Tag Archives: Sanaa

Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Yemen

The Myth of a Proxy War in Yemen………..

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Western media are stuck on this “proxy war” idea. They keep claiming that “Saudi Arabia and Iran are fighting a proxy war in Yemen“. “Proxy” means having someone else do the fighting for you. Now, those dropping the bombs on Yemen, killing people and destroying cities are NOT proxies, they are the Saudis (or whoever is flying their bombers) who are firing the missiles on Yemen. They are butchering Yemenis. And the Houthis are not Iranian proxies. The Houthis have been fighting either the Saudi princes or the Yemeni central government for many decades. They may have moved closer to Iran now because of the regional alignment against them, but they do not take orders from Tehran: that is a ridiculous claim to anybody who has read about them.

It is good propaganda to throw in the name ‘Iran’ for Western consumption. It gets people like Senator McCain and other warmongers all riled up. It silences any inclination to protest the brutal bombing campaign against the Yemeni people. But it is a futile war in the end. It is a war with the goal of allowing the Saudis to determine who will rule Yemen (well, maybe a couple of major cities in Yemen). You all know, as do the Saudis now, that AbdRabuh Hadi (99.8% of the vote, LOL) will never return to rule in Sanaa. Not after he invited foreign bombers against its people. As per my last fatwa about Hadi’s Last Look at Sanaa.

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum                          Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter
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Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, GCC, Yemen

Islamist Reform: Joking with the Arabic Language in Yemen……..

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Until a few weeks ago the main party or bloc that wielded power in Yemen, actually mostly in Sanaa, was called “Islah”. Islah is dominated by the Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, along with some other tribal and Islamist allies. So far so good, but the real joke starts with the word “Islah” which means “reform” in Arabic (when you reform or repair something you are doing Islah: got that?). No reform was seen in Yemen under Islah and its allies. Now the Houthis and allies are also talking reform, no doubt according to their own definition of reform.

In politics and business, poor Yemen is not different from much of the rest of its neighborhood. In the usual Orwellian Arab fashion, reform means corruption, patriotism means acquiescing in repression, unity means tribalism, stability means stagnation. The de facto ruling family of the capital of this Yemen were the Al Ahmar, from one of the largest tribes in Northern Yemen. President Generalisimo Abd Rabu Hadi (a.k.a Al Zombie) was as much a figurehead leader then, a few weeks ago, as he is now under the Houthi militias. Even with his 99.8% of the vote in 2012. (He still beat Egypt’s Generalisimo Field Marshal Al Sisi who could only eke out 97.5% of the vote, still beat the hapless Morsi who had won only about 51% against a Mubarak crony, and he even beat the recent bete noir of the West, Bashar Al Assad and his paltry 88%).

Yemen is like Afghanistan: political matters are inevitably settled (or unsettled) in their own fashion. Foreign intervention, be it Saudi, Iranian, or American can only influence developments, not shape them. Foreign intervention is not decisive beyond the short term. Egyptians learned that costly lesson in the 1960s and the Saudis have learned it again and again in recent years. Ancient Ethiopian and Persian invaders also learned that lesson many centuries ago. The GCC-Western arranged transfer of power in 2012 has apparently failed as much as any other foreign intervention. It was never taken much seriously, and now it is dead even in Sanaa.

Yemen, the alleged source and genesis of the original Arabian tribes is largely ignored and shunned by its closest Arab neighbors. The Saudis, in a moment of royal madness, briefly invited faraway Morocco and Jordan to join the GCC in 2011. But not Yemen. Yemen is best left alone by outsiders.

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

[email protected]