The Americans create “Yemenistan”
In parallel with the US-British disciplinary strikes on the Houthi group in its strongholds in the Saada Mountains, Hodeidah, Sanaa, and Hajjah, the Special Envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking, is also pushing diplomatic efforts, parallel to those undertaken by the head of US diplomacy, Anthony Blicken, to obtain a settlement that ends the war in Gaza, even if it is a snatch. A humanitarian truce. The scene seems more surreal than realistic.
In no way can we ignore historical and political contexts that impose their presence in such political settlements, which will have an impact on the political reality in the region and even on the world. The political and military intersections constitute a huge challenge in the Yemeni crisis, but the American approach needs corrections so that the region does not reap another version of the Afghan crisis.
The US special envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking, said in a speech from the Middle East Institute: “The sooner we reduce the escalation in the Red Sea, the sooner the international community will refocus on the issue of peace in Yemen, an issue that represents a top priority for the administration.” “The United States is as much as it means to the Yemenis themselves,” and he said: “What the Houthis are doing is harmful to peace in Yemen and will negatively affect more Yemenis who are already facing high levels of pressure and tension as a result of the war, and because of the damaged infrastructure, and the lack of humanitarian supplies,” this is what was stated in the statement. The American envoy was published on the official page of the US State Department on the X platform.
When focusing on the words of the American envoy, we find that there is either confusion in understanding the scene or there is an acknowledgment that Yemen and the region must accept the imposition of a fait accompli by empowering a radical group that Washington is about to register on the list of terrorist groups, and here the matter cannot be presented as confusion or failure. Comprehension and understanding of the reality of the group and its alliances with Islamist groups in Yemen.
The outcome of the political settlement path can be deduced in advance. While the Yemeni Presidential Council, since April 2022, has been unable to reach an internal consensus on the most important items of the Riyadh consultations regarding the formation of the negotiating delegation allocated to the final political settlement, on the other hand, we see a “Houthi” escalation in the southern Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab that requires the formation of a military alliance. Internationally, to try to contain it, the “Houthi” group imposed rules of engagement at a turbulent time, with a higher-level clash following the “Hamas” attack in Gaza on October 7, 2023, which changed important balances. The importance of the “Houthis” among Iran’s arms in the Middle East increased to the point that it It raised a question in circles affiliated with the resistance axis, whether it had displaced the Lebanese Hezbollah, or if it was at least equal to it in importance.
This high degree exacerbates the importance of looking at what the Yemeni political settlement will lead to, which may distance the Arab coalition from the Yemeni file after nearly a decade of being immersed in its minute details. Appreciating the situation requires looking at it from the perspective of the distant future. Giving the Houthis political legitimacy negates the gains of Operation Decisive Storm, one of the most important declared goals of which was to secure Aden.
Profound transformations have taken place in the Yemeni scene so that the Houthis and extremist organizations are unable to impose control and make efforts that cannot be accepted to be wasted within what is supposed to be a peace settlement, while in its content it is more like a losing deal. Legitimizing the “Houthi” group will impose rules of engagement on the countries of the region that are different from what previously existed, and it can be considered something that will make Iran and its allies among the “political Islam” groups control a wide geographical area of the Arabian Peninsula. Assessments based on solutions that do not see the future are wrong assessments, such as those that appeared during the 1960s and produced a politically failed Yemen, and here we are on the threshold of the formation of a “Yemenistan” manufactured by American hands.
*Yemeni writer
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