By Capt (Ret) C de Waart, feel free to share: in Confidence

Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 4-1-Yemen-10Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is the early winner in Yemen. -- Bruce Riedel

S. Arabia Bombing A Sovereign Nation with No UN Mandate, "…but there are no legal grounds for the war as Saudi Arabia has attacked a sovereign nation without a mandate by the United Nations at a time when the Yemeni Ansarullah movement has been fighting AQAP (Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) and other terrorist groups such as ISIL. Arab League for creating a joint military force to be used for possible military intervention in other Arab countries," -- Danny Makki.

Iran vows to end Saudi-led air strikes on Yemen rebels, Bombardment needs to stop and al-Qaeda should be prevented from taking advantage, says Iranian foreign minister

Is Iran outmanoeuvring Saudi Arabia in Yemen?Moscow’s approach to the region has become more confident and strident, as Washington’s has become ever more confused and disjointed.

The war in Yemen is increasingly being construed as a Saudi contest with Iran. If there is a Saudi-Iranian contest in Yemen linked to the Houthis, its roots can be

traced back to late 2009. Iranian media coverage of the situation in Yemen first gained steam in earnest in late

2009, not during the 2011 Arab Spring protests. The latter is important to bear in mind, as the first credible reports of Iranian material assistance to the Houthis only started to surface around 2012.

On April 12, the Saudi foreign minister, in response to Iranian calls for an end to hostilities, said: “Iran is not in charge of Yemen.” If that is the case, then who is Saudi Arabia targeting? 

“Riyadh has put itself in a situation where it perceives itself as fighting growing Iranian influence in the region. To this end, the Saudis have opened multiple fronts against Iran, from igniting the ideological conflict between Salafism and Shiism, or challenging Iran over Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and now in Yemen.”

Both the Saudis and the Emiratis have clearly expressed annoyance with the Turkish-Pakistani decision to abstain from joining the war. Their irritation is understandable. The Houthis are still there, Saudi Arabia is losing troops, the idea of a united Sunni front is collapsing and Riyadh is on a trajectory to end up stuck in a costly war against Iranian ghosts — all at an insignificant cost to Tehran.

While it is unclear when the war in Yemen will end, what is clear is that Iranian diplomacy is proving to be an effective response to Saudi money and firepower

Analysts also claim that Riyadh’s intervention may not be legal since it does not have United Nations authorization (obviously, they do not count Ukraine as exemplifying this pattern).

Lavrov also noted his and Russia’s opposition to any foreign intervention in Yemen, invoking the examples of interventions against Libya’s Muammar Qadaffi and Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic

April 15, Iran vows to end Saudi-led air strikes on Yemen rebels, Bombardment needs to stop and al-Qaeda should be prevented from taking advantage, says Iranian foreign minister. Iran has said it will use all its influence to broker a peace deal for Yemen in order to end Saudi-led air strikes against the Houthi rebels. "We are a major force in the region and we have relations with all groups in various countries, and we are going to use that in order to bring everybody to the negotiating table, to the point that we can," Mohammed Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign

Cees Page 1 of 8 15/04/2023

By Capt (Ret) C de Waart, feel free to share: in Confidence

minister, said on Wednesday. Zarif, who was visiting Portugal, said efforts to bring peace to Yemen must "start with the right premise, that we need to end this bombardment and all the bloodshed, and prevent al-Qaeda from taking advantage of this nasty situation". "We have influence with a lot of groups in Yemen, not just the Houthis and the Shias," he said.

Danny Makki: S. Arabia Bombing A Sovereign Nation with No UN MandateTEHRAN (FNA 15 April )- London-based Middle East expert Danny Makki says there are no legal grounds for the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen as the monarchy's warplanes are pounding an independent country without a mandate by the United Nations and at a time when the Ansarullah forces are fighting against al-Qaeda and ISIL terrorists.

"…but there are no legal grounds for the war as Saudi Arabia has attacked a sovereign nation without a mandate by the United Nations at a time when the Yemeni Ansarullah movement has been fighting AQAP (Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) and other terrorist groups such as ISIL. Arab League for creating a joint military force to be used for possible military intervention in other Arab countries," Danny Makki of the Syrian Youth Movement told Fars News Agency. He further said that the Saudis are doomed to fail in Yemen as they started the attacks with no specific strategy. Makki said, "The entire operation has been spontaneous with no serious long term strategy by the Saudis, this in essence is a failed approach. Saudi Arabia has not achieved anything through the air strikes." The Middle East expert warned that Yemen is a country which is grappling with al-Qaeda terrorists and is also on the edge of internal conflicts, adding that the Saudi attacks will further exacerbate the situation and promote sectarianism in the Muslim country. Danny Makki is a graduate in International Relations and founder of Syrian Youth in Britain. He is a member of the Syrian social club, and a regular commentator on the Middle East issues.What follows is the text of the interview:Q: In February 2011, Yemeni people held mass rallies across the Muslim country and demanded the ouster of US-backed dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh ruled for 33 years and finally stepped down in February 2012. Mansour Hadi took the helm of power after Saleh and, as a puppet ruler of Washington and Riyadh, followed the US agenda of the previous dictator in Yemen. Noticing this, the Yemeni nation headed for another revolution and people again poured into the streets of the capital Sana’a and demanded some reforms. Despite repeated promises, Hadi failed to address people’s needs and the Yemenis, with the help of the Ansarullah fighters, removed him from power. Mansour Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia in March 2015 and Saudi-led warplanes soon after started bombing Yemen. So far, thousands of civilians, mostly women and children, have been killed. It seems that certain Western countries in covert cooperation with their Arab stooges are once again hatching fresh plots in the Middle East. What lies behind the Saudi-led airstrikes on Yemen?

A: Saudi Arabia views the Yemen conflict through a perspective based on a geopolitical orientation. It perceives that it was defeated to an extent in Iraq, in Lebanon and in Syria. So, Yemen is an issue of national security which reflects a new attitude by the new Saudi regime. This new-found lust for intervention expresses a new Saudi line, one which is more aggressive, more reckless and makes bigger decisions on regional matters.Saudi Arabia is essentially using its forces to attack a country which is essentially defenseless through an Arab microscope with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council essentially acting as a fundamental backbone to this coalition which Saudi Arabia is leading on paper. But in essence, this is more of a coalition of Arab states who have been bribed by Saudi Arabia in what they have been pushed to perceive as a geopolitical war against Ansarullah movement in Yemen. The operation is thought to be led

Cees Page 2 of 8 15/04/2023

By Capt (Ret) C de Waart, feel free to share: in Confidence

by Mohammad bin Salman, the new Defense Minister, and the head of the Royal Court, who is incidentally one of the most influential and significant figures within the Saudi Kingdom. What this does reflect is a new era in Saudi politicians and figures, an era of individuals who want to assert Saudi authority and hegemony in the Middle East in more assertive, in more venomous manner as we are seeing in Yemen.What we see is a new reflection of a new Saudi Arabia, one which is going to take more direct, stronger role within Middle Eastern affairs. And on issues which are fundamental to its national security, such as Yemen, we see the Saudi defense minister acting in such a way which we probably would not have seen from other diplomats, from other generations. Q: The Saudi-led air campaign on Yemen is a blatant violation of international regulations and the rights of a sovereign state as a member of the United Nations. What's your perspective on that?

A: A big criticism of the Saudi attacks on Yemen is that it acted without a UN mandate and without international support which would actually sanction this attack on Ansarullah fighters, the tragic death of civilians and will compound this fact.The entire operation has been spontaneous with no serious long term strategy by the Saudis, this in essence is a failed approach. Saudi Arabia has not achieved anything through the air strikes. Yemen has very big tribal conflicts and especially with the rise of sectarianism within the Middle East, Saudi Arabia risks further fueling the flames of sectarianism within the Middle East especially considering other events in Iraq and elsewhere. Saudi Arabia’s approach has been very militarized and weaponized. The approach that Saudi Arabia should have taken is one to have UN-backed peace talks with the popular fighters, not using military force as an option. However Saudi Arabia used military force as the first option and has left negotiations and a political solution to the end. Russia proposed a draft resolution for immediate cessation of airstrikes on Yemen. Saudi Arabia has branched together a number of Arab countries to give it legitimacy, yet it is bombing one of the poorest countries in the Arab world.  Q: The Saudi monarchy claims its air campaign against Yemen is an issue of national security. What do you think? 

A: Yemen is an issue of national security for Saudi Arabia and its close proximity and back garden status is Capitol to the security of Saudi Arabia. Half the Saudi Army is also of a tribal Yemeni background. But there are no legal grounds for the war as Saudi Arabia has attacked a sovereign nation without a mandate by the United Nations at a time when the Yemeni Ansarullah movement has been fighting AQAP and other terrorist groups such as ISIL.

Interview by Javad Arab Shirazi15 April, The Al-Qaeda group in Yemen has announced that a top Saudi leader in the organisation has been killed by a US air strike, according to a statement distributed by the group online. The group said in a statement on Tuesday that Ibrahim al-Rubaish was killed in

a drone attack two days earlier. The group did not specify where the purported strike took place. Al-Rubaish had a $5m bounty on his head. The death of al-Rubaish may be a sign that a covert US drone programme against Yemen's branch of the armed group continues despite the evacuation of American military advisors from the country amid a worsening civil war. Yemeni and US officials had no immediate comment on the claim. The

group said al-Rubaish, who is from Saudi's ultra-conservative Qassim region, "has spent two

Cees Page 3 of 8 15/04/2023

By Capt (Ret) C de Waart, feel free to share: in Confidence

decades of his life in jihad, fighting America and its agents. " He first fought in Afghanistan before he was arrested and held in the US military prison of Guantanamo for "a few years" before he joined al-Qaeda. In an audio message in January, al-Rubaish urged attacks on the West, singling out France. He also called on Muslims to target, "without consulting anyone", those who mock the Muslim prophet. His message followed the deadly January 7 attack on satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, which was claimed by al-Qaeda. Ibrahim al Rubaish (left) and Harith bin Ghazi al Nadhari (right). Both AQAP ideologues were killed in US drone strikes this year. This image is taken from an AQAP video that was posted online in July 2014. LWJ, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula released a statement announcing the death of Ibrahim Suleiman al Rubaish, the group’s mufti, or Islamic scholar, in a drone strike that took place last night in eastern Yemen. Rubaish, a veteran al Qaeda leader and a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, also served as an operational planner and senior AQAP leader. AQAP announced the death of Rubaish and several other fighters on the Twitter feed for Al Malahem Media, the jihadist group’s official media outlet. The Twitter feed has since been shut down.

15 April, Riyadh continues to strengthen ties with powerful regional armies amid an ongoing air campaign against Houthi fighters in Yemen. It has signed up Egypt for a joint planning of a “major military maneuver” with other Gulf states in Saudi Arabia. During the visit of the Saudi Defense Minister Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Cairo to discuss military campaign in Yemen, both countries agreed to form a joint military committee to discuss the “implementation of a major strategic maneuver in the territory of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”, the Egyptian President's office said in a statement. The statement gave no further details on the planned military exercise. Emphasizing that the security of the Gulf region and the Red Sea in particular is a “red line”, Cairo has agreed to participate in a joint Arab force which includes other Gulf states. Egyptian naval and air forces are already involved in the operation in Yemen dubbed the Determination Storm. Cairo said it would supply ground forces “if necessary.” Tuesday’s decision by the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on the Yemeni rebels was praised in Riyadh as a “victory for the Yemen people.”However the Russian UN envoy, who abstained from the vote, noted that while it had been passed, the draft still failed to address all sides of the conflict “to swiftly halt fire and to begin peace talks.”

Is Iran outmanoeuvring Saudi Arabia in Yemen? Author: Mohammad Ali Shabani Posted April 13, 2015 The war in Yemen is increasingly being construed as a Saudi contest with Iran. To ascertain the veracity of this oft-repeated conception, two things need to be clarified: whether the conflict is driven by sectarian dynamics and what Iran seeks in Yemen. Yemen has long been the Afghanistan of the Arab world. Most Yemenis live below the poverty rate. The country sits on multiple fault lines, in addition to a long-running border dispute with Saudi Arabia. Following Arab Spring protests, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi came to power through a Gulf Cooperation Council-brokered one-man election, as opposition groups seized on power vacuums. The Houthis have in past months seized major urban centers in collaboration with their old foe (and Hadi’s predecessor) Ali Abdullah Saleh.  Experts on Yemen contend that the Houthis emerged as a Zaydi revivalist movement in response to Saudi-funded Salafist proselytizing in the 1990s. Claims that the group is sectarian and linked to Iran are long-running. Robert Worth, a fellow at the Wilson Center and former New York Times Middle East correspondent, told Al-Monitor, “The Houthis have been accused of being Iranian stooges almost since they were first founded.” However, these accusations have not attracted much credence. Worth, who has been on the ground in Yemen and is working on a book on the legacy of the Arab uprisings, said, “When I started reporting

Cees Page 4 of 8 15/04/2023

By Capt (Ret) C de Waart, feel free to share: in Confidence

on them in 2007, this accusation was ridiculed by almost everyone — even by Yemeni officials, off the record.”If there is a Saudi-Iranian contest in Yemen linked to the Houthis, its roots can be traced back to late 2009. As Saudi forces attacked border regions controlled by the Houthis, talk of the latter’s alleged Iranian connection reappeared — with force. The reason was clear, at least in Worth's view: “A ragtag militia had held out for months against the high-tech Saudi military, and even scored some humiliating punches against it. … Meanwhile, the Iranian media lionized the Houthis for their heroic 'resistance.'” US State Department cables published by WikiLeaks expressed skepticism of the Houthis' alleged connections to Iran at the time.In an interview with Al-Monitor, an anonymous source close to Iran’s Arabic-language Al-Alam news channel confirmed that Iranian media coverage of the situation in Yemen first gained steam in earnest in late 2009, not during the 2011 Arab Spring protests. The latter is important to bear in mind, as the first credible reports of Iranian material assistance to the Houthis only started to surface around 2012. As Worth pointed out: “It’s important to add that Iran was not reaching out only to Houthis. I talked to members of the southern independence movement and some liberal political figures who'd been offered support from Iranian officials. … There is no indication that the Houthis take directions or even advice from Iran, despite many claims to the contrary.”

On April 12, the Saudi foreign minister, in response to Iranian calls for an end to hostilities, said: “Iran is not in charge of Yemen.” If that is the case, then who is Saudi Arabia targeting?  A former senior Iranian diplomat told Al-Monitor: “Riyadh has put itself in a situation where it perceives itself as fighting growing Iranian influence in the region. To this end, the Saudis have opened multiple fronts against Iran, from igniting the ideological conflict between Salafism and Shiism, or challenging Iran over Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and now in Yemen.” The source also pointed to another dynamic in the mix: “The possibly most painful development for Riyadh is the forthcoming thaw in US-Iran ties, and the potential of losing a longtime protector.”

Another important question to consider is whether, and how, Yemen fits into Iran’s regional equation. Kayhan Barzegar, head of the Tehran-based Institute for Middle East Strategic Studies, told Al-Monitor that “Iran's regional policy is based on supporting independent governments to strengthen regional cooperation. An independent Yemen based on an inclusive government will add to the value of this strategy by removing another Arab state that could potentially line up with foreign actors and regional rivals against Iran.”

For Iran, then, is Yemen less about gaining an ally than it is about depriving the Saudis of an anti-Iran ally? Can the same be said about the Saudi calculation? Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the Yemen war is the regional response. A number of states were quick to commit forces to the Saudi offensive, surprisingly including Iran’s longtime ally Sudan. It was also reported that Saudi Arabia had requested that Pakistan commit physical and human assets to the military operations. However, in past days, active diplomacy on the part of Iran appears to have undermined Saudi Arabia’s effort to regionalize the conflict. Shortly after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s trip to Tehran last week, which featured a joint Iranian-Turkish call for an end to the conflict in Yemen, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif traveled to Oman and Pakistan, holding talks focused on Yemen. Surprisingly, Pakistan, a strong ally of Saudi Arabia — which some even portray as Riyadh’s Plan B in case of an Iranian nuclear weapon — has refused any involvement in the Yemen war.

Cees Page 5 of 8 15/04/2023

By Capt (Ret) C de Waart, feel free to share: in Confidence

Both the Saudis and the Emiratis have clearly expressed annoyance with the Turkish-Pakistani decision to abstain from joining the war. Their irritation is understandable. The Houthis are still there, Saudi Arabia is losing troops, the idea of a united Sunni front is collapsing and Riyadh is on a trajectory to end up stuck in a costly war against Iranian ghosts — all at an insignificant cost to Tehran. In Barzegar’s telling, the Iranian approach is likely to include continued support for the Houthis and “if necessary, convince them to form an inclusive government. Iran will not give up interactions with Saudi Arabia and Egypt to find a mutually agreed political solution to end the conflict in Yemen.” While it is unclear when the war in Yemen will end, what is clear is that Iranian diplomacy is proving to be an effective response to Saudi money and firepower. And with the goals of the Yemen war increasingly muddled, Saudi Arabia and its allies may soon find themselves bogged down in a quagmire. 

Russia and Yemen’s Agony Eurasia Daily Monitor -- Volume 12, Issue 68 Russia’s position on the fighting in Yemen needs to be understood in terms of its overall approach to the Middle East. And Moscow’s approach to the region has become more confident and strident, as Washington’s has become ever more confused and disjointed. Vitaly Naumkin, a leading Russian analyst, observes that Russia seeks to play an ever more active and independent role in the Middle East and to stake out a position on all the conflicts roiling the area while establishing contacts with as many of the players in these conflicts as possible. And this tactic is not confined to Yemen. Moreover, Moscow no longer shies away from opposing Washington in the region (Al-Monitor.com, April 1).      But even as Moscow seeks to forge lasting contacts with as many players as possible, it also has come out in favor of certain actors—and, again, not in Yemen alone. Thus Russia’s stance in Yemen is directly tied to its staunch support for Bashar al-Assad in Syria and to Russia’s visible eagerness to reenter Iran’s nuclear energy and arms markets while championing Iran against the US (though not necessarily to the point of supporting Iranian nuclearization) (Russia Direct, April 1). Illustratively, on April 13, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree lifting Russia’s previous self-imposed ban on selling S-300 air defense systems to the Islamic Republic (TASS, April 13).Russian analysts display a good grasp of the internal dynamics setting faction against faction in Yemen and understand quite well that it has always been a precarious country that often hovered close to state failure. And they also understand that the confrontation between the former government and the rebel Houthis is not exactly identical to a simple Sunni versus Shi’a split (Valdaiclub.com, April 6). Nevertheless, the external dimension is that Saudi Arabia clearly (and with good reason) sees Iran trying to add another capital to its list of pro-Iranian or pro-Shi’a regimes and, therefore, launched bombing raids against the Iranian-backed Houthis. These analysts also claim that Riyadh’s intervention may not be legal since it does not have United Nations authorization (obviously, they do not count Ukraine as exemplifying this pattern). They also fully understand that Washington has thrown its support behind Saudi Arabia (Valdaiclub.com, April 6, 7).           Furthermore, Moscow now feels it needs Chinese support in the Middle East. Thus it issued a joint call with China to support the peaceful resolution of conflicts in Ukraine, Syria and Yemen (Interfax, April 7). This joint summons and the juxtaposition of these three conflicts suggest important aspects of Russian policy in the greater Middle East:

First, just as Moscow organized joint Sino-Russian naval manoeuvres in the Mediterranean last year, it clearly feels it needs to elicit Chinese support for its position here.

Second, it aims at conflict resolution where its clients—whether they be the so-called separatists in Ukraine who are actually under Russian direction or al-Assad—prevail. For these reasons Russia apparently has expressed its readiness to play a supposedly “mediatory” role in Yemen, not unlike what it has periodically sought to do in Syria (Al-Safir Online,

Cees Page 6 of 8 15/04/2023

By Capt (Ret) C de Waart, feel free to share: in Confidence

March 30). Specifically, Russia’s foreign ministry has repeatedly advocated swift action to end the violence in Yemen and launch a political dialogue between the parties there (Interfax, April 8). And for the same reasons, Foreign Minister Lavrov has expressed Moscow’s mounting concern about Shi’a-Sunni tensions, which, he claims, are the focal point of the geopolitical situation in the Gulf. Lavrov claims to have warned the world about the dangers of this internecine strife and actually asserted that in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, there was supposedly “peaceful coexistence between these groups” (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, April 8). This statement, which fundamentally misrepresents the true situation in Saddam’s Iraq, tells a great deal about Moscow’s political preference for dictators.          Lavrov also noted his and Russia’s opposition to any foreign intervention in Yemen, invoking the examples of interventions against Libya’s Muammar Qadaffi and Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic. More practically, however, he clearly has indicated his support for the Iranian and Syrian viewpoint that wants the Houthis to prevail politically there (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, April 8). Indeed, Moscow has had to issue multiple denials of unconfirmed claims by Yemen’s foreign minister that Russia is transferring weapons to the Houthis (Uatoday.tv, April 6; Xinhua, April 5)Whether or not Russia is supplying weapons to the Houthis, it is clear that it sees this conflict much as its partners Syria and Iran do. Iran’s support for the Houthis has been critical—indeed, it led the Saudis, with US backing, to militarily intervene in Yemen. Thus, despite Lavrov’s and others Russian officials’ disavowals of a stance for or against one or another Yemeni faction, it is clear that Moscow is doing in Yemen what it does in every other Middle Eastern conflict: it seeks to exploit that conflict for its own interests. Bringing about a genuine peace or political resolution to this strife is of significantly less importance to the Russian government. --Stephen Blank

Apr 15, 2015 Saudi vs. Saudi: Saving Riyadh From Itself

TEHRAN (FNA April 14)- Common sense is the most uncommon thing in the ongoing Saud-led war on Yemen, where crimes against humanity are terribly revealing. The United States,

Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain continue to increase their covert and overt involvement above and beyond the air war against the poorest nation in the Middle East. Saudi officials continue to expand the goals of the conflict, believing they can win an absolute victory over Ansarullah and reinstall a pro-Saudi regime in Sana’a. They have come to believe they

will never take the terrain of withdrawal. Let’s assume for now they will win this conflict even if it’s contrary to all sense. Then what?- The Saudi policy is destroy and rule. When the war is over, the “victors” will not rebuild the devastated country. Any doubters should ask Gaza. Just six months after international donors pledged $3.5 billion towards the rebuilding of Gaza, following Israel's war last summer, only 26.8 percent of those funds have been disbursed. According to 46 humanitarian organizations, reconstruction has barely begun and the civilian population remains strangled by an economic and military siege. There is no reason to think Yemen will have a different fate.  - US warplanes help select potential targets for Saudi planes. It’s a controversial move since the Saudis have killed an enormous number of civilians in their strikes – over 2,500 so far.

Cees Page 7 of 8 15/04/2023

By Capt (Ret) C de Waart, feel free to share: in Confidence

Again, with Gaza in mind, Saudi and American war criminals – like their Israeli cohorts - will never be held to account at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.- Iran is urging the formation of a new Yemeni government and offering its help in the negotiations, citing its own involvement in the 2001 Bonn Conference, which established the post-Taliban government in Afghanistan. This has fallen into deaf ears in Riyadh. The Saudis aren’t keen on elections and want fugitive dictator Hadi back in power at all cost. They insist this can only happen through an open-ended war, a bad idea per se.  - While Saudi aims remain uncertain, Ansarullah are fighting against al-Qaeda and ISIL. If they suffer a defeat, the country will fall into the hands of terrorist groups. Riyadh is only trying to suppress a Shia minority in both Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Any ground intrusion will make things worse. - When the resistance is out of the picture the whole country will be ruled by the terrorist groups of ISIL and al-Qaeda, and this will turn into a bigger mess than Iraq and Syria. The House of Saud sees Yemen as their backyard. If the crisis spills over and gets to Arabia, the US will have to step in to save Riyadh. And we know what happens when the blood-drenched War Party decides to step in… . Taken together, all history is current and the House of Saud cannot escape history. They don’t have the greatness to bend history either. To save themselves, they must stop this self-defeating warfare and accept the settlement that might not satisfy them, but at least bring stability to Yemen for now. Running around in circles, patching together coalitions here, acquiring strange bedfellows there, and sending Yemen back to the 8th century will not save the House of Saud from itself. All truth, after all, is only common sense clarified.  

London, April 15 — More than 1,200 people fleeing conflict in Yemen have reached the Horn of Africa by boat in the past two weeks, using a route taken in the past by African refugees headed in the opposite direction, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday. Despite fuel shortages and the high fees charged by smugglers, hundreds of Yemenis and Somalis and a small number of Ethiopians and Djiboutians have arrived in Somalia and Djibouti after an "extremely dangerous" 24-hour journey across the Gulf of Aden, the UNHCR said. "The difficult situation in Yemen is pushing people to make the dangerous journey across the Gulf of Aden in extremely difficult conditions," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a phone interview from Geneva. "People end up in open waters where there are no search and rescue operations ... they are fleeing ill-prepared and the journey is very risky."

Cees Page 8 of 8 15/04/2023