Riyadh Enters the Yemen-Huthi Fray
2012; Middle East Forum; Volume: 19; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2767-049X
Autores Tópico(s)Global Peace and Security Dynamics
ResumoOn August 11, 2009, the Yemeni government launched Operation Scorched Earth, aimed at putting an end to the uprising that had destabilized the country's northern province of Sa' da for more than five years. As fighting spread to the province's border with Saudi Arabia, fighters attacked a Saudi border post in early November, killing one guard and injuring eleven. The Saudi government immediately declared that the rebels had crossed a red line and began bombing positions along the border. Yet what was apparently conceived as a quick operation to clear the region of infiltrators turned into a major operation involving ground troops and air power, which lasted slightly over three months and exacted more than a hundred Saudi casualties.1 While the Yemeni government emphasized two major aspects of the conflict - the Huthis' desire to reinstate the imamate that was overthrown in 1 962, and their being an Iranian proxy that had no popular legitimacy2 - the most recent round of fighting leading up to the Saudi intervention was in fact driven by local concerns: the fight between the s and the Yemeni government for control over the main roads in Sa' da and Riyadh's long-standing concern to secure its border with Yemen. Given Riyadh's worries about its own potentially restive Shiite population, on the one hand, and San'a's inability to curb the influence of the Huthis' Zaidi revivalism, on the other, the Saudi government will probably continue to amplify Tehran's supposed involvement in the region as it has done on various occasions since 1979. Still, the Huthis' subservience to Tehran has never been fully substantiated. THE UPRISING The rebels have been fighting the Yemeni government since 2004 and are followers of Hussein al-Huthi, a sayyid (descendant of the Prophet Muhammad through his grandchildren Hussein and Hassan), who headed a network of education centers initially called the Believing Youth Club (BYC, al-Shabab al-Mumin). Founded in 1991 by a group of activists that included Hussein's brother Muhammad, the BYC aimed at providing education to the youth of Sa5 da while reviving the influence of Zaidia, a Shiite branch endemic to Yemen, which had been in decline since the overthrow of the imamate.3 The group quickly expanded, opening centers throughout Sa'da province and the adjacent provinces of al-Jawf and Amran. By the middle of the decade, ideological differences and rapid growth led to an internal split within the group. The branch that took control of most centers fell under the influence of Hussein al-Huthi, who acquired a loyal following among group members. Elected to represent his home district of Haydan (Sa'da province) in parliament in 1993, quit politics fouryears later and went to Sudan to pursue a degree in Qur'anic studies. After returning to Yemen, he became more involved in the BYC and led the group in an increasingly political direction. His sermons, which became the basis of the group's ideological and political platform, focused among other things on the weakness of the Arab nation and the need to confront Israel, the United States, and their regional clients, an indirect indictment of the Yemeni government4 The Yemeni authorities were accustomed to overseeing and monitoring the activities of nongovernmental groups, and the BYC was no exception. Only in the early 2000s, though, did they begin expressing serious concern with some BYC activities, particularly after the group adopted as its slogan Allahu Akbar! Death to America! Death to Israel! Curse the Jews! Victory to Islam! Unwilling to capitulate to government demands to stop using the slogan and otherwise cease defying the state, was declared persona non grata. When in June 2004 a large group of followers chanted the slogan outside the Great Mosque in San'a, security forces were sent to detain him at his mountain stronghold thus triggering the Huthi uprising.5 The first round of fighting (June-September 2004) took place mostly around the Marran Mountains (in the western part of Sa'da province) where and a group of his followers evaded government forces for months and ended when was killed in September 2004. …
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