Dividing Yemen a key Saudi-UAE objective, analyst says
On the surface, Saudi Arabia and the UAE share the strategic objective of preventing their archenemy Iran from securing a foothold in their back yard on the Arabian Peninsula through their Houthi allies.
Both, however, have different visions of Yemen's future.
Yemen was unified in 1990 when the Arab Republic of Yemen (North Yemen) was merged with the Marxist People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen), after the collapse of its main backer the Soviet Union.
A civil war four years later resulted in North Yemen occupying the south to keep the country intact.
As a unified nation of about 28 million people, Yemen is the second-most populous country in the Arabian Peninsula after Saudi Arabia. With proven oil reserves and strategic ports, it has the potential of becoming a regional power if it stabilises, becomes democratic, and reduces its dire poverty, analysts say.
Despite its potential, Yemen remains the poorest Arab nation and state functions - especially its war-devastated healthcare system - are teetering on the brink of collapse. Yemenis throughout the country are suffering from desperate poverty and lack the ability to fight the spread of coronavirus because of the five-year conflict.
Gamal Gasim, a Yemen analyst and professor of political science at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, said the UAE has two main strategic objectives in Yemen.
"The first is to divide Yemen and the second is to destroy the al-Islah party," he said of the largest Islamist political faction in Yemen with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is currently the main group fighting the Houthis in the north.
"None of the Gulf nations was really supportive of Yemen's unity in 1990, especially Saudi Arabia," Gasim told Al Jazeera.
"Unlike the UAE, Saudi Arabia cannot extract itself from Yemen so easily because it considers it part of its sphere of influence in the region. Saudi Arabia's main objective in Yemen is to maintain it as a weak state beholden to its objectives."
The best Saudi Arabia can hope for now is to keep Yemen in a "low-grade" conflict that will maintain its weakness and prevent it from threatening Riyadh's regional hegemony, Gasim said.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/dividing-yemen-key-saudi-uae-objective-analyst-200427083159938.html
Important. Solidarity with Yemen!
