Why the world ignores Yemen ?!

By Professor Juan Cole

At about 4:30 on a sunny day in April 1937, the left-wing inhabitants of the Spanish Basque town of Granica felt stunned – and then panicked by the bombing campaign by the German Nazis, who repeatedly beat them for two consecutive hours, throwing about fifty tons of bombs And the aircraft left the airspace, leaving the massacre and burning of twenty percent of the city.

The raids and massacres shocked the conscience of the world and inspired painter Pablo Picasso to paint the most famous painting Picasso, inspired by that devastating day. I recently saw that painting in Madrid this spring. I did not notice the bodies lying on the floor, the bloody horse or the man with the right hand, and the sword in his right hand, as much as I was attracted and terrified by the sight of a woman who was carrying a dead child in her arms, screaming and consoling and mad. What has struck me in my mind is how our conscience has become more gross and rude, and we witness hundreds of massacres of “garnica” every month and every week in Yemen.

Last week, Saudi-led warplanes bombarded al-Atira village in Taiz province, south of Sanaa, targeting a refugee shelter and killing 20 innocent civilians. The victims were IDPs who fled the hell of war, and most of the victims were from three families. Including seven women and four children. I was just wondering whether the surviving mother, carrying her child in her arms, the same way that a woman did “Picasso” bereaved!

In all parts of Yemen, the Saudi-led coalition – with the logistical, strategic and intelligence support of the US military – has been in full swing, in the same manner as the Basque Nazis, beating civilian facilities, homes, schools, hospitals and major bridges used in transport Food and others. The air strikes were distorted by the old Sanaa, a heritage and historical site that UNESCO has listed as a heritage, and some of its historical neighborhoods have been turned into rubble and debris.

The area is under the control of the Huthis group, which took control of the capital in a deliberate move in September 2014, and strengthened the rule over much of the north and west of the country in the following months, and Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia. The Houthis are the Zaydi branch of the moderate Shiite sect and denounce the growing influence of Saudi Wahhabism.

By March 2015, Saudi Arabia and its allies, along with Mansour Hadi and part of his loyal army, had taken control of the southern city of Aden and besieged Huthis and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who later allied themselves with the Houthis against the alliance.

The Saudis claim that the Houthis are supported by Iran, but are often active local movements. Iranian support for them is negligible. While the Saudis were mainly active in the air, their ally, the United Arab Emirates, established elite combat units in southern Yemen from the separatist movement, simulating the pro-Hadi army in the south and east.

The intense bombardment of Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, came as part of a coalition bid to seize the city and entire province of the Houthis and their allies. Taiz is now divided between areas controlled by Houthis and their allies on the one hand and controlled by coalition-backed forces. Coalition sources claim that they seized the road from Hodeidah port, controlled by the Houthis on the Red Sea to Taiz, which cut off the main road to supply the Houthis and their allies in the city south of the capital Sana’a. The United Arab Emirates appears to be in control of another important port, the Al-Mukha port, which overlooks the entrance of the Red Sea in the Bab al-Mandab Straits. Abu Dhabi is currently installing long-term garages for the UAE. About 10 per cent of world trade passes through the Bab al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea.

Yemen and the Gulf crisis

The Yemeni war is one of the factors of concern that led to the current crisis in the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes six countries – Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait on the one hand, and Qatar on the other (with the exception of Oman). Qatar did not agree to large-scale military intervention in Yemen, urging negotiations with the Huthis and sending only a token force to help guard the Saudi border from reprisals from within Yemen. When Saudi King Salman and the Gulf’s three closest Gulf allies in June, the ruler of the small Emirate, Sheikh Tamim al-Thani, withdrew his troops from the Saudi border region in full. These borders are now the scene of fighting.