Why Yemen
THE Saudiled military action in the Yemeni civil war is already in its 17th month. The Kingdom formed an alliance of Arab states to intervene militarily in Yemen on the request of the legitimate Yemeni government, which was overthrown by Houthi militia backed by Iran.
Despite being a minority, the Houthis wanted to impose their will on Yemen. In such a situation, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies were left with no choice but to take action to check the unrest in its backyard.
Unfortunately, the international media is trying to present only one side of the story. It is easy to criticize Saudi Arabia over civilian deaths and over the logic behind the very intervention. Those who are slamming the Kingdom and its allies have really no idea about the ground realities in Yemen. When the rebel Houthis marched into Sanaa nearly two years ago on Sept. 21, 2014, this raised alarm bells throughout Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Much of the population of the southern portion of Yemen was and still is completely against being dominated by the Houthis. And we the Saudis were horrified to have an Iranian ally controlling much of a country that is literally on our doorstep.
The peace talks in Kuwait this summer dragged on for weeks on end, with no agreement in sight because of the determination of the Houthis to remain in power with all of the heavy weaponry that they control. The government of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi did not accept this, and neither did Riyadh. But Iranian media and leftist media in the West like to constantly cast Hadi and his Saudi backers as the unreasonable and “blood thirsty” ones, and the Houthis as the “kind” liberators of the Yemeni people. But being allied with former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has proven he is ready to sell his soul to the highest bidder and the welfare of Yemenis be damned, has not been a sign of trustworthiness.
The international press and human rights organizations have constantly accused the Kingdom of targeting civilians in its bombing raids of the country. But this is unfair given that the Houthis often place military equipment and personnel in civilian hospitals and schools, turning them into military targets so as to later cry wolf and accuse the Saudis of being barbarians. The Saudi Ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Abdullah Al-Moallimi, admitted in October 2015 that coalition aircraft had accidentally bombed a Medicins Sans Frontier-run hospital in northern Yemen because the charity had given it the wrong coordinates. After this unfortunate incident, the coalition announced that all of its targets were being carefully reviewed before and after each bombing run to keep civilian casualties to an absolute minimum.
US Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent visit to Jeddah to discuss the war in Yemen and to try to put an end to it, was cause for hope that there is light after all at the end of tunnel. He said that he had agreed in talks with the GCC states and the United Nations to restart peace talks with the aim of forming a unity government in Yemen that would include the Houthis. Kerry said that the Houthis would have to stop shelling Saudi targets across the border, give up their heavy weapons, including missiles. He also said that the Saudi-led coalition would have to stop its bombing runs in Yemen.
To the outside observer this seems perfectly sensible and doable. But Yemenis are unfortunately deeply divided, and the Iranians have emboldened the Houthis by giving them diplo-
matic and military support. According to Dr. Shaul Shay, an Israeli historian and former deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council, the Zilzal-3 missiles that the Houthis have been launching at the Kingdom were supplied by the Iranians. On Aug. 16 such a missile launched by Yemeni militias killed seven civilians in Najran. “Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) has said that missiles made in Iran were recently used in Yemen by Houthi militias in cross-border attacks against Saudi Arabia,” wrote Shay on the Israeli Defense website.
The Kingdom has historically been the biggest donor of aid to Yemen, and will continue to be for many years to come. The time has come to end the horrible destruction of such an ancient and beautiful country, one that has provided Saudi Arabia with decades of friendship and developmental help in the form of Yemenis working in the Kingdom. But for this to happen, the Houthis must realize that they have to share power with the other powerblocs in the country. If not, Yemen will remain a broken and divided nation for many years to come, and a breeding ground for terrorists and even more chaos and instability. We cannot allow this to happen.