6
Shares
Pinterest Google+

Click here for a comprehensive introduction to the conflict in Yemen.  

In what was a shaky and busy year for Britain with its choice of leaving the EU and its hectic period of transition, the MP Angus Robertson has not wasted any time to fire shots at both PM Theresa May and her predecessor David Cameron for Britain’s involvement in the Yemen war.

In an address to the PM in the House of Commons, he said that “Saudi air forces [are] bombing Yemen, flying planes that are made in Britain, by pilots that are trained in Britain… dropping missiles that are made in Britain, provoking MPs from both Labour and Conservative parties to stand up in agreement with Robertson. Renowned former MP George Galloway has also led the denunciations of British involvement in the war. The PM responded by saying that Saudi Arabia is close allies with Britain and that the government needs to take a wider look at what is happening there before taking any action.

First and foremost, beyond assessments of the conflict as a proxy war between the Saudis and the Iranians, the conflict in Yemen is a domestic conflict over resources and lands driven by local protests and competition for power and inclusion. The Houthis and Saleh seek a return to post-2011 Yemen, so that the former can have a bigger say in national affairs and the latter can regain power. Thomas Juneau, a renowned political scientist, summed it up well: “The Houthis want in, Saleh wants back in, and members of the Hadi-aligned bloc want to keep them out”.

yemen article 2
Moreover, famine and other environmental consequences have caused the capital of Sana’a to be close to being one of the first in the world to run out of water. There have been more than 10,000 deaths and around 40,000 injured, a UN report suggests, with many women and children among the dead. The war has also left 18 million people in need of some kind of humanitarian assistance. The BBC reports that around 7 million people do not know where their next meal will come from. Malnutrition, grave epidemics and infant mortality rate have increased at an alarming rate.

The Sponsors of War:

1. Saudi Arabia and The Coalition

Many Yemenis actually believe that America and its ally Britain are to blame for the current conflict, simply because the two countries are associated with Saudi actions since the Obama administration was directly involved in the bombardment of Yemen. The monarchy in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, formed a coalition to counter Iran’s efforts. This coalition includes the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan and Egypt, and they immediately began airstrikes on Yemeni territory. The US and UK governments are also members of the coalition by proxy, and have provided warplanes and munitions to the Saudis. They have also provided strong logistical backing by air-fueling, pinpointing targets and locations to hit. It is reported by The Guardian that around $115 billion worth of weapons were offered to the Saudis since Obama assumed office in 2008. It is also reported that Britain sold around £3.3 billion worth of weapons to the Saudis in just the first year of the conflict. Nasser Elarabyee, founder of local news website “Yemen Now” and an inhabitant of Sana’a, tweeted that “Obama has been killing Yemenis with Saudi hands”.

It is also evident that the war in Yemen is the price of the Iran Deal which has angered Saudis, now America is compensating the Kingdom by providing them with logistical support as well as weapons. As renowned US Senator Chris Murphy stated, “[Houthi rebel armies] poses no existential threat to the US”. He also offered a solution by stating during a CNN interview that “Congress can step in and say enough is enough… [and] stop this latest round of arms sales to go forward”, but to no avail it would seem, as a new billion-dollar deal was approved in September 2016.

The latest Saudi airstrike to hit Sana’a was on 8 October last year during a funeral, killing more than 140 Yemenis and injuring 600. Sarah Leah Whitson, from Human Rights Watch, stated that the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda have also bombed funerals, leaving us questioning whom the real extremists are.

5 days into office, President Trump approved a commando raid propositioned by his new Chief of Staff and Secretary of Defense, Reince Priebus and James Mattis respectively, and planned by the Pentagon, on a small but heavily guarded home of a senior Al Qaeda collaborator in a village in central Yemen. 14 Al Qaeda militants died, as well as 30 innocent civilians including women and children and 1 Navy SEAL. This was a clear message to the international community, that the US is monitoring events in Yemen and still financing Saudi military intervention in one of the poorest countries in the world, which is in more need of aid than weaponry. Mr. Trump clearly wants to combat the Islamic jihadists from Al Qaeda and ISIS but is also transferring his latest diplomatic tensions with Iran on Yemeni grounds.

Criticism has increased, questioning why the US criticises Russian bombardment of innocent civilians in Syria, while the US is aiding and abetting the Saudi Kingdom in doing the same in Yemen. It is clearly time for the West to abandon its embarrassing alliance with Saudi Arabia because American integrity is being questioned and its denunciations of the Syrian carnage are illegitimate when it finds itself involved in another massacre in the Middle East. It is obvious that America is morally and financially involved in the Yemeni conflict and it might be legally implicated in war crimes against humanity. Britain and America consider Saudi Arabia an important ally in the fight against terrorism, while global critics say that the Kingdom is a “woeful ally against jihadism. It inflames global extremism through its export of intolerant Wahabi doctrines” quoting The Economist.

It looks as if Trump’s public image as the “anti-establishment candidate”, the candidate who refuted the invasion of Iraq and the financing of state and non-state actors, does not seem to be very much anti-establishment after all.

2. Iran and Non-State Actors

Contrary to what is broadly accepted, the conflict in Yemen is not solely a question of sectarian conflict, because that is not how the Iranian government’s foreign policy is designed towards non-state actors.

Diverging from what mass media implies, Iran does not align itself with state or non-state actors on the strict condition that they adhere to Shi’a Islam. To garner Iranian support, actors must oppose the “infidels” (the US, Israel, as well as their Arab allies). These actors do not necessarily need to be Shi’a and the best examples are Iran’s old partnerships with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two extremist Sunni Palestinian groups opposing Israel. The Taliban, an extremist Sunni group in Afghanistan, which is an enemy of America, has also received aid from Iran.

Houthis, also part of a Shia’ sect known as Zaydi Muslims, have also enjoyed Persian support, receiving rifles, grenade launchers and cash in the millions of dollars. As Juneau reports, “The Houthis’ takeover of Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, in September 2014 prompted Iran to increase its support. It now appears that small numbers — perhaps dozens — of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officers, with assistance from Lebanese Hezbollah, have set up a train and equip program for the Houthis. There have also been reports of intensifying shipping activity between Iran and Yemen.”

There is no doubt that the Islamic Republic’s modest investment in supporting Houthis is solely directed towards the fact that this non-state actor, is challenging the status quo in the Middle East which is dominated by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Naturally, Iran wants to extend its dominance in the region by arming its partners, pressuring its rivals, thus retaliating against American interests and their benefiting allies. There is a clear line between the Saudi-led coalition, financed by Britain and the US who support current President Hadi, and the Houthi armed group financed by Iran and seeking the return of former President Saleh.

Again, the conflict cannot be simplistically summed up as a Sunni/Shia confrontation, as partnerships in politics are formed when interests align, and wars launched when interests collide. This also explains the close relationship between Iran and the Syrian government, as the latter is defying the status quo of Western dominance in the Middle East by fighting off rebels financed by the US, Britain and the EU.

yemen article
Names to Remember

If there are characters in Yemen that one can point fingers at, they would be Saleh and Hadi, the deposed and fugitive presidents, who have ticked every box in fitting into the Machiavellian model in being deceitful and in choosing war over peace in a bid to secure their interests and accommodate their ambitions for power. In doing so, both men have neglected the wellbeing of Yemen and its people. Saleh, who was supported by Saudi Arabia while in power, now seeks to regain power by ordering his loyalists to join the Houthi cause and topple the fugitive President Hadi (his former vice president) who today sits in acceptance of the bombardment of Yemenis and has done so for the last 2 years.

This is a war millions do not even know exist and, even more so, they do not know their governments are implicated in. The focus of mass media today which is solely directed towards President Trump is another miscalculated failure for us. The Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris were caused by the Islamic State in Yemen. It’s attacks like these that have sparked fear into the ballot. And this fear is the same that the Donald advocated to make himself heard.

The reticence of mass media on the forgotten state of Yemen leads to the controversy of American politics denouncing the Syrian carnage when it is leading the same proxy war in Yemen. Not to mention the Saudi and Iranian duet, who are contributing to the destruction of yet another Arab state due to their fight for Middle-Eastern hegemony. Quoting the intellectual giant Noam Chomsky: “The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfil this role requires systematic propaganda”. In Yemen’s case, propaganda is substituted by the ominous silence of the media.

Author

Previous post

Zamyatin, Huxley and Orwell: troubling similarities

Next post

Yemen's Civil War: what you should know