Coalition: Houthis targeting civilians to gain sympathy

For the past couple of years, Yemen has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Let us for a moment just forget about a coalition trying to pull Yemen out of the dark tunnel of miseries. For a brief moment, just forget about the Arab Spring that saw the toppling of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh following a popular revolution. Let us just focus on the wasted Yemeni talents that were utilized to build other countries except their own.
For many years and until the 1970s, we in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states saw hundreds if not millions of Yemenis come and go. They were the most talented tailors, masons, carpenters, mechanics, electricians, shopkeepers and many more. Almost each and every Yemeni I have so far come across in Saudi Arabia is multi-talented.
For decades, the Yemenis constructed roads, hospitals, schools and homes all over the Kingdom. Yes, they were talented but it was us, the Saudis and members of other Gulf states who benefited from their talents. They showed their talents here but not in their own country, Yemen. Ironically, in Yemen, they had other talents. Their talents in Yemen were overshadowed and held back by very two main factors, chewing Qat leaves and bloody tribal disputes.
The habit of chewing Qat is a slow anesthetic for the whole country. The hundreds of thousands of Yemenis who crisscross the Saudi-Yemeni borders would normally take home with them millions if not billions in hard cash. This money is usually not spent on the construction of the country but on social events that involve lavish spending on Qat. And because of Qat, the average working hours of any Yemeni is only a few in a day. In Saudi Arabia, Yemenis can work as long as 16 hours a day. They wake up early in the morning and continue till midnight with a few hours of rest in between. In other words, the Yemenis are known to be the most hardworking people with multiple talents only when they are outside Yemen. Yemen did not only get hard cash from its people working in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states but it also received billions of dollars in financial aid. But none of those funds were utilized to build Yemen. And as for the bloody internal and tribal disputes, the Yemenis never worked hard enough to live together. The Yemenis really never settled their differences. Yemen saw the most horrible bloody disputes that killed hundreds of thousands of people during the past decades.
In 1996 and part of 1997, I was stationed in Jazan when I was still in active duty. I drove and flew in helicopters along the Saudi-Yemeni border. And most important, I was in Alkhobar market, which is situated near the Yemeni borders. The Yemeins would bring their produce and other stuff and sell it. But it was very easy to notice the very wide social divide between the Saudi and Yemeni lifestyles and per capita incomes. Due to poverty in Yemen, it was very easy for an outsider to manipulate the behavior of Yemenis. Saudi Arabia had always been serious about seeing lasting peace and prosperity in Yemen because they are our neighbors and it is very important for Saudi Arabia to see a stable Yemen. But, it was very easy for me and anyone else to notice the steep divide between the Yemeni tribes and families. And this is one of the reasons that no central Yemeni government ever had any full control on the people or the country. And to add salt to the wound, many of the past military coups cost Yemen hundreds of lives and destruction of the already bad infrastructure. This is why many people around the world knew that the chaos in Yemen was a matter of time before it would explode.
Iran intervened in Yemen and created more division among its people. Now it is time for the Yemenis and the outside world to join hands to save this country. This country needs to get rid of poverty and work to build better education and health care system. The Yemeni talents can do it but they must be utilized to build the country and not destroy it.

Only firm action works with those who respect no agreements and enter into dialogue just to gain time. Such elements understand nothing but the language of force.
Houthis, their foreign and domestic collaborators, turned the outcomes of the Yemen National Dialogue Conference into a travesty in the eyes of most Yemenis and those interested in the affairs of Yemen throughout the Arab world. Despite the passage of time, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states were willing to give peace every chance possible.
However, emboldened by Arab divisions and an inability to end Syrian crisis, the Iranian-backed Houthis became too arrogant in their approach. This was reflected in preposterous pronouncements and actions made by senior Iranian officials. In Iraq, not only is the true identity and role of the Badr Organization, led by Hadi Al-Ameri, now well known but so is the truth about the Popular Mobilization forces. These are both predominately “sectarian militias,” unsuitable to become the nucleus of any putative “National Guard” that would help reestablish national unity in Iraq.
As for Yemen, the media appearances of Abdul Malik Al-Houthi have become carbon copies of those of Hassan Nasrallah of Lebanon’s Hezbollah. It has become clear how the two followers of the one and same religious authority have applied the same “scenario” in their respective countries. The most important aspect of this is how they both preach dialogue and coexistence while they build up their arsenals on the pretext of fighting either “Takfirists” as Hezbollah claims, or Al-Qaeda as in the case of the Houthis. This pretext, i.e. fighting Sunni extremism, is the centerpiece of Iran’s regional strategy for normalizing its relations with the US, and it is also being exploited in the Syrian and Iraqi arenas.
However, the urgency that necessitated “Operation Decisive Storm” in Yemen has been the uncovering of the dangerous role being played by deposed President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who threatens through his duplicity and tactical horse-trading to devastate Yemen and cause its disintegration. In this respect, the Houthi attack on the city of Taiz, their shelling of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s residence in Aden, and their move to occupy the provinces of Lahj, including Al-Anad air base and Al-Dhale, required a rapid and proportionate reaction.
Indeed, Saleh’s virtual coup d’état was made even more dangerous, albeit indirectly, by its convergence with Iran’s old political “investments” in both traditional clan loyalties and radical partisan links. This provided the tactical Saleh-Houthi alliance a useful presence, or rather a “time bomb” in the former South Yemen, which could have been rewarding had the alliance achieved its occupation of Aden and the province of Shabwah.
The overthrow of President Hadi’s legitimate government would have allowed emergence of an Iran-dominated Yemen controlling Aden, the Strait of Bab El-Mandeb and the Island of Socotra. Such a development would have created a huge strategic change in southern Arabia with untold repercussions.
Thus, the coming together of Saleh’s military and Iran’s expansionist ambitions manned and represented by the Houthis under the pretext of fighting Al-Qaeda, left neither the GCC nor the Arab world with any option but to take firm and decisive action in order to save what could be saved.
Iran’s immediate reaction was its criticism of foreign “intervention,” support for Yemen “sovereignty” and calls for “dialogue” and “combating terrorism.” This was not surprising given that these are the same slogans Tehran is peddling to justify its blatant intervention in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, as well as Yemen, and even in Bahrain and anywhere else its tentacles can reach. It is strange that Iran does not regard its direct military intervention — as symbolized by Gen. Suleimani’s in-your-face appearances and the active participation of his subordinate militias on the Iraqi and Syrian fronts— as making a mockery of this lamented “sovereignty.” As for Tehran’s call for “dialogue” and “combating terrorism,” the people of the region know only too well, which groups in Iraq and Syria, and also in Lebanon and Yemen, have continually rejected dialogue. They also know whose sectarian, discriminatory and marginalizing policies have created frustrations in the region. To learn the answer look no further than Nouri Al-Maliki’s former government and Bashar Assad’s intelligence-based regime. A few days ago, a brave decision was taken to save Yemen from the bleak future it was being driven toward. “Operation Decisive Storm” was the only way a proper political dialogue, rather than meaningless talks with guns pointed at the heads of participants, could take place.
It deserves the strong support of the international community in order to put an end to regional sectarian and ethnic hegemony, which is breeding extremism and provoking terrorism. The region has already paid a heavy price, endangering its security and domestic and regional dignity, as a result of the appeasement of Iran, which includes convincing its leaders to reach a nuclear agreement, while Iran continues to exploit this appeasement to create new realities of “occupation” and “turmoil” on the ground at the expense of coexistence, tolerance and mutual understanding.
It is high time we appreciated the importance of a new approach, bearing in mind that terrorism and extremism, which preoccupies the international community, can only be effectively dealt with through a comprehensive political-military strategy. “Operation Decisive Storm” is a good start.