Yemen

Yemen’s Shock Therapy: How the Peace Process Has Been Jump-started by Transformative Acts of Aggression

Beachwood, Oh. (Special to Informed Comment) – With precarious standoffs in Libya’s Tripoli and Syria’s Idlib on the verge of collapsing amid fresh waves of violence, it is worth considering why peace processes so often fail to preempt such catastrophes and how they might respond to them. Yemen, where the conflict has been mired in […]

Libya

Syria, Yemen, Libya: For the First Time since Versailles, will Rival Powers redraw the Middle East’s Borders?

Middle East Monitor

By Muhammad Hussein | – This New Year will mark a century since the historic Treaty of Versailles was put into effect, creating the borders of much of the contemporary world and enabling the European colonial powers to seize the Middle Eastern territories of the defunct Ottoman Empire. The consequences of that treaty and other […]

Houthi

World’s Worst War: Can South Yemen’s Warring Factions Make Peace amid Saudi-Emirates Rivalry?

Middle East Monitor

By Stasa Salacanin | – At the beginning of November, warring parties from Yemen’s south reached a power-sharing deal which aimed not only to defuse tensions among Arab alliances in South Yemen but was also seen to as a step closer towards ending the war in the country. The tensions between the Saudi-backed Hadi government […]

Yemen

Yemen: The Good News is Peace Deal may halt Saudi-UAE Proxy Fight: Bad News, 6 Mn on Verge of Starvation

Jonathan Fenton-Harvey

London (Informed Comment) – Distant hopes for peace in Yemen were revitalized following the finalizing of a draft agreement on October 27, to unify the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Southern Transitional Council, after tensions had erupted between both sides. On the surface, the deal would aim to end a deadly stand-off between […]

Houthi

Is Najran the Saudi Frontline in its Failing Yemen War, or its Achilles Heel?

Middle East Monitor

By Omar Ahmed | – The 14th century Arab historian Ibn Khaldun is famed for his treatise Al-Muqqadimah and is regarded as “the father of social science”; he wrote about the rise and fall of states and civilisations. Tunis-born, his ancestors hailed from Yemen’s Hadramawt. He is notable for popularising the notion of ‘asabiyya which […]

Saudi Arabia

Saudi looks ‘positively’ at Yemeni truce proposal

Middle East Monitor

Saudi Prince Khalid Bin Salman believes that his country looks “positively” at the truce proposal announced by Houthis in Yemen, Arabi21.com reported on Friday. In a series of tweets, the prince wrote “we look positively at the truce announced by Yemen because this is what we have been seeking. We hope it is really implemented.” […]

Featured

Saudis Riposted to drive Houthis from Najran, after Defeat of Saudi-Backed Yemeni Nationalists

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The details of the alleged Houthi operation against Saudi Arabia are still murky, and Saudi Arabia has so far declined to provide its side of the story. Al Jazeera Arabic on Sunday rounded up the details provided by the Houthis and by its Yemeni sources. First of all, Al Jazeera […]

Featured

Yemen’s Houthis Say they Invaded Saudi Arabia, Captured Thousands of Troops in Najran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Update 9/30: The Houthi military operation appears to have been against Saudi-backed nationalist bases in the far north of Yemen, and the POWs taken seem to be mostly Yemeni nationalists, along with some Saudi officers and troops. There may have been Houthi infiltration of Najran and Jizan as well, but […]

Houthi

No, Yemen’s Houthis are not Simply a Proxy of Iran

The Conversation

By Vincent Durac | – The attacks on oil production facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais in Saudi Arabia have drawn renewed focus on Yemen’s Houthi movement, which claimed responsibility for the strikes. Whether these claims are true or or not – the US and Saudi Arabia allege that Iran was more directly involved in the […]