Yemen War: Four Years on

The Arab-Saudi military-led war on Yemen entered its fourth year. Since 27 March 2015, the capital of Sana’a and a host of other Yemeni cities have been targets of daily bombing of Saudi fighter jets. Three years later, the war did not achieve any achievements for the people, it was massive human taxes and displacement and reduced the infrastructure of the country.

Why did Riyadh launch the war?

The Yemen crisis is the oldest and most active problem in West Asia, with its roots deeply rooted in ethnic and sectarian conflicts that are a legacy of the past. However, there is a consensus that the Saudi military intervention in the country affected by the crisis under the trick of returning the office to the resigning President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was tantamount to entering a new critical phase.

The Saudi rulers stressed that their bombing and land campaign later, dubbed “a decisive storm,” was supposed to be reinstated in Sanaa President Hadi, who resigned shortly before the war deliberately and then fled the country to neighboring Saudi Arabia . But the truth is that the forces of brutal military action have gone beyond the will to re-establish Hadi as head of state. Instead, the intervention was driven by regional developments and Yemen’s position on regional equations.

The pessimistic Saudi view of Shiites, especially the Ismaili and Zaydid communities living in parts of Yemen bordering southern Saudi Arabia, has always provoked sharp hatred for the rulers of Riyadh and their fear of gaining power in the country. The oil-rich kingdom has provided a range of support to Yemen’s Takfiri groups such as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) as well as the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood movement in an attempt to contain the Shiites under control. Although it should be borne in mind that all Yemeni Sunni factions do not support Riyadh. On the contrary, some, like socialists and nationalists, support the revolutionary Ansar Allah movement, the Saudi party finds an enemy.

Yemen is located near the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The country overlooks the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a feature that gives the Arab nation specific geopolitical weight. The strait is linked to Yemen from both sides: the north-west and the north-east. The importance of the international water portal is doubling because it plays the role of transit of the maritime energy trade. The Strait comes fourth in facilitating the transit of global energy after the Straits of Hormuz and Strait of Malacca and the Suez Canal. The figures show that in 2013, about 3.8 million barrels of oil per day passed through the Gulf of Aden and Bab al-Mandib. Any disruption to the Strait’s operation will cause a serious energy shock worldwide, especially for Europe, which in the last few years has relied heavily on Saudi oil as a result of sanctions on Iran, another major regional oil producer.

Another factor that should be taken into consideration as a teacher of Yemeni importance in the eyes of the Saudis: differences within the body of the ruling Saudi structure. After the death of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, Arab monarchy became the scene of the succession crisis, whose fires touched the highest levels of government. The strong power struggle on the one hand and the resulting instability have pushed the country to the brink of a real crisis. A series of recent events, from the crackdown on the royal family and businessmen to the modification of key military and political positions that were the mastermind behind the ambitious young prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman, bear all the signs of a home crisis. Finding a meeting of domestic energy raging, Saudi family members sought to divert public attention from internal disputes to an external threat to cover up internal fighting. There was at least an urgent need to fill popular minds at least in the short term. The Yemeni crisis allowed the Saudis to focus on war instead of fighting domestic power.

The war in Yemen caused a humanitarian crisis

Reports say that since the start of military action, tens of thousands of Yemeni civilians have lost their lives. The Yemeni Human Rights Ministry issued a statement on Sunday saying the Saudi-led coalition had killed more than 38,500 people

Large numbers of victims are only a direct result of the war. The indirect effects of war, such as reduced access to medical services, basic health care, famine, famine, malnutrition, and other stunning infrastructure losses, are enormous.

The statement also pointed out that the Saudi military aggression has indirectly caused the death of 296,834 people.

More than 247,000 children lost their lives due to acute malnutrition, and 17,608 civilians died because of the inability to travel abroad for medical treatment.

The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that about 3 million Yemenis have been displaced. Of this huge number, about 280,000 crossed the sea into such African states as Djibouti and even Somalia in the quest for immunity against the coalition’s daily bombings.

Moreover, those not displaced are grappling with difficulty accessing medical services. The World Health Organization in its latest report announced that of 27 million Yemeni population, 18.8 million are in urgent food aid needs. And 14.8 million urgently require medical and health services.

And growing poor help conditions, the airstrikes, and blockade imposed on a major part of Yemen compound the situation for the aid agencies operating there.

Saudi Arabia-UAE disputes resurface as the war unfolds

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the Arab parties participating in the Saudi-led alliance. But the small Arab state at the beginning had no interest in joining the anti-Yemeni campaign.

Reports suggest that despite the fact that the UAE is the second largest participant in the war with its 30 fighter jets and a large number of ground troops, it does not want Riyadh to come out as a winner. David Hearst, a West Asia-based British correspondent, in his article published by the Middle East Eye news portal highlighted the Riyadh-Abu Dhabi differences, asserting that the two’s rivalry was majorly over who should lead the Sunni Arab world.

Hearst continued that the Emirati leaders want to set up roadblocks ahead of Saudi-sponsored power transition in Yemen. The major focus, he added, was to see the government of Hadi, which includes ministers from the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Al-Islah party, collapsing in a bid to replace the Saudi-recognized president with Ahmad Ali Saleh, the son of the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh who once led the Presidential Guard and served also as Yemen ambassador to Abu Dhabi.

Reports say that the UAE leaders before the war notified the former president and his son of when the Operation Decisive Storm will be launched. Sources also hold that Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of the UAE, in advance informed Ali Abdullah Saleh of an attack details, a move that helped him relocate to survive the air raids that were to strike his house.