hadi assumed the office of
the presidency of Yemen and by the end of the year he relieved the general Al-Ahmer from his
military position. President Hadi was immediately engaged in his attempt to stabilize the country
and restore order. He started to reorganize the military and the government. But in doing so, it
created a lot of confusions and anarchy. By this time the Shia based Al-Houdi tribe uprising had
spread and transformed itself in a unified tribal militia under the leadership of Abdul Malik AlHouthi. This was mostly accomplished by the support of Iranian weapons and military advisers.
But at the same time the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took advantage of the anarchy that
ran throughout the country and intensified their operations. Within a short span of time the AlQaeda factions controlled vast territories in the south of the country. Al-Houthi rebels controlled
the territories in north of the country, whilst Al-Qaeda controlled the territory in South of the
country and president Hadis efforts to reorganize the military led to the dispute within the armed
forces under resumption of an internal political conflict. President Hadi realizing how divided the
country was along sectarian and political lines opted for a new system. The idea was to
reorganize the country into a federal government of six provinces and thus ensuring a balance of
power among the various factions. But in a resource and capital poor country as Yemen, every
tribe argued for greater autonomy and for more resources and revenue. The Al-Houdi movement
they did not want to become just one of the six provinces since they represented such a large
portion of the Yemeni society. Abdul Malik argued that his faction was entitled to more power
within the new governmental system. So in July 2014, the Al-Houdi rebels stepped up their
military campaign against the government. Since the Yemeni military was divided and stretched
thinly throughout the country and fighting Al-Qaeda in the south, there was nothing to stop AlHouthis from sieging the capital. That is exactly what happened a month later in August 2014.
President Hadi tried to delay the siege by transferring his limited military to the capital and thus
abandoning the southern country side to the Al-Qaeda troops. The absence of the military
benefitted Al-Qaeda that made vast territorial gains in Southern Yemen in a very short span of
time. On the other hand, the rebels forced the Yemeni government to engage in rearranging
broken peace talks. In November 2014 from the peace talks, the rebels movement gained a
greater role within the government and even greater local autonomy.
Despite the agreement, President Hadi was still determined to prevent the rise of a single
dominating faction within the new federal system and thus put forth the countrys chief of staff
Ahmed bin Mubarak as a candidate for Prime Minister. The Al-Houdi faction
rejected the candidacy of Mubarak due to his close links to the president. So in
January 2015 Mubarak was kidnapped and Al-Houdi rebels opposed the new
charter of the constitution and wanted a man of their choosing to assume the
office of prime minister. Later that month president Hadi and his cabinet finally
gave up and resigned. The Al-Houdi rebels stormed the presidential palace and
placed former president Hadi under house arrest. But in the month of February
2015, Hadi escaped to the port town of Aden in the south of the country and
from there fled to Saudi Arabia.

Right now the situation with Yemen and the Al-Houthi somewhat resembles the
situation with Lebanon and Hezbollah. Basically its a pro-Iranian faction that
dominates or divided a federalized government alarmed by the similarities with
Lebanon and Hezbollah. Saudi Arabia in support of Hadi launched Operation
Decisive Storm in which Saudi government aims to cripple the Al-Houdi rebellion

and limit any kind of Iranian influence in the Arabian Peninsula. The purpose
behind the airstrikes is not to destroy the rebels. The movement has already too
much influence in the country. Rather the airstrikes are meant to force Abdul
Malik to return to the peace talks and make certain political measures in the
balance of power sharing within the new federal system. But the longer the
airstrikes continue and the more diplomatic isolated the rebels get, the stronger
the relations get between the Al-Houthis and Iran. At the same time, the longer
the airstrikes continue the stronger and more influential Al-Qaeda gets in the
country. In many ways it is Syria all over. So what started out was as a family
dispute changed into a political conflict for powers among the elite of the country
which in the long turn divided the military and ensured the rise of Al-Qaeda in
the south and Al-Houthi in the North. As the years went by, the conflict grew into
a geopolitical front between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

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