Further complicating the Saudi War in Yemen, allies backed by two of the GCC nations involved in the invasion, Saudi Araba and the United Arab Emirates,, are now engaging in open fighting in the “interim” capital city of Aden, with UAE-backed forces seizing the Aden airport, killing one soldier.
The airport was, before that, under the control of the Hadi government, the Saudi Arabia-backed faction for whom the invasion was initially launched. President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi resigned in January 2015, but Saudi Arabia has vowed to reinstall him in power, though so far they control only the southern half of the country.
That’s where things get particularly complicated, as the territory split in Yemen is now roughly in line with the old split between North and South Yemen, and there are growing secessionist movements within South Yemen,, and they are eager to just call the war over, setting up an independent state out of Aden, and let North Yemen stay in the hands of the Houthi movements.
Hadi opposes that, both because an independent South Yemen might not accept him as its ruler, and because he’s still hoping the Saudis conquer the whole country for him. Hadi accused the UAE of backing the secessionist movement. Hadi’s supporters suggested the UAE envisioned being given permission to set up ports across South Yemen to expand its regional influence.
Hadi said this or that. Who cares. Hadi is not the president of anything. He was a vice-president under former president Saleh. The president was Shia, as is North Yemen, while Hadi is a Sunni, a SOUTHERNER. Now if SOUTH will not have him, on what basis he thinks he will rule over the north — after all the bloodshed, starvation and desease that Saudi forces unleashed on the north IN HIS NAME.
It was not enough to resign — he should not make any statements or let his name be used to continue this war. Saudi Arabia needs to bow out — and let UAE and neighboring call it Hadramouth, as the key secessionist forces are from Mukkala region. North and South would be happy to go their separate ways — as they were for centuries before they were forcibly “united” after Cold War. UAE may want to have control over Aden — and this may be a solution. The rest of the South can go their way — they have– a large city of Mukkala as their capital and port. It was Saudi Arabia that funded Al-Qaeda in the South in order to fight against both the secessionists and Shia north. The moment Saudi Arabia pulls out the rug — Al-Qaeda will cease to exist in Yemen. The famous Al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula. With the loss of airport in Aden, Hadi could consider a ship. Any one, in any direction.
Well said. Hadi talks big for someone holding up in a hotel room in Riyadh.
In Ukraine, the United States claimed the democratically-elected in-time, president, Yanukovych ceased being president when he fled abroad in fear of his life after a US-backed coup. Since Hadi was not so democratically-elected (only candidate), is out-of-time (elected in 2012 for 2 year term),has resigned and has fled abroad why does the United States continue to claim he’s president?
Yemen was split into three countries before it was two: North Yemen, South Yemen, and Aden as a British colony. The politics of Aden developed as an anticolonial movement, quite distinct from North and South Yemen as tribal rivals.
Grabbing Aden from South Yemen is just further dissolution of the artifice of post-colonial Yemen.
It looks like the Saudis / U.S. are working on a justification for the seizure of Yemen’s final port.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-shipping-attack-idUSKBN18R2N9
This plays perfectly into the narrative that Mattis / McMaster have been saying that Yemen is in our vital national interest. It wasn’t the Houthis. The Saudis probably hired mercenaries.
Yemen is “vital” because it shares the Arabian Peninsula with Saudi Arabia, on a long common border, and it is desperately poor with no oil, and it has a larger population than the Saudis. What could go wrong?
Yemen never should have been united in the first place. The UAE is doing something right for a change even if they are doing it for all the wrong reasons. Hadi can go sh*t in his hat.