The Houthi assault on Yemen’s legitimate government has created a vacuum for terrorists
EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF YEMEN, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Yemen is home to 27 million people. It shares borders with Saudi Arabia and Oman and overlooks the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a strategic link between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea through the Red Sea.
Yemen is facing a daunting challenge, one that threatens not only its political stability, unity and territorial integrity, but also its statehood and social cohesion. Ever since a military coup was orchestrated by a militia in September 2014, Yemen’s peaceful transition has halted, leading the country into a state of civil unrest and war in which thousands of people, including women and children, have lost their lives. It also affected the government’s fight against terrorism and violent extremism by creating a vacuum that allowed both to thrive.
Youth revolution and the initiative
Four years after the unification of Yemen in 1990, civil war erupted. For many in the South, that marked the date they lost faith in the central government in Sanaa. In 2007, a movement in the South — al-Hirak — was formed. This movement was an expression against the many injustices and grievances left unaddressed by the central government.
Life was no easier for many people in the North. The combination of corruption, bad governance and the lack of development left many throughout the country in a vicious cycle of poverty.
In January 2011, shortly after the Arab Spring started in Tunisia, people took to the streets to protest their grievances. People throughout Yemen — including the Houthis — joined in. People at that time sympathized with the Houthis. They regarded them as a movement from the northern parts of Yemen that was targeted by the old regime from 2004 to 2010.
After months of sit-ins and many sacrifices, after the country was about to enter a civil war at that time, and with the help of neighbors, the Yemeni people, in November 2011, found a way out through the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Initiative and its Implementation Mechanism. The final signing and acceptance of this Initiative was achieved despite many attempts by former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to delay it.
The initiative was no mean achievement. People saw it as a way to a new beginning for Yemen that put an end to Saleh’s 33-year rule. The initiative superseded the constitution and provided for a two-phase transitional period. Phase one was forming a national unity government and electing a new president (something that no one had ever seen happen in Yemen before). Phase two consisted of conducting an all-inclusive National Dialogue Conference (NDC), drafting a new constitution, and finally setting the stage for general parliamentary and presidential elections in accordance with the new constitution.
The transition was going well. President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi was elected in February 2012. The NDC was successfully concluded in January 2014 — after 10 months of deliberation — during which even the most vulnerable marginalized groups were included.
The conference eventually adopted 1,800 outcomes on all major issues. The 565 delegates — 20 percent youth, 30 percent women and 50 percent from the south — discussed and debated nine major issues, including the southern question (al-Hirak) and the Sadda issue (the Houthis’ case). A new constitution was in the drafting process by an all-inclusive committee created in March 2014. Yemen’s partners referred to the Yemeni transition as a success story and cited the initiative as an example to be followed by others in the region. Yemen was on the road to a new federal democratic state, one that not only would have fulfilled the people’s aspirations for change, but also would have safeguarded the principles of the 1962 and 1963 revolutions. Yemenis were full of hope as they witnessed history in the making and discovered a future worth fighting for.
The coup
In July 2014, the Houthis, who had been receiving military and financial support from Iran, posed their greatest threat to date against the capital, Sanaa, by taking over the 310th Armored Brigade in the Amran governorate, only 40 kilometers north of the capital, after months of fighting. In the following month, the Houthis shifted their attention and focused on the capital itself.
On September 21, 2014, the Houthis, with the assistance of forces loyal to Saleh, staged a military coup and took over Sanaa. President Hadi sought to de-escalate at any cost to preserve the people’s many achievements and sacrifices, and he agreed to form a new government with the consent of the Houthis to complete the transition and forge a new Yemen as stipulated in the initiative. However, the Houthis continued escalating and thwarting the transition process. They believed that if a genuine political democratic process was to start, they would lose what they had gained by force.
In January 2015, the Houthis kidnapped the secretary-general of the NDC and seized the first draft of the long-awaited new constitution to prevent its consideration. Two days later, the president and the new Cabinet were placed under house arrest. Three days later, the president and the Cabinet resigned in protest. The Houthis then besieged parliament because they knew that it would, by the virtue of the Constitution, be in control of the country. In less than a month, the Houthis abolished parliament altogether and announced what they called a “constitutional declaration” that put a “revolutionary committee” in charge of the country, halting the transitional period.
In February 2015, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2201 denounced the coup and “strongly deplore[d] actions taken by the Houthis to dissolve parliament and take over Yemen’s government institutions, including acts of violence.” A few days later, President Hadi managed to escape from Sanaa to Aden, where he later rescinded his resignation.
The Houthis and Saleh continued their aggression and ignored the calls of the international community. In one year alone, from December 2014 until December 2015, the Houthis arbitrarily detained 8,458 people, including activists and journalists. Meanwhile, 389 homes were demolished only because they belonged to the opposition, torture cases rose to 1,077, and the so-called revolutionary committees perpetrated 2,706 disappearances. The Houthis and Saleh’s forces even followed the president to Aden and used the national air force to target the presidential palace there.
In March 2015, President Hadi moved to Saudi Arabia after he had formally called for assistance from GCC leaders, including a military intervention as a last resort. The Arab coalition forces, led by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, responded to the president’s plea in late March 2015.
In April 2015, the UNSC, acting under chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, responded by adopting its landmark Resolution 2216. It demanded that the Houthis immediately and unconditionally end the use of violence; withdraw their forces, including from the capital; relinquish arms seized from military and security institutions; and cease all actions exclusively within the authority of the legitimate government. It further demanded that they refrain from any provocation or threats to neighboring states; release all political prisoners, including the minister of defense; and end the recruitment and use of children. The resolution imposed sanctions, including an arms embargo, on Saleh, Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi and others. It also condemned the growing number and scale of the attacks by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and expressed concern at the terror group’s ability to benefit from the deterioration of the situation in Yemen.
Al-Qaida exploits the vacuum
Yemen is a strategic ally in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism and has been fighting AQAP for many years with the assistance of the international community. In April 2014, the government launched a massive military campaign against AQAP in the Shabwah and Abyan governorates. However, those efforts were affected when the Houthis started escalating their aggression in Amran governorate, leading to their military coup in September 2014.
In April 2015, AQAP exploited the vacuum created by the coup and captured the major port city Mukalla in the Hadhramout governorate. Al-Qaida, at that time, was able to gain unprecedented levels of resources by looting banks and extorting fees at the city’s port and in the governorate in general. Nevertheless, in April 2016, the government and the Arab coalition forces were, within a week, able to recapture Mukalla and defeat what was left of AQAP in the city. From then on, the government has been mopping up the remaining pockets of al-Qaida in many governorates — including Aden, Shabwah, and Abyan — and dismantling any other possible safe havens in Yemen.
Power shift
During the initial stages of the coup, the Houthis and forces loyal to Saleh held control over many governorates, including in the South. Now, the government, with the help of coalition forces, is in control of more than 80 percent of Yemen, including all the southern governorates, and is at the doorstep of the capital. President Hadi, now in Aden, the temporary capital, is overseeing and commanding more than 80 brigades of Yemen’s Armed Forces, present in most of Yemen’s governorates. The Houthis and Saleh’s forces are now surrounded in several governorates and are constantly losing control even in some of their strongholds, such as Sadda governorate.
The peace process
The government believes that a political solution is what will save Yemen and get it back on track to finish what had been accomplished starting in 2011. To this end, the government agreed to participate in three rounds of peace talks with the coup leaders, even though UNSC Resolution 2216 specifically demanded, among other things, that the Houthis withdraw from the capital and cease taking actions that are exclusively within the authority of the legitimate government.
In round one in Geneva in June 2015, nothing was accomplished. In the second round in Biel, Switzerland, in December 2015, the parties agreed to confidence-building measures that included a cease-fire and release of political and other prisoners, but the talks failed because the Houthi-Saleh delegations did not honor their commitments. The third round in Kuwait, for 115 days from April to August 2016, yielded no results simply because the Houthi and Saleh delegations refused every proposal presented by the U.N. envoy.
Toward the end of the Kuwait talks, the government made a major concession for the sake of peace and accepted a U.N. plan in which the Houthis would initially withdraw from three governorates (Sanaa, Al Hudaydah and Taiz) in return for the formation of a unity government in 35 days. The Houthis not only refused to accept this proposal, but also announced the formation of the so-called political council while their delegation was still participating in the peace talks. Later on, they also announced their illegitimate “salvation government” and attempted, with no quorum, to convene parliament in violation of the constitution.
Despite all that, the government is still keen on peace and is ready to accept any proposed solutions in accordance with the three references: the initiative, the NDC outcomes, and the relevant UNSC resolutions, especially Resolution 2216.
The way forward
The government is bound to defend the principles stated in the constitution and safeguard the accomplishments of the 2011 youth revolution. It will also continue its commitment to fighting terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations. The government stands ready to engage positively and work with the international community and the new U.S. administration to reach a comprehensive, sustainable solution for the Yemeni crisis. It further reaffirms its continued support for the efforts of the U.N. envoy in this regard.
Therefore, the government will only accept a solution that adheres to the three references mentioned above. Any solution not based on these references would only prolong the crisis and legitimize the coup, thus destroying any hope for a new civil democratic state, one that could build the foundations of a just society where every citizen has the right to a free and dignified life.
Comments are closed.