Almost
three years have passed since Saudi Arabia announced it was
intervening militarily, with its allies, in Yemen, to remove the
Houthis (officially called Ansar Allah) from power after they had
taken over the capital. Western analysts saw it as a bold move from
recently-empowered (deputy) crown prince Mohammad bin Salman (MbS),
weapons manufacturers and their political representatives were
delighted. But what had been predicted as a swift military operation
has turned into a humiliating stalemate. Unable to impose its will by
force, Saudi Arabia and its bold prince have resorted to war crimes
and collective punishment, imposing a humanitarian catastrophe on the
Yemeni people.
by
Ricardo Vaz
Part
3 - War, what is it good for?
Articles
no longer wonder what this war is even about, and why it continues.
Impunity on the global stage usually comes hand in hand with
indifference in the media. For one, beyond the lucrative weapons
dealing, it is a matter of letting the Saudis do what they want. With
trillions of dollars looming large in the near future with major
privatisation plans in motion, including of Saudi Aramco, letting
millions of unworthy victims die in Yemen is a small price to pay.
The Saudi crown prince can throw a tantrum, launch a deadly war and
kill millions in the process and get away with it because he is
sitting on a giant pile of money.
The
“Iran is behind it” angle is not very convincing for anyone who
can look at a map. Given that the Saudis and local allies control the
gulf of Aden, Iranian ships laden with weapons cannot exactly waltz
all the way to northern Yemen and Sanaa. The same applies to the
airspace, which is entirely controlled by the Saudis. So while Iran
may have managed to send some support and advisors, it is laughable
to describe the Houthis as Iranian-controlled or even Iranian-backed.
But as is often the case, bogeymen tend to have fantastical
properties.
In the
beginning of the war we often heard that the war was about restoring
Yemen’s legitimate, democratically-elected government. Dozens of
journalists wrote that the backward kingdom of Saudi Arabia was
launching a war to restore democracy without sensing that something
was off. The articles usually mentioned that Yemen was emerging from
decades of dictatorship under Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh had ruled
Yemen with an iron fist, and had been a useful ally both for Saudi
Arabia and the US, which has been drone-bombing everything in the
vicinity of a cellphone that once belonged to an alleged terror
suspect.
When
massive protests starting in 2011 forced Saleh out, the US and the
Saudis scrambled to salvage the situation. In the end they managed to
get all parties, including the Houthis, to agree to a political
transition. This included an election in which Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi
ran as the only candidate. So he is the legitimate president to be
restored, but the media never mention that he had been vice-dictator
for 20 years. One election with no other candidates and voilà, you
get all the stamps you need from the western press.
What the
articles also forget to mention is that Hadi’s term was supposed to
finish in late 2014, and it was only after he did not deliver on
political and economic measures that the Houthis seized power. Now,
after almost three years of a Saudi war imposing death and misery on
the Yemeni people on his behalf, who can refer to Hadi as being
internationally recognised? What is that recognition even worth? And
to add insult to injury, it seems Hadi is now allegedly under house
arrest.
The
Saudis latest gamble involved getting their former friend Saleh to
turn against the Houthis. Given their long history of oppression at
the hands of Saleh and the fact that there had been previous armed
uprisings, this alliance was always going to be fragile. Saleh
thought there was an opening, and Saudi air cover, for him to make a
move and restore normal subservience to the northern neighbour. But
the move backfired, Saleh ended up killed and, according to reports,
the Houthis regained full control of the capital. Otherwise the media
rehabilitation of Saleh as the man who restored Yemeni democracy
would be in full-swing by now.
In
summary, an entitled royal with a short temper and a large arsenal
plunged himself into an endless war because Saudi Arabia, with its
very fragile legitimacy, cannot tolerate an insubordinate neighbour.
But it takes more than weapons, and the Saudis have lots of them, to
subjugate a people. Only those who are too short-sighted or too eager
to push the Iran angle cannot see that not only are the Houthis a
Yemeni movement with ample support on the ground, they have also
proven themselves a mighty opponent on their home turf.
The war
has turned into a conflict that the Saudis cannot win, but still
there is no end in sight. The Saudis are willing to let millions die
because they can do so with impunity. And their western sponsors are
also happy to let this genocide carry on. Because although it might
cause some PR problems, it is, both in the short and long run, great
for business, and at the end of the day that is what western foreign
policy has always been about.
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