Present situation : Saudi Arab led campaign in Yemen
1)
Saudi warplanes bombed Huthi rebels in Yemen, launching an Arab
military intervention in support of its embattled President.
2)
The rebels and their allies within the armed forces had been
closing in on main southern city Aden where President Mansour Hadi has been
holed up since fleeing the rebel-controlled capital Sana’a last month.
3)
Huthi rebels advance had raised fears in Saudi Arabia that the Shia
minority rebels would seize control of the whole of its Sunni-majority
neighbour and take it into the orbit of Shia Iran.
4)
Iran condemned the Saudi led intervention against its
coreligionists as “a dangerous step” that violated “international
responsibilities and national sovereignty.”
5)
Riyadh’s move is the latest front in a growing regional contest
for power with Iran.
Ø The contest is also
playing out in Syria, where Tehran backs Mr. Assad’s government against mainly
Sunni rebels
Ø It is also being played
in Iraq, where Iranian-backed Shia militias are playing a major role in fighting
Yemen crisis
1)
Yemen is in the
grip of its most severe crisis in years, as competing forces fight for control
of the country.
2) The
tussle for power in Yemen has serious implications for the region and the
security of the West.
Who is fighting whom?
1)
The main fight is between forces loyal to the
beleaguered President, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, and those allied to Zaidi Shia
rebels known as Huthis, who forced Mr .Hadi to flee the capital Sanaa in
February.
2)
Yemen's security forces have split loyalties,
with some units backing Mr Hadi, and others the Huthi and Mr Hadi's predecessor
Ali Abdullah Saleh.
3)
Mr Hadi is also supported in the predominantly
Sunni south of the country by militia known as Popular Resistance Committees
and local tribesmen.
4)
Both President Hadi and the Huthi are opposed
by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
5)
The picture is further complicated by the
emergence in late 2014 of a Yemen affiliate of the jihadist group Islamic
State, which seeks to eclipse AQAP.
Saudi intervention
1)
After rebel forces closed in on the President's
southern stronghold of Aden in late March, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia
responded to a request by Mr Hadi to intervene.
2)
The coalition comprises five Gulf Arab states
and Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan and Sudan.
Implication of the crisis around the world
1)
Yemen crisis can greatly exacerbate regional
tensions.
2)
It also worries the West because of the threat
of attacks emanating from the country as it becomes more unstable.
3)
The conflict between the Huthi and the elected
government is also seen as part of a regional power struggle between Shia-ruled
Iran and Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia.
Ø Gulf
Arab states have accused Iran of backing the Huthi financially and militarily
4)
Yemen is strategically important because it
sits on the Bab al-Mandab strait, a narrow waterway linking the Red Sea with
the Gulf of Aden, through which much of the world's oil shipments pass.
Ø Egypt
and Saudi Arabia fear a Huthi takeover would threaten free passage through the strait.
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