The conflict between Houthis and President Hadi's forces in Yemen — seen as regional power struggle between ‘Shia’ Iran and ‘Sunni’ Saudi Arabia — has been aggraved by coalition airstrikes led by the Saudis
While the West Asian and North African region is grappling with unabated violence, the Saudi-led onslaught Operation Decisive Storm against the Houthi movement has escalated the conflict in the region. The violent struggle between the Houthis and the President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s forces is widely seen as part of a regional power struggle between Shia-ruled Iran and Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, which shares a long border with Yemen.
The Saudi military intervention has created a huge humanitarian crisis in Yemen, which is already marred by terrorism and instability. It is a sheer irony that Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy itself, has started a military campaign on the pretext of “saving democracy” in Yemen, while the possibilities of reconciliation in the war-torn State are dim. Gulf Arab states have accused Iran of backing the Houthis, financially and militarily, even though Iran has denied this, and they are themselves backers of President Hadi. The Saudis have been successfully exaggerating Iran’s role in the Houthi movement in the former Marxist Arab country.
The recent swarming of Houthi supporters into the Yemeni capital is more linked to their political, social and economic issues they are facing in their country. But the airstrikes led by the undeclared leader of the Sunni world on Shia rebels in Yemen has widened the trust deficit, at least perceived, between Shias and Sunnis of the Arab world. Yemen started witnessing political transition in September 2014, when Houthi fighters captured Sanaa, toppling the widely unpopular government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. It later triggered a contest between two regional heavyweights — Iran and Saudi Arabia. Politically, it has nothing to do with the geopolitical rivalry between the two. But Saudi Arabia considers the Houthis as Iranian proxies, a stance that pushes them closer to Tehran. But traditionally Yemen does not lie within the ambit of the so-called and flawed notion of Shia Crescent.
It is important to understand the whole conflict in the background of the Shia-Sunni dichotomy. While it has nothing to do with contradictory sectarian beliefs, the fact that Houthis are Zaydi Shias, Saudis have been able to convince the superpowers about Iran’s tacit understating with the rebels in Yemen. However, in reality Houthis are closer to the Sunni Shafi’i School of Jurisprudence. Unequal access to power and resources, rising unemployment rate, high food prices and limited social services have trigged civil riots in Yemen. At least 10 million people of the country are food insecure.
Houthi movement has its genesis in the decade-old struggle led by the Ansar Allah group for political, social and economic rights in the country. Way back in 2004, this movement was violently repressed and most of their cadre, including its leader Hussein Badruddin al-Houthi — an elder brother of the present leader in a military in Sa’ada, the Houthis’ bastion in Yemen — were killed. But after 2003, when the “fear psychosis” about Shia Crescent was spread by Arab monarchies, the plight of the Houthis reached a new high with their tagging as Iranian “proxies”.
The roots of instability and large-scale displacement caused by weak governance and poor infrastructure are three decades old. Before unification in 1990, the present Republic of Yemen was divided into Yemen Arab Republic in the north, and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen in the south. But because those in the south — the erstwhile People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen — felt discriminated against in political and economic spheres, it led to a civil war in 1994.
The struggle in Yemen has led to a split in loyalties of the security forces. While some are backing Hadi, others are supporting the Houthis and Hadi’s predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is still politically influential. Giving the struggle more sectarian colour is the support to Hadi by Popular Resistance Committees, predominantly comprising Sunnis.
However, the interesting point to note is that both President Hadi and the Houthis are opposed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has staged numerous deadly attacks from its strongholds in the south and south-east. It is thus, very confusing who is fighting whom and for what. But as Yemen sits on the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, a narrow waterway linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden through which much of the world’s oil shipments pass, the global interest in the Yemen crisis is natural.
However the undue interest shown by Saudi Arabia — which is playing a big brother role in the Islamic world and which had never fired a single shot against or raised a genuine voice in favour of Palestinians — in Yemen has raised many eyebrows. Can the absolute monarchy, which does not even allow setting up of a political party, help save a battered democracyIJ The answer lies in the aggravating crisis in Yemen where human rights violations are at an all-time high.
(The writer is a freelance Journalist with special interest in West Asian politics)