Together with its typical stone houses, intense unemployment, high birth rates, arduous climate conditions and low literacy rates, Yemen, which links the Red sea to the Indian Ocean, has come to the world agenda due to its domestic conflicts in recent last years.
Northern Yemen, which shared a common history with the Ottomans for 400 years, and Southern Yemen, which in 1967 won its independence from British rule, has witnessed rebellions, since its unification in 1990.The deportation of almost 1 million Yemenis by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as retaliation for the actions of the Yemeni government, which had politically supported Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War of 1991, became a huge problem after unification. In addition to the border disagreement with Saudi Arabia, the recent conflicts that have erupted in the North and South regions of the country, and the activities of Al Qaeda, have all contributed to the instability in the country in the following years since reunification.
Apart from the domestic conflicts that plague Yemen, agricultural damage stemming from the dry weather affect the agricultural dominated economy and forces the people to import foods from the outside. Their economy relies on petrol too which decreases, and because of the increasing inflation, the people are becoming poorer.
The Sunni dominated central government has to cope with separatist groups in the South. Following the unification of South Yemen, where a Marxist regime governed for 20 years, by the Northern Yemen leader Abdullah Ali Salih in 1990, the country had a civil war in 1994, but the Salih government continued to govern the country. The South also complains because of their belief that they remain poor because of the center government.
When it comes to Al Qaeda, it has attacked government owned and foreign petrol facilities, tourists, ambassadors and cultural centers of Western countries. From the point of al Qaeda, the geographical structure of Yemen is important. the countries to the North have petrol dollars and US deployment and Yemen is also close to other US allies such as Egypt, Ethiopia, and Israel. It has a central government similar to Sudan which is too weak to control the country because of domestic chaos and economic insufficiency. The latter issues put Yemen in a position to be an ideal country for al Qaeda. Similar to how radical Salafies have not attacked Shia's in Saudi Arabia, it is interesting that they do not attack Shia Zaidies, which make up around 40 percent of Yemen's population. The Yemeni government, which focused on the North for a long time, has also been warned by the US for its claim that its efforts have been ineffective against al-Qaeda.
As for the North, the government has faced difficult days because of the Houties from the Shia's Zaidies branch, claiming that the government is unjust towards them and they only defend themselves. Problems in the region have emerged from the coming together of ideology, political, geographical and underdevelopment problems. The group has been known as Houti since the death of their leader in 2004, Hussain Badrattin Al-Houti. The organization known as “The Believer Youths” and their activities resemble those of Lebanon's Hezbollah from some points and are today lead l by Abdul Malek Al Houti . The conflict continuing from June 2004, has lead to the deaths of thousands and the deportation of tens of thousands. Retaliation of the Houties by Saudis after their attack on the Saudi border on November 5th also demonstrates the situation of Saudi Arabia's intervention in Yemeni territories.
After one and a half years since the agreement between Yemen and rebels, and with Qatar's mediation, the conflicts began when the Houties closed the highway links between the Sa'ada region of the North and the capital of Sana'a. They also tried to expand by reaching people in the cities and attacked military camps. Moreover, their efforts to establish their military training camps in Sa'ada, holding schools and police stations were also indicators of their marginalization in the North region. Houties have been criticizing the center on the issues of their underdevelopment and for its relationship with the US and the West. While President Salih says that Houties do not accept the 1962 Revolution, and want to establish their own clerical governing, Houties state that they want justice and are only conducting self defense. As a result of the conflict, more than 150.000 people have been deported since 2004, and relief organizations can not enter some parts of the Houti dominated Sa'ada city.
Iran's increased competition with the region's other regimes because of the change in balance between Shia and Sunni extremists, and the radical anti-Western groups in the Gulf, have created a complicated relationship for all sides. As for Yemen and Saudi Arabia, they are both in more danger than the other countries in the Gulf by these radical groups; however, while Saudi Arabia can adopt some measures as one of the richest countries in the world, the situation of Yemen's weak government, specifically one of the weakest countries among the Arab region, is very different. When it comes to Iran, accused by the Yemeni government and Saudi Arabia for supporting Houties, it does not accept these accusations and says that the groups rebel against the government because of corruption and domestic disagreements.
Houties are also accused by President Ali Abdollah Salih of receiving money and weapon support from Iran, and a short time ago, the Yemeni media broadcasted news on the attempts to bring weapons to the country by an Iranian ship. Yet the foreign support is not accepted by Houties and they claim that all of their equipment is coming from domestic sources. Saudi Arabia, which perceives Iran as a threat and is accused by Houties, accuses Iran for triggering events. These accusations and the Sunni-Shia dimension of the conflicts are especially voiced by the Saudi financed media. However, it must be remembered that beyond the sect differences, the competition between these two countries is based on regional leadership, relations with the US and nuclear dangers. Thereby, Yemen also joined other Arab countries' anti-Iran line. This means that, instead of the conditions listed by the Arab Initiative for the normalization with Israel, and because of the common position of Israel and Arab countries against Iran, this paves the way for normalization with Israel. Apart from the events which became a civil conflict, Yemen transformed to a field of conflict because of both these countries. From the point of Saudi Arabia to have a country at the North of Yemen similar to Iran, and supported by Iran, would create an enemy at the borders of Saudi Arabia.
It seems that the question of whether the Houties are a part of an internal problem or if the continuity of these events is provided by the regional triggers, remains to be answered because of regional ambiguities.
