Crisis and war in Yemen

Written by: Dr. Aidrous Nasr Nasser Al-Naqeeb

[su_dropcap]M[/su_dropcap]any outside observers of the crisis and war in Yemen believe that what is happening is a confrontation between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
In fact, the crisis and war in Yemen have different political, social, and sectarian dimensions and backgrounds, which can be summarized as follow:
The first issue: the struggle between legitimacy and coup
The conflict  between the government of legitimacy headed by President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the Houthi putschists and their allies is based on a historical background extending more than half a century due to the conflict between the supporters of the republic (legitimacy) and aspirants to restore the monarchy that fell in September 1962.
Behind this conflict lies another dichotomy related to the sectarian disparity between Zaidi extremist groups whose members claim their right to rule Yemen on the pretext that they are descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, led by the Houthi group, and the Sunni majority (Shafi’i followers), a weaker majority throughout history. Who is not convinced by this argument.
The problem in this conflict is that both its sides are rooted in corruption, failure and the absence of any popular incubator, and while the Houthis rely on force and cruelty and coercion of people to submit to them based on the background of sectarian and ideological racism, while receiving material, military and media support from Iran, The legitimate government relies in every way on supporting the Arab coalition (Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) from the salaries of military and civilian government officials to supplying the army with weapons and aerial bombardment of Houthi positions, which prolong the war and increase its tragic consequences.
The second issue: the southern issue
The background of this issue is that the current Republic of Yemen, which is going through this stormy crisis, was the result of a merger between two former states (the Arab Republic of Yemen in the North and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen in the South). During three years, disputes between the two leaderships and armed confrontations between their supporters led to the outbreak of what became known as the war of 1994, which led to the invasion of the north of the south and the elimination of the remaining features of the state in it They divided their wealth, excluded their people, drove them out of their jobs in the army, security, and the administrative apparatus and dominated their rule for a quarter of a century.
Because of this dysfunctional situation, a peaceful southern revolution erupted in 2007, and its demands for the disengagement between the two countries and the return to the borders of 1990 escalated.
After President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi escaped from Sana’a and took refuge in Aden, and then attacked the Houthi group along with supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to the city of Aden and the southern areas, the southerners stood beside President Hadi and his legitimacy. Less than ninety days, but the corrupt supporters of legitimacy and in the forefront of the Muslim Brotherhood who are hated in the north and their bad reputation in the south because of their participation of former President Saleh in the war on the south raced to dominate the decisions of President Hadi and then influence the situation in the south and deprive him of Any form of services such as medical, water, electricity and municipal services, protection of security and stability, and maintenance of people’s lives and interests.
All this led the southerners to lose hope in Hadi and his legitimacy, which led to conflicts between the legitimate government that did not provide any service to the citizens of the south and the citizens who feel that this government does not represent them, while strongly demanding the restoration of their state on the borders of 1990 (the year of unification between the two countries) )
Thus, it turns out that the Iranian and Saudi presence in the Yemeny crisis could not have had an impact without the internal factors that led to the eruption of the situation and the division and dispersion of society as we have seen, and that the Yemeni problems are a complex of complications and complications due to the accumulations of hundreds of years of wars, confrontations, hatred and accumulated hatred, not External interference in them is only a minor component