Thread by @WholePicture_

#Thread about #Yemen #YemenCrisis #USA #Biden #Trump #terrorism
nzz.ch/international/…

Ten years ago Yemen had reached a dead end and was perceived as a failed state. ......

Ali Abdullah Saleh was completing the transformation into an autocratic state, creating such problems that it took a miracle to prevent the fall into the abyss.

The revolution was directed against the corrupt and clientelist rule of Saleh, which led to the impoverishment of #Yemen , left many political questions unsolved, weakened state institutions and in the end undermined the republic by attempting to seize power to pass on his son.

After the success of the revolution and the overthrow of Saleh, a peaceful democratic change of power was agreed.

Indeed, all political parties and civil society organizations participated in nearly nine months of inclusive political dialogue that resulted in the drafting of a constitution.

Had it not been for the coup in Saleh and the Houthi militia, we in Yemen would have been only a few steps away from a referendum on the new constitution and the transition to democracy, as was the goal of the revolution.

After his fall in 2011, Saleh allied with the Houthi rebels and enabled them to take the capital Sanaa.

They rebelled against the authoritarian rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had ruled the country with a hard hand since 1978. After months of protests and bloody fighting between rival parties in Sanaa, Saleh was forced to resign in November 2011.

His deputy Abedrabbu Mansur Hadi was commissioned by the Gulf Cooperation Council as transitional president to organize a referendum on a new democratic constitution and to hold elections.

What were the reasons for the failure of the democracy movement?

In my view, there are four main factors: First, the weakness of interim president Abedrabbu Mansur Hadi has prevented him from seriously addressing the challenges of the transition.

Second, the ousted President Saleh used his network of contacts in the state institutions to make it easier for the Houthi putschists to take power and take revenge on the new era.

Third, the rise of the Houthi militia in Yemen's provinces was tolerated by countries in the region in order to eliminate revolutionary forces, including the Islah party, which has been labeled an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Finally, the weakness of state institutions also contributed to the failure of the transition in Yemen.

The US was taken by surprise by the outbreak of the Arab Spring and pretended to be defending the people's desire for change.

In truth, however, they were against real change. This became evident when they sided with the counter-revolution and the military. Nobody in the Arab world still believes their claims.

To be fair, the Arab Spring was initially supported by the Obama administration. Unfortunately, however, it soon gave up its support and decided to remain silent about the military coups that were organized in most countries against the pro-revolutionary transitional governments.

The transition to democracy soon got stuck, however, and in September 2014 the Houthi rebels took advantage of the chaos to occupy the capital Sanaa.

The movement from the ethnic group of the Zaidites, which had repeatedly risen against Saleh since 2004, allied itself with the supporters of its former opponent. In January 2015, the Houthi forced President Hadi to flee Sanaa.

When they marched on the southern port city of Aden in March 2015, a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened to drive the Houthi out of Sanaa and bring Hadi back to power.

Saudi Arabia in particular feared that if the pro-Iranian movement were victorious, Yemen would fall under the influence of its rival Iran.

The bombing campaign supported by the United States and Great Britain destroyed large parts of the infrastructure and plunged Yemen into a serious humanitarian crisis, but Saudi Arabia and its allies did not succeed in defeating the Houthis.

Almost six years after the intervention began, the already underdeveloped country is suffering from poverty and hunger.
The UN's efforts to reach a political agreement to settle the civil war have been stuck for years.

After taking office, the new American President Joe Biden decided to end support for the Saudi air strikes in Yemen.

At the same time, he revised the decision of his predecessor Donald Trump, who shortly before the end of his term in office had classified the Houthi militia as a terrorist organization.

The UN had warned that this would make aid deliveries more difficult and hinder political talks.

The new unity government was recently founded by President Hadi and the secessionists in southern Yemen.

It is questionable, however, whether the “government of expertise” can work effectively, given that expertise means little to the parties. This government was formed according to the ideas of Saudi Arabia, whose ambassador Mohammed al-Jaber supervised the selection of members.

Hence, it cannot be expected to really achieve anything for the Yemeni people. The parties in the government are totally dependent on foreign interests and will pay little attention to working together.