Rayhan Ahmad Topader :
Yemen’s war is far more complex than a Saudi-Iranian, Sunni-Shia conflict. Yemen was ruled for a millennium by Zaydi Shia imams until 1962, and the Houthis were founded as a Zaydi Shia revivalist movement. However, the Houthis have not called for restoring the imamate in Yemen, and religious grievances have not been a major factor in the war. Rather, the Houthis’ demands have been primarily economic and political in nature. In 2015, Saudi Arabia formed a coalition of Arab states to defeat the Houthis in Yemen. The coalition includes Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan and Senegal. Several of these countries have sent troops to fight on the ground in Yemen, while others have only carried out air attacks. The US government regularly launches air attacks on al-Qaeda and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant There targets in Yemen, and recently admitted to having deployed a small number of troops on the ground. The US, along with other western powers such as the UK and France, has also supplied the Saudi-led coalition with weapons and intelligence. Iran has denied arming the Houthi rebels, but the US military said it intercepted arms shipments from Iran to Yemen this March, claiming it was the third time in two months that this had occurred. Iranian officials have also suggested they may send military advisers to support the Houthis.
Events in Yemen are viewed as part of Saudi Arabia’s ‘cold war’ with Iran. Saudi Arabia shares a long, porous border with Yemen, and it fears what it sees as Iranian expansionism through its support for Shia armed groups. Commentators in the Arab Gulf States often claim that Iran now controls four Arab capitals: Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa. In Syria, Saudi-backed rebels are fighting against Bashar al-Assad’s government, which is supported by Iran. Lebanon is another arena of conflict: Iran sponsors Hezbollah, the Shia militia and political movement, while Saudi Arabia supports the predominantly Sunni Future Movement. Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran were ratcheted up even further earlier this year, when Saudi Arabia executed Shia Muslim leader Nimr al-Nimr and Iranian protesters attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran. In 2013, Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference was launched, and was tasked with writing a new constitution and creating a federal political system. But the Houthis withdrew from the process because it left Yemen’s transitional government in place. Further inflaming matters was the fact that two Houthi representatives were assassinated during the conference’s proceedings. The government’s decision to lift fuel subsidies in July 2014 angered the Yemeni public and sparked massive street protests by Houthi supporters and others, who demanded that the government step down.
The US is to stop refuelling Saudi-led coalition aircraft operating in Yemen as pressure mounts on the warring parties to end hostilities in the more than three-year war.
Washington’s support for the coalition has faced rising criticism from US lawmakers as the Saudi-led alliance has been blamed for the deaths of thousands of civilians in air strikes and exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, where the UN says 14m people are at risk of famine. Scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s conduct of the war has also increased after Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul last month. the veteran journalist’s death has put a spotlight on the policies of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto leader. Riyadh said that it requested the cessation as it had increased its “capability to independently conduct in-flight refuelling in Yemen”. Jim Mattis, the US defence secretary, said the US would continue working with the coalition and Yemen to minimise civilian casualties and expand urgent humanitarian efforts throughout the country. Mr Mattis said that the US and the coalition were planning to “collaborate on building up legitimate Yemeni forces to defend the Yemeni people and contribute to counter al-Qaeda and Isis efforts in Yemen and the region.
While not directly involved in the conflict, both the US and UK have supported the Saudi-led coalition and sold billions of dollars of arms to the Arab alliance. Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, is the west’s most important Arab partner and considered crucial to the Trump administration’s efforts to counter Iran’s influence in the Middle East. The coalition was formed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in March 2015 after the Houthis seized Sana’a, the capital. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi insist they are backing Yemen’s legitimate government and accuse Iran of supplying arms to the rebels, including missiles fired at Saudi cities, as the conflict has morphed into a proxy war. A report by a UN panel of experts said last month that individuals in the Saudi-led coalition have been responsible for violations in the conflict that may amount to war crimes, including air strikes on civilian targets, torture and rape. It made similar accusations against the Houthis, a battle-hardened Islamic movement that controls the country’s populous north.
The report said that at least 6,475 civilians, including hundreds of children, were killed between March 2015 and June 2018, most of them by coalition air strikes. It added that the real casualty figure was likely to be significantly higher. The conflict has triggered what aid groups describe as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with more than two-thirds of the 28m population dependent on aid.
Yemen has long been home to an al-Qaeda franchise, regarded as one of the most dangerous branches of the organisation. Yet the armed group was able to expand its footprint in Yemen amid the chaos following the ousting of Saleh in 2011, taking control of territory in southern Yemen. Since the start of the war last year, al-Qaeda has launched several attacks on Houthi rebels, whom it views as infidels.In 2015, al-Qaeda took over Mukalla, a provincial capital and the fifth-largest city in Yemen. However, in April 2016, 2,000 Yemeni and Emirati troops launched a ground raid on Mukalla and drove al-Qaeda from the city. ISIL announced the formation of a wilaya, or state, in Yemen in December 2014 In March 2015, it claimed its first attack in Yemen: suicide bombings in two Sanaa mosques used by Zaydi Shia Muslims, which killed more than 140 people. Across Yemen, aid organisations are facing major obstacles to helping Yemenis in need of food, medicine, and other essentials. In January 2016, a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders was hit by a rocket, killing four people. A bombing carried out by the Saudi-led coalition injured at least six people at a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in October 2015.After Washington urged the warring parties to hold talks, the Saudi-led coalition relaunched an offensive on Hodeida, a vital port that is used to import about 70 per cent of the country’s imports. Aid groups have warned that the military operation risks creating a humanitarian disaster.
