YEMEN FACE WAR OF AGGRESSION from
US and SAUDIS with FOCUS on IRAN
RT latest news: Saudi Arabia bombs Yemen, launches coalition op against Houthi rebels http://rt.com/news/244117-saudi-arabia-bombs-yemen-houthis/
----
Check background
Check background
----
CHECK EURONEWS.COM &
REUTERS about this issue
and compared with US corporate
media saying.
1-
25/03 11:37 CET.
Aides to Yemen’s President Hadi have denied that he has fled
abroad in the face of an advance by Houthi rebels, following a report quoting the presidential
guard which said he had left the country.
Two officials insisted he was still in Aden and had no plans
to leave. The president has been based in Aden since fleeing Sanaa last month.
Although forces loyal to Hadi have been rallying to defend
the city, Houthi fighters are said to have advanced to within 40 kilometres
after overrunning Yemen’s largest air base at al-Anad.
That information has not been confirmed, but residents and
security sources have reported heavy fighting. People in Aden say public sector
workers have been told to go home, with some taking up arms.
Yemen’s third-largest city Taiz was taken by the
Iranian-backed Shia rebels at the weekend. There, thousands took to the streets
to protest against the Houthi takeover. Several people were killed in clashes
with the rebels.
President Hadi has called for international military
intervention to protect the country.
The Houthis’ advance into Sunni Muslim areas has raised
fears that regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia could be drawn into the Yemeni
conflict.
----
RELATED in Euronews
Men
minister calls for military assistance from Gulf Arab states : The
Yemeni President, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, ousted by the Houthis, has
established a power centre in the southern port city of Aden. The advance of
the Houthis – who share a Shi’te Muslim ideology with Iran – has alarmed the
Gulf states.Saudi Arabia’s government has said that it will take “necessary
measures to protect the region from aggression.” The United Nations has warned
that Yemen is on the brink of civil war. http://www.euronews.com/2015/03/24/yemen-minister-calls-for-military-assistance-from-gulf-arab-states/
[It was a civil war but with foreign military intervention
from Saudis, it is a war of aggression].
----
RELATED in GLOBAL RESEARCH: background
----
----
----
----
2-
By Alasdair Sandford | With
REUTERS. 25/03
Strategically important at the crossroads between East and
West, Yemen’s four-year political crisis has recently been escalating into a
full-blown war. The United Nations special envoy told the Security Council on
March 22 that Yemen was on a ‘rapid downward spiral’, with the conflict
taking on ‘worrying sectarian tones and deepening north-south divisions’.
The conflict echoes across the wider Middle East, bringing
into play regional rivalries between Saudi Arabia and Iran that have
been compared to a ‘Cold War’ scenario.
Riyadh accuses Tehran of sowing sectarian strife through its
support for the Houthis. Sunni Arab monarchies around Yemen have condemned the takeover by Shia rebels
as a coup, and there have been calls for military intervention in favour of
President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
But the struggle for power that has plunged Yemen into chaos
involves a complex array of local as well as international forces, which have
been described as a ‘toxic mix’ of competing interests. The crisis cuts through the country’s
political, tribal, regional and sectarian layers.
MAIN FACTIONS IN CONFLICT
The Houthis, or Ansarullah
The group began as a movement of young men called the
Believing Youth, set up in 1992. This was a revivalist movement for the Zaydi
form of Shia Islam. The Houthis are named after Hussein Badr al-Deen al-Houthi,
who led the first uprising. The group is allied to Iran, though opinions differ as to the degree of
control Tehran exerts over it. It denies claims that Iran has provided military
training and says it has no sectarian agenda, describing its takeover of much
of the country as a revolution for all Yemenis.
President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi
Elected as an interim president in 2012 to lead a transition
towards democracy, President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was besieged in his
residence by the Houthis after they seized Sanaa. The former army general
resigned in January and was put under house arrest. Hadi escaped last month to
Aden, repudiated his resignation and formed a government there. He called on
the army to join him.
The president has called on the UN Security Council to back
military action by “willing countries” to combat the Houthi advance, and has
also asked the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council for help.
Ali Abdullah Saleh
The ruler of north Yemen from 1978 and of the unified state
from 1990 was forced to concede power in 2011 after mass protests, although he
remained ceremonial president until 2012. Western countries accuse him of using
his wide influence in an attempt to win back power.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
AQAP has been the most active wing of the Islamist militant
movement for years, plotting attacks on international airliners and launching
raids into Saudi Arabia. It has carried out a deadly
raid against Yemen’s security forces and claimed responsibility for the attack
on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris that killed 12 last January.
MAIN ISSUES
A worst case scenario – sectarian war with foreign powers
backing opposing sides – would deepen already grave humanitarian suffering and
endanger strategic shipping lanes.
Sectarianism
Zaydi Islam, an offshoot of Shi’ism, predominates in the
northern highlands while Sunni Shafi’i Islam is the majority school in the
south and east. Unlike in Syria and Iraq, however, followers of the two schools
pray together in the same mosques and have peacefully coexisted for centuries.
Sea navigation
The threat of war has raised fears over the security of oil
supplies through the Bab al-Mandab shipping lane, a vital energy gateway for
Europe, Asia and the United States. More than 3.4 million barrels of oil per
day passed through Bab el-Mandeb in 2013, according to the US Energy
Information Administration.
Islamic militancy and Al Qaeda
Yemen is the base of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, one
of the network’s most ambitious branches. AQAP has seized parts of the remote
south and east, and stands to gain if the Yemeni military continues to split
and relent in its military campaign against it.
Humanitarian crisis
The erosion of the central government would worsen already
chronic poverty and lack of development in Yemen. Saudi Arabia has suspended
most of its financial aid to Yemen, worried that the Houthis will grab it,
Yemeni and Western sources say. Fighting temporarily displaced around 100,000
people last year, according to the United Nations.
YEMEN AT A GLANCE
Population: 24.4 million (2013)
GDP: 32.8 billion € (2013)
GDP per capita: 1257 €
Surface area: 527.968 square kilometers
Life expectancy: 63 years old
Sources: UN, World Bank
Transparency International corruption ranking: 161
(of 171)
RSF press freedom ranking: 167 (of 180)
By Alasdair Sandford | With REUTERS
====
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario