Trump helping Qaeda/ISIS in Yemen more blindly than Obama

Trump helps Qaeda/ISIS in Yemen more blindly than Obama
By Nasser Arrabyee, 02/03/2017

US President Donald Trump has helped Yemen Qaeda/ISIS by his failed commandos raid on one of its strongholds in Al Bayda south east of the country late January.

Recruitment now is more, support from inside and outside is more. Support with money and weapons from Saudi Arabia in particular is more than ever before.

The Qaeda/ISIS leaders in Riyadh are angry because they did not do enough to protect their men in Yemen although they receive support from Saudi regime and Trump administration as Yemen "legitimate" government.

Although, 7 members,at least, of this government are designated by US Treasury Department as global terrorists.

The Qaeda/ISIS operatives, felt maybe, that those leaders in Saudi capital Riyadh "stabbed them at the back". And the leaders themselves in Riyadh might have felt that Trump and Saudi regime "stabbed them at the back!" as well!.

The boss of the men killed in the raid (Qaeda/ISIS operatives&leaders) is Naif Al Qaisy who has been directing Qaeda/ISIS operations against Houthis for about two years now  from Riyadh.

Al Qaisy is the ruler of Albayda State ( as called by Qaeda/ISIS).
Earlier last year, Saudi-backed exiled president Hadi appointed Mr Al Qaisy as the governor of Albayda, making it easier for him to send money and weapons from Riyadh.

Mr Abdul Wahab Al Humaikani, is from Albayda also but another tribe. From Riyadh, he is overseeing the Qaeda/ISIS operations against Houthis. Al Humaikani is one of the 7  members of Yemen exiled government despite the fact that they are global terrorists blacklisted by US Treasury Department.

Shortly after the Trump failed commando raid, two officials at least from Yemen exiled government confirmed that Trump made a big mistake by killing their men.

General Muhsen Khusruf, from Hadi army, said in media statements that the men killed had been a part of the "legitimate" government, a part of the "resistance" against Houthis.
"Sheik Abdul Raof Al Dhahab, was the leader of resistance, he was fighting with us against Houthis and we were in full coordination with him and his men," said Khusruf in reference to the Qaeda/ISIS leader killed the raid.
Mohammed Abdul Majid Al Zandani, son of one of the 7 blacklisted, also from posted in his face book that the men killed by the Trump raid were a part of the "ligitimate" army supported by Saudi to Houthis.
These statements, among others, were contradictory to some Saudi statements that men killed were Qaeda. The Saudi media in English would say Qaeda, and the in Arabic would say  legitimate army or "resistance"  referring to same men.  

Trump failed by sending his men to death, and destroying his advanced helicopters and weapons.  He could have asked his Saudi ally to hand over the men, better than risking commandos life.


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  More related stories below.
     


Obama was seen to support his enemy, Qaeda/ISIS by supporting Saudi Wahabi regime, the spirit of these terrorist groups.

Qaeda/ISIS is the big winner from US-backed Saudi aggression on Yemen. Not only because of exploiting the chaos to further expand and recruit but also it received direct and indirect support (weapons and money) from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates and United States.

At least 7 members of the government  of the exiled President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi are designated by US Treasury Department as global terrorists and commanders of Qaeda/ISIS.

Naif Al Qaisy, Hassan Abkar, Abdul Wahab Humaikani, Abdul Majid Al Zandani,Said Saleh Al Omgi, Mohammed Saleh Al Omgy, and Abdullah Al Ahdal.

Some of these men are senior officials and holding posts in the Saudi-backed government of Yemen, the so-called internationally recognized government based in Riyadh and some of them are field commanders fighting in Yemen with Saudi forces against Houthis.

Naif Al Qaisy,for instance, was appointed by Hadi last year as a governor of Al Baidha, one of the Qaeda/ISIS strongholds north east Sanaa.
Mr Al Qaisy now receives political and financial support as a senior member of the so-called internationally recognized government.
He sends money and weapons from Saudi Arabia to his Qaeda/ISIS followers in Baidha where Anwar Al Awlaki got married to his second wife before being killed by US drone in September 2011.

Hassan Abkar, is the commander of Qaeda/ISIS operations in Al Jawf and Mareb east of the country. Mr Abkar is also chief of Islah party in Al Jawf. Islah party is the Yemen brotherhood party and it's siding publicly with Saudi Arabia against Houthis and their allies.
Mr Abkar is one of close confidants of general Ali Mussen, who was imposed by Saudi regime as vice president ( Hadi deputy) exiled in Riyadh now, despite the fact that he had links with Qaeda during a long history that goes back to 1980s when he recruited most of those Yemenis who went to Afghanistan to fight Soviet Union.

The third example is Abdul Wahab Al Humaikani, secretary general of Al Rashad, Yemen Salafi  party, whose all leaders are now based in Saudi Arabia and their followers are fighting in the ground with Saudi forces against Houhtis in both Yemen and Saudi territories occupied by Houthis as Najran, Jaizan and Asir in south of KSA.

Mr Al Humaikani was assigned by Hadi to go for "peace talks" with Houthis in Geneva where he met and shook hands with former UN secretary General Ban Ki-Moon who only later knew from news reports that he had shaken hands with a global terrorist.  
He is also a graduate from Al Eyman university owned and run by Abdul Majid Al Zandani, the spiritual leader of Osama Bin Laden.
Al Zandani is a senior advisor of both president Hadi and vice president general Muhsen.From Riyadh, he finances and directs his followers who really are Qaeda/ISIS but camouflaged under different nice names such Ansar Al Shariah, resistance, Salafis, brotherhood etc.


For instance, in Taiz city,  central of the country, on January 25th, 2017, Qaeda/ISIS has become the only authority that govern the city, which is the capital of the most populous province in Yemen with 5 million of the 30 million population. The Salaf Jihadist leader, Abu Al Abbas, Qaeda/ISIS operative, is the ruler of Taiz city now. His declared name is the commander of Abu Al Abbas battalions.




The two-year old US-backed Saudi aggression and blockade caused a disastrous humanitarian situation in the poorest Arab country of Yemen. The Yemenis now look at US administration as the killer of Yemen with Saudi hands.

More than 60,000 civilians were killed asleep in houses, schools, hospitals, factories, farms etc, according to local right groups.
More than 3 millions displaced from their houses or became completely homeless. More than 20 millions of the country's 30 million population are food insecure.

The UN talks about 10,000 killed and about 40,000 injured,and these are figures that have not been updated since almost one year. When I asked Yemen UN chief Mr Jamie McGoldrick last week here in Sanaa why they did not update their figures he said: We do not have documents, and more than 55 % of the country's health facilities are not functioning any more after being destroyed.

 Furthermore, local groups have even higher figures although recognize that documenting is extremely difficult under such barbaric aggression of Saudis who keep trying their best to cover up their war crimes.
"From our active volunteers working all over the country in rural and urban&suburban areas, we have documents showing that 500,000 Yemenis died because of aggression over the last two years," said Abdullah Allaw,chairman of local human rights observatory,(www.medfhr.org).
"They died of diseases and malnutrition, and they would not have died if it hadn't been for the Saudi aggression and blockade."

About one million government  employees did not receive salaries for six months now.  Which means the total number of those who depend on government salaries are about 7 millions ( 1 supports 7 on average ).

The central bank has been dismantled by the Saudi-backed President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, in an attempt to further strangle the people under blockade and bombings.

Because of the blockade, the Yemenis can not receive food, nor medicine nor fuels easily. More than 90% of food is imported, and 100 % of the medicines are imported from abroad.

The essential needs of the middle class people are met only by 10 % at most. Which means those who used to buy food for 100 US$ per day, for example, now they buy only for 10 dollars per day for the same members of the family.

" Our food and other essential things we buy now are 90 % less than those before this war," said Raghad Ahmed, who supports six children from her and her husband salaries.  "We have not received salaries for 6 months now, we do not have any other income, our savings near zero, despite the fact that we have only 2 meals per day, and 90 % less than we used to."

All lower class and majority of the middle class in the capital Sanaa can not buy water any more. They receive water only from local charities that installed water tanks in almost every neighborhood in the city and other main cities. Trucks laden with water come every day to fill the tanks and the residents then take their need of water during the 24 hours.

"If these good doers did not bring us this water, we would have died now of thirst, we can not buy water, it's too expensive now, and the earnings of my husband is spent for the rent of house and very few of it for the food," said Um Ibrahim, mother of five, whose husband is a construction worker on daily basis.  

The 13-year old Ibrahim and his father Ahmed stay 24 hours in the site of a new building (still being built) to support their family. Ibrahim helps his father by watching the site and equipments when workers are not there.

"The war killed us all, my kids don't go to school anymore, I need Ibrahim help me here and other kids can not go without money," said Ahmed as he descended from a truck laden with raw rocks nearby his modest house in southern outskirt of Sanaa.

All electricity stations were destroyed by airstrikes at the first weeks of the US-backed Saudi aggression that started on March 26th, 2015.

In addition to all these sufferings because of aggression and blockade, the closure of Sanaa airport and other small airports caused a new kind of painful suffering. More than 25,000 Yemenis are stranded outside Yemen after they had finished medical treatments from serious diseases. Even more numbers of Yemenis now want to go abroad for treatments but they can not because the airports are closed.

"The closure of Sanaa airport is an unprecedented war crime, it is a flagrant violation of all international laws, humanitarian laws, human rights laws," said Minister of Transportation Zakaria Al Shami, who appealed to UN on January 25, 2017 for taking its responsibility for reopening the Sanaa international airport and other Yemeni airports.

"Tens of thousands of Yemenis can not go abroad for medical treatments or any other civil purposes, and many more can not even come back home. This made the humanitarian and health situation even worse and worse."


The Saudi flagrant violations of international law caused increasing demands from international human right groups that inquiry should be conducted by a neutral committee especially after hard evidence was obtained by some groups such amnesty international and human rights watch that some crimes amount to war crimes.

Saudi Arabia repeatedly refused international enquiry into war crimes and other major violations of international law such as using the internationally prohibited cluster bombs.

When cluster bombs first dropped over residential areas in the heart of the capital Sanaa early 2016, the UN officials based in Sanaa saw the remnants of such banned weapons and helped Yemenis in drawing the attention to such crimes.

Sanaa-based head of UN Higher Commissioner for Human Rights Office, George Al Zalaf, was declared as grata non persona by Riyadh-based exiled government of Yemen after he had reported that his staff saw the remnants  of cluster bombs dropped over residential areas of  Sanaa.

Anti-American Sentiment

Yemenis know that most of the Saudi weapons are US-made like Abrams tanks, Bradley vehicle and cluster bombs, not to mention the F16 and F15 fighter jets that fly around the clock over their heads.

So, hatred and Anti-American sentiment is in rise.  Almost every Yemeni hates US leaders because of their support to Saudi aggression on their country. Those who lost dears by Saudi airstrikes on their houses or schools, weddings or funerals, they show hatred to US more than their hatred to Saudi. They all believe that Saudis would not have dared to come fight them without American support and consent.

So activists organized a nation-wide campaign under ( US kills Yemenis people) with all kinds of media taking part until now.

Huge posters in the streets of the main cities read ( America kills Yemeni people. The State-run Tvs, radios and papers have daily shows with the Hashtag ( America kills Yemeni people)

"We made this campaign because the Saudi war was declared against us from Washington not from Riyadh, " Said Mohammed Haidra, the chief of the campaign.

"I and all my sons would go and fight Saudis, killers of our people, and I would call every Yemeni to take gun and go defend our country," said Mohammed Rubaid Wed January 25, 2017 to thousands of people who gathered in Sanaa to commemorate his brother Judge Yahya Rubaid who was killed by Saudi airstrike asleep in his house with his wife and all 7 sons and daughters on January 25th, 2016.

"We must defend ourselves from such crimes and such Saudi tyranny and brutality that exceeds any brutality over history," he added.

The judge Rubaid was trying in absentia the Saudi-backed exiled President Hadi for major treason charges when he was killed with his whole family by airstrike that leveled his 3-floor house in northern outskirt of Sanaa.    




Defiance and steadfastness

" Congratulation dad, for your wedding today, we gonna do the same, promise you," said the 12-year Mohammed while having the last look to his father's dead body before being buried in his village of Sanhan eastern Sanaa. His father,Hassan Al Mulassi, is seen as one of the most respected heroes who led courageous operations inside territories of Najran for about 16 months continuously before he was killed by an airstrikes last September inside Saudi teritories.

"Thanks goodnesst, I am still alive, give me my gun, and let me go to borders for retaliation," said Saleh Al Bukhaiti, from under rubbles of his house. The 62-year old Al Bukhaiti miraculously survived after Saudi airstrikes destroyed his house killing all his family members in Hada district 100 south of Sanaa.


"My son is a bridegroom today," said mother of Saleh as she ululated threw flowers on the coffin of her 22-son who was killed in South Saudi of Jaizan earlier this month while fighting Saudi forces. Two older brothers of Saleh had been earlier killed in the same place.

The father, Ahmed Mohammed, still wants the remaining three to go to the battle.

"I am honored by God to have three of sons martyrs, my remaining three sons are now preparing to fight this barbaric enemy, I myself will go, we will not kneel down but to Allah," said  the father to reporters in funeral of his third son killed here in the martyrs cemetery in southern outskirt of Sanaa.

United Tribesmen

The US-backed Saudi aggression united Yemeni tribesmen and made them put aside all their differences and focus on foreign enemy.
Everyday, you see graduation new trained fighters joining the battles.
The tribes boast of declaring the number of fighters they send to battle fields.  The rich tribal leaders and businessmen also support army with generous caravans of food and money collected from men and women who can not go fight but want to participate.

"We support army with food, money, weapons, fighters and everything we can," said farmer Ali Hussein, from Bani Hushaish as he donated two cars laden with raisins and nuts to fighters this week.
"We will never kneel down to such criminals," said Mr Hussein as hundreds of similar farmers (to donate) came to a huge square eastern Sanaa where donations in kind and cash are collected by special committees.
 
   

Obama Is Killing Yemen: A Yemeni Journalist Speaks Out After U.S.-Backed Bombing Strikes Funeral

On Sunday, thousands of Yemenis gathered at the United Nations building in Sana’a calling for an international investigation into the U.S-backed Saudi assault on a funeral. The attack was carried out with warplanes and munitions sold to the Saudi-led coalition by the United States. The U.S. Air Force continues to provide midair refueling to Saudi warplanes. According to the U.N., more than 4,000 civilians have been killed and over 7,000 injured since the Saudi-led coalition bombing began last year. Airstrikes have reportedly caused about 60 percent of the deaths. We go to Sana’a to speak with Yemeni journalist Nasser Arrabyee and Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to see if we can reach Nasser Arrabyee, the Yemeni journalist based in Sana’a, founder and president of the media service company Yemen Now. Nasser, are you with us?

NASSER ARRABYEE: Yes, yes. Thank you very much.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us—you’re speaking to us from the capital. Can you talk about what you understand happened, who you’ve spoken to? And what evidence is there of the U.S. support for the Saudi attack?

NASSER ARRABYEE: Well, no single Yemeni doubt that Saudi Arabia was not the one who did this crime at all, because it is not the first, it is not the last. Saudi Arabia has been committing war crimes since March 26, 2015. So, without doubt, it;s Saudi Arabia.

But let me tell you what is the—what is also the thing. The big criminal is Obama himself. This is how Yemenis see to the situation, because every Yemeni believe that Saudi Arabia would not have done that at all, would not have done a war in Yemen, without the approval of Obama. And it is very clear to everyone that Obama wanted to appease the Saudis after the Iranian nuclear deal. But, unfortunately, he appeased them by the Yemeni blood. And this is a big problem to the Americans. Obama is destroying the values and the principle of America now. Obama is leading the world to the law of jungle. Obama, unfortunately, is doing—is killing Yemen now, killing Yemen. No killer except Obama in the eyes of Yemenis now, because everybody knows Saudi Arabia and what it would do if there is not the approval of Obama.

AMY GOODMAN: Nasser, you tweeted this morning, "Obama Has been killing Yemen humans With Saudi hands for about 20 months now." Also, from The Intercept, they write, "Multiple bomb fragments at the scene appear to confirm the use of American-produced MK-82 guided bombs. One fragment, posted in a picture on the Facebook page of a prominent Yemeni lawyer, says 'FOR USE ON MK-82 FIN, GUIDED BOMB.'" Nasser Arrabyee?

NASSER ARRABYEE: Yes, yes. Well, let me tell you something very important. You know, the problem why—or the reason why we say Obama is killing Yemen, is killing Yemen humans, is simply because Obama or United States, the administration of the United States, is cooperating. And this is announced. This is known to everyone. But it is not only a matter of cooperating with the refuel or with the intelligence or with the logistic things. No. But it is a will. It is Obama will to support the Saudi Wahhabi regime, which means to us is Obama now is supporting the Qaeda, ISIS, because Obama is saying he’s supporting the internationally recognized government, the exiled government based in Riyadh now. Obama should know—and I think he knows—that three members, at least—three members, at least, of this government are designated by Obama, by Treasury Department, as global terrorists. I can give you the names now. Three, at least, of this government in Riyadh are Qaeda, ISIS leaders. They are leading their operators here in Yemen, using the American weapons, using the Saudi money. This is what Obama is doing in Yemen. Obama is leading the Americans to the law of jungle and the world to the law of jungle. He is crazy now.

AMY GOODMAN: In June, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon removed the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition from a blacklist of forces responsible for killing children. Ban later acknowledged he was coerced into doing so after the kingdom threatened to cut off funding to the U.N.

SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON: The report describes horrors no child should have to face. At the same time, I also had to concede the very real prospect that millions of other children would suffer grievously, if, as was suggested to me, countries would defund many U.N. programs. Children already at risk in Palestine, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and so many other places would fall further into despair. It is unacceptable for members states to exert undue pressure.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Sarah Leah Whitson?

SARAH LEAH WHITSON: The fallout to U.S. and U.N. credibility from this support for Saudi Arabia and its disastrous war in Yemen has been quite severe. Not only is the U.S. implicated in the crimes that are being carried out by the Saudi coalition in Yemen, not only has the U.N.'s credibility been tarnished by basically accepting a bribe to take Saudi Arabia off of this list of shame of worst attackers on children, but now we have the U.S. government standing behind a government, the Saudi coalition, that is carrying out the exact same kind of strikes in Yemen—an attack on a funeral—that extremist groups in Iraq, ISIS, has been carrying out in Baghdad for over a year, and, again, making it very hard for people to tell the difference about who the extremists really are. Finally, the recent vote on—at the U.N. Security Council about a resolution on Aleppo was significantly stymied because the U.S. just could not maintain condemning an attack by Russians and Syrian government forces on civilians, while it's supporting, aiding and abetting very similar attacks that its partner, its number one arms client, is carrying out in Yemen.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to Senator Chris Murphy, who’s spoken out against the U.S. support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign in August. He was on CNN.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY: There is an American imprint on every civilian life lost in Yemen. Why? Well, it’s because though the Saudis are actually dropping the bombs from their planes, they couldn’t do it without the United States. It’s our munitions, sold to the Saudis. It’s our planes that are refueling the Saudi jets. And it’s our intelligence that are helping the Saudis provide their targeting. We have made a decision to go to war in Yemen against a Houthi rebel army that poses no existential threat to the United States. It’s really wild to me that we’re not talking more about this in the United States. The United States Congress has not debated a war authorization giving the president the power to conduct this operation in Yemen.

AMY GOODMAN: Connecticut Senator Murphy went on to say that Congress can put an end to arms sales in Saudi Arabia, again, speaking on CNN.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY: Congress may have a chance to weigh in, in September, because the Saudis need more bombs, and so they need the Congress to reauthorize a new sale of weapons. So Congress can step in and say enough is enough.

AMY GOODMAN: And Senator Murphy said that the perception in Yemen is that the United States is responsible for the war, not Saudi Arabia.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY: If you talk to Yemenis, they will tell you that inside Yemen, this is not perceived to be a Saudi bombing campaign, this is perceived to be a U.S. bombing campaign. What’s happening is that we are helping to radicalize the Yemeni population against the United states.

AMY GOODMAN: Which is exactly what Nasser Arrabyee, our guest, just said from Sana’a. So, he was talking about cutting off the weapons supply back in September. It’s now October, Sarah Leah Whitson.

SARAH LEAH WHITSON: Mm-hmm. And there was a remarkable vote in the Senate, which was defeated, to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia, but there were more votes in support for it than ever could have been imagined. So, clearly, there is a shift and a reconsideration. And, of course, most importantly, on Saturday, the State Department announced that it was going to review what it called its drastically reduced support for Saudi Arabia in the war in Yemen. So, clearly, the administration is feeling the heat.

We need an international investigation, a true, impartial investigation, to understand what is happening with these airstrikes and to hold those responsibility to account. And I think the U.S. Congress has a major role to play, not only in suspending arms sales to Saudi Arabia, but in forcing this administration to tell us exactly what sort of assistance it has been providing and what its involvement has been in every single one of the unlawful strikes that we’ve documented. There are answers that the U.S. government, that the National Security Council, the State Department, owes the American people as to what exactly it’s doing in terms of its support for this war in Yemen. And it’s only given very vague and cryptic answers.

AMY GOODMAN: Why is President Obama doing this?

SARAH LEAH WHITSON: Well, as your guest said and as the administration has itself repeatedly conceded, this war in Yemen is the price of the Iran deal. The Yemeni people are paying the bill for Saudi being very upset about the Iran deal. And I think the administration calculated that this would be a very short war, that the Houthis would be quickly dislodged, and they could befriend and win over the Saudis. What they didn’t count on, and what we’ve seen time and again in the region, is that the war unfolds into a massive disaster and the U.S. in way over its head.

AMY GOODMAN: Nasser Arrabyee, we have 30 seconds. Your final message to the American people from Sana’a, from Yemen?

NASSER ARRABYEE: The final message is that the—we want to salute the American heroes, despite all the war crimes of Obama, because there are a lot of people who—I mean, the Americans, all the Americans, we respect them. We know that they are with us. Human Rights Watch and the senators like Chris Murphy and Rand Paul and a lot of senators, they are heroes. We respect them. We salute them. We know they are going to rescue the values and the principles of America against Obama. Obama is misled. Obama is bylined by Saudi dirty money. Saudi dirty money is destroying the principles of American values of America. They should stop Obama and every official who does not know what’s happening in Yemen now.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me just ask—let me ask Sarah Leah Whitson, very quickly: Last month, the U.S. Senate approved a billion-dollar arms deal to Saudi Arabia; is there any chance this might be revoked, if there are concerns that the U.S. itself is involved with war crimes?

SARAH LEAH WHITSON: Absolutely. Even if the deal itself is not revoked, delivery can be suspended, delivery can be delayed. And we’ve already seen the U.S. government, for example, suspend the transfer of various weapons during the courses of various wars. So they can absolutely suspend this. And I think the U.S. government knows that, really, the time is up for this war and its support.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, so let’s see some of the moderators of the debates ask the presidential candidates these questions. Sarah Leah Whitson, thanks so much for being with us, from Human Rights Watch. And, Nasser Arrabyee, thank you for joining us from Sana’a, Yemeni journalist based in Sana’a, founder and president of the media service company Yemen Now. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a minute.

link to video

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/10/11/obama_is_killing_yemen_a_yemeni

Yemen: The Graveyard of the Obama Doctrine

This past Tuesday, President Barack Obama delivered his final speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Though he tried to sound optimistic, he couldn’t help but strike a rueful tone. Gone was the global media darling who electrified world leaders in 2009—that Obama was “determined to act boldly and collectively on behalf of justice and prosperity at home and abroad.” The graying, deliberate Obama of 2016 could offer only limited aspirations of a “course correction” in world politics, while pondering why cycles of conflict and suffering persisted. Though the president advocated for the “hard work of diplomacy” in places like Syria, he also elaborated on one of his recent, common refrains, cautioning that in the Middle East “no external power is going to be able to force different religious communities or ethnic communities to co-exist for long.” Across the region, “we have to insist that all parties recognize a common humanity and that nations end proxy wars that fuel disorder,” Obama said.

A day later, the U.S. Senate held a rare debate on the sale of arms destined for another war in the Middle East. The deal, for $1.15 billion in weaponry to Saudi Arabia, including over 150 Abrams tanks, is a drop in a bucket: more than $100 billion in arms sales to the kingdom have already been approved by the Obama administration. But a year and a half into the kingdom’s relentless war in Yemen, opponents of the new sale see it as an outright affirmation of Washington’s involvement in a deadly, strategically incoherent war that the White House has kept largely quiet about. What’s more, it is at odds with Obama’s apparent distaste for regional proxy wars.


Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia has targeted Yemen’s Shia Houthi militias and their allies, loyalists of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who two years ago seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa by force. Several months later, they drove the Saudi-backed President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile. When Saudi King Salman announced the intervention in Yemen—an intervention the kingdom has painted as a proxy war with Iran, its regional foe—the White House immediately authorized a support package that included intelligence-sharing and logistical support for military operations. That package has seen the United States deliver more than 40 million pounds of fuel to Saudi jets over the past 18 months, according to U.S. Central Command. The Saudis would be crippled without direct U.S. military assistance, particularly aerial refueling, which continues unabated.

Supporters of the new arms package portrayed it as necessary support after the Obama administration’s landmark nuclear deal with Iran. To them, Yemen is a proxy war, and the United States must side with the Gulf—never mind the absence of direct evidence of wide-scale Iranian meddling in the Houthi rebellion. “Blocking this sale of tanks will be interpreted by our Gulf partners, not just Saudi Arabia, as another sign that the United States of America is abandoning our commitment in the region and is an unreliable security partner,” Arizona Senator John McCain said, depicting the very dynamic Obama appeared to warn against the day before. “That’s what this vote is all about.”

Those opposing the deal, including Republicans like Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and Democrats like Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, urged their colleagues to reconsider the costs of enmeshing the United States in another war. “Let’s ask ourselves whether we are comfortable with the United States getting slowly, predictably, and all too quietly dragged into yet another war in the Middle East,” Murphy said from the floor. Ultimately, the Senate voted to table the resolution opposing the deal. But 27 senators voted against the motion to table—coming out against the arms deal in a considerable, if symbolic, rebuke to the Saudis, the Obama administration, and their largely Republican backers.

Earlier this year, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg published “The Obama Doctrine,” in which the president described a Middle East populated by unreliable “free-rider” allies constantly drawing the United States into their petty rivalries, fueled by avarice, tribalism, and sectarianism. Key among those free riders were the Sunni Arab states of the Gulf, Goldberg wrote. The Saudis, along with the Iranians, Obama said, “need to find an effective way to share the neighborhood.” Yet despite the Obama White House’s misgivings about Saudi Arabia, it backed its campaign in Yemen, enabling perhaps the chief free-rider’s war.


At times, the Obama administration’s support for the Saudis has thrown diplomatic efforts to end the war into confusion. In August, Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Jeddah to meet with officials from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Britain, and the United Nations. Some Yemenis were cautiously optimistic that Kerry—who says the war in Yemen does not have a military solution—would use his leverage with Riyadh to push for an easing of airstrikes. Instead, he left them with a vague “roadmap” for peace that offered the Houthis certain concessions, angering some in Riyadh, but did little to pressure the Saudis to implement the plan. Within 24 hours, the Saudi-led coalition had intensified its aerial campaign, while its allies on the ground launched a renewed offensive on the Houthi-controlled northwest of the country. The Houthis responded by escalating their own attacks over the border into the kingdom.

President Obama with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz (Gary Cameron / Reuters)

Farea al-Muslimi, a Beirut-based Yemeni political analyst and cofounder of the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, said underwhelming diplomatic efforts by the United States like this have left Yemenis feeling like a beleaguered afterthought. “It is quite disappointing, especially because Yemen is easily solved compared to Syria,” where a political revolution morphed disastrously into sectarian cleansing, he said. Yemen’s war, by contrast, is still largely a matter of local rivalries. “But there is simply no interest or concern” from the United States, al-Muslimi said.

In Yemen, where Washington has outsized influence due to its political and military relationship with Gulf nations, the White House is unlikely to take the kind of gamble Kerry recently took on Syria: a ceasefire between the Russian and Iranian-backed Bashar al-Assad and the rebels supported by the United States and its regional allies. That deal now lies in tatters, in the wake of the U.S. bombing of Assad’s forces and a apparent Russian air strikes against a UN-coordinated aid convoy. It has severely diminished hopes for any similar attempt to end the conflict in Yemen.

Even if Yemen cannot be solved via diplomatic miracle, it is puzzling that Obama’s apparent distaste for the kingdom has had remarkably little influence. A critic of the U.S.-Saudi alliance as a senator, the president’s White House has had a troubled relationship with the absolute monarchy since the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011—which saw a number of Saudi allies, including Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, ousted from power—and more so since the Iranian nuclear deal. The once-improbable now seems imminent: unless the Obama administration ends refueling and logistical support for the Saudis, it appears all but certain to hand off the war in Yemen to his successor.


The Pentagon’s view of the Saudi war in Yemen is mixed. Some officials have been openly enthusiastic: For the first time, a regional ally is taking the lead in a military campaign, a scenario one senior Pentagon official described as “something we’ve dreamed of.” But among the top brass, there’s uncertainty as to what, exactly, is at stake in Yemen. Shortly after the United States announced its support for the Saudis, Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the Gulf, told lawmakers that he didn’t “know the specific goals and objectives of the Saudi campaign.”

Realism, or Obama’s version of it, perhaps still wins the day. Stephen Seche is the executive vice president of Washington’s Arab Gulf States Institute and a veteran U.S. diplomat who worked on the Gulf states. He served as U.S. ambassador to Yemen from 2007 to 2010. “I don’t think we went into this enthusiastically at all, but Saudis were in such a lather,” over the Iran deal, Seche said.


The Saudis’ long-term plan for Yemen also remains unclear. Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, officials from both the State and Defense Departments questioned how well the Saudis had thought through their war in Yemen, and how skilled they were at executing airstrikes while avoiding unnecessary collateral damage. According to the UN, more than 2,200 civilians have been killed by coalition airstrikes since the beginning of their war in Yemen. Bombs dropped by Saudi coalition planes have hit schools, markets, factories, and hospitals. A CENTCOM spokesperson said that U.S. tankers offload fuel regardless of what a jet’s target is, or whether the mission has been preplanned and extensively vetted. A recent project to track all Saudi airstrikes since the war began estimated that a full third have hit civilian sites. Accused of violating international law in Yemen, the Saudis have blocked efforts at the UN to establish an independent human-rights investigation. When they were listed on a UN annex for killing children in airstrikes, Riyadh threatened to cut funding to the UN.

Some in the Obama administration are unsettled by its position on Yemen. In August, after Saudi jets bombed a bridge that brought nearly all UN aid to Sanaa, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power tweeted out a picture of the rubble, and wrote “Strikes on hospital/school/infrastructure in #Yemen devastating for ppl already facing unbearable suffering&must end.” According to U.S. officials, the Pentagon had put the bridge on a no-strike list, reflecting its importance to the humanitarian response there, only to be ignored. Their plight worsened by a suffocating Saudi blockade, more than 21 million Yemenis are in need of some kind of humanitarian assistance and people in many areas are verging on starvation, as the BBC has shown. A few days after the bridge strike, a spokesperson for CENTCOM said that the United States continued to refuel Saudi jets like the ones that hit the bridge. If the Saudis decided on more bombing missions, the spokesperson said, they would refuel more.

Obama has said little about the war in Yemen. With mere months left in his presidency, there is scarce indication that he will.

And yet at the UN, Power has had to publicly stand behind an unrealistic and one-sided resolution drafted by the Saudis, introduced by the British and passed last April with U.S. support. The text calls for the Houthis to essentially retreat and lay down their arms—a non-starter, but one that the administration still considers the basis for negotiations.

Obama has said little about the war in Yemen. With mere months left in his presidency, there is scarce indication that he will. Increasingly skeptical of America’s ability to shape events on the ground in the Middle East, Obama sees little incentive to overturn the status quo, even if that means supporting the apparently reckless military forays of a government he disdains.

A U.S. official who briefs the White House on regional national security matters summed up the Obama administration’s prevailing attitude. Yemen was already a “complete shit show” before the war, he argued, echoing Obama’s use of a phrase he is said to use privately to describe Libya. The Houthis are a nasty militia who deserve no favors and Yemen would be a “shit show” whatever the United States does. So why further degrade a sometimes-unpleasant, but necessary relationship with the Saudis to produce the same end result?

After a joint U.S.-Russian press conference held in Geneva to announce the abortive Syria ceasefire this month, journalists were served vodka from the Russians and pizza courtesy of the Americans. Yemen wasn’t even worth the takeout order, al-Muslimi said: “There is no pizza or vodka when it comes to Yemen. Only cluster bombs and arms deals.”

Saudi Wahabi regime helps Qaeda/ISIS to rule Yemen

Nasser Arrabyee answering questions about the latest developments in Yemen after 18 months of US-backed Saudi aggression and war crimes

Over the past few months and with the postponement of the third rounds of negotiations, there have been some notable changes in Yemeni power structures as well as shifting of alliances. Can you briefly explain the main changes?

1) Explain the formation of the new council between the Houthi, and Saleh and when did it start and why?

On July 28th, 2016, and after Saudi princes thwarted Kuwait talks, the Houthi, Ansar Allah group and its allies and Saleh's party GPC and its allies officially agreed to form a supreme political council, that's ruling council to rule and fight the US-backed Saudi aggression.

With this, Houthi and Saleh became partners to rule in addition to being partners to resist Saudi invasion and occupation. Before March 26, 2015, Saleh and Houthi were still opponents but Saudi aggression on that day united them to fight external enemy but only the Houthi was on power.

On August 13th, 2016, the 301-seat  House of Representatives held a historic session despite public Saudi threats to air strike them with the F16s. The HR ratified the 10-member ruling council (5 from Saleh 5 from Houthi) with 5 MPs more than the constitutional quorum which is half of the all MPs.

A total of 142 out of 275 MPs attended the session. The speaker of parliament Yahya Al Raye and all MPs started the session with one-minute mourning over 26 MPs who naturally died over the past period, announcing 26 seats vacant, which means the total number is 275 and not 301.

Some sick MPs asked relatives to carry them on sickness bed  such as Rashad Al Shawari who came propelled by 4 of his relatives  because of paralysis. One day before the session, the Saudi jets deliberately destructed all main roads leading to Sanaa to prevent PMs from 20 provinces from attending, and banned air flights from landing in Sanaa airport to prevent MPs outside Yemen from attending.

The MPs Yaser Al Awadhi of GPC and Sultan Same'e of Socialist party, were among 10 MPs who voted via TV circuit from Oman.  A total of 154 MPs attended the second day's session when the chairman and members of the ruling council took the constitutional oath before the parliament.

The 12 late MPs took long time to repair the destructed roads or take more difficult and even longer roads to arrive in Sanaa. Observers called such a dangerous session of  the parliament the "death" session.

The US-backed Saudi jets kept hovering over parliament and striking in some places in the city of Sanaa during the whole 90-minute long session. With huge media covering everything live,thousands of of Yemenis and activists demonstrated in the streets around the parliament building 3 hours before the "death" session started.

On August 20th, millions of Yemenis from all country's 22 provinces gathered in an unprecedented and historic referendum-like demonstration to support the supreme ruling council and  his constitutional chairman Saleh Al Samad ( from north)  and his deputy Dr Kasem Labooza ( from south).

During this demonstration, the US-backed Saudi jets fired 24 missiles on already hit places nearby and around the square and streets where millions were chanting  against the war and supporting the ruling council.

Two  of the missiles hit the gate of the Presidential Palace which is located in the same square (Sabeen Square) of demonstration killing 4 demonstrators and injuring 10 others. All that was painstakingly documented by media. This historic demonstration was with one flag (united Yemen flag) and one voice yes to ruling council no to war.

2) How is it different from the previous council (the revolutionary council)? Does it replace it?

This council united the two major forces in the south and north of Yemen ( Houthi and GPC). It united the revolutionaries with those who  the revolution came against .

The arrogance and atrocities of US-backed Saudi aggression made the impossible possible.Th ruling council replaced the revolutionary committee.

3) Explain the Hadi’s appointment of Ahmar, and what it means for the government in exile?

Hadi's appointments have done nothing not from Riyadh but also his appointments over the 3-year term before Saudis intervened militarily.
For appointment of  Ali Muhsen (Al Ahmar) as vice president, it made things even worse and more complicated to Hadi and international community. Muhsen is enemy number 1 of Houthi, Saleh and Hirak of the south. The 70-year old general is very close to Salafis from where Qaeda/ISIS come.

He lost much of his tribal popularity by Saudi killing and injuring of tens of thousands of civilians  asleep in their houses, schools, mosques, hospitals, factories, farms etc.

His appointment was only one of Hadi's evil skills to make the situation without solution. The only thing that Hadi is good at is to make unsolvable problems even to himself. Saudis liked it (Ahmar apointment) only to try to divide the Sanhan tribes, to which Muhsen and ex-president Saleh belong without success.

The US-backed atrocities changed the map of alliances, the social, tribal, political and even the sectarian alliances in favor of Houthi-Saleh.

4) Briefly describe how alliances shifted in light of these changes, where does each actor stand (including Islah, the secessionists, tribal powers, anyone else I might have forgotten).

The two major groups strengthened and officially announced their alliances by this council, because the step was a popular demand from the beginning of the US-backed Saudi aggression.

Their opponents ( Islah, Qaeda, ISIS, and Saudis and their fake justification Hadi) bet only on US-backed Saudi military solution and more bloodshed and more destruction. The more bloodshed,the more complicated it gets to them and to all stakeholders.

5) How many power structures does Yemen now have? (the government in exile under Hadi, the new Houthi/Saleh council? etc)

Yemen now and all time since March 26, 2015, has 3 powers. The first one is on the ground fighting with majority of people against US-backed unjustifiable Saudi aggression and seeking a modern state for all with freedom,dignity, and sovereignty.

And the second power is  in Riyadh-based exile. All its strength is coming from the term (internationally recognized legitimacy) and from the money and weapons of Saudi Arabia who wants to settle accounts with Iran in Yemen using them.

The third power is also on the ground working and fighting very hard. It is the power of Qaeda/ISIS and Hirak, the separation movement of the south. Hirak symbolic leaders are divided into many: Some work with Hadi, some with Saleh, some with Houthi, some with Saudi Arabia, some with UAE and some work with Qatar. While Qaeda/ISIS has one leadership,one goal and one enemy. The biggest winner of the war is Qaeda/ISIS. It has been increasingly gaining everyday since the very beginning of the war.

What is the new council hoping to achieve and where does that leave the other structures vying for power inside and outside of Yemen?


1) What does the council hope to achieve?
To form a government whose main task would be the preparation of elections. Parliamentary, local and presidential elections.

2) Do they want to run the country or break the country into two with them controlling the northern part?

The ruling council and the would-be government are unionists and their main goal is to preserve the unity. The vice chairman of the ruling council is Dr Kasem Labooza, from very symbolic family from Radfan, south. The family of Labooza were all pioneer revolutionaries against the British colony in 1950s and 60s. The southerners, from all backgrounds, all levels, all parties, all sects, are much safer now in Sanaa than in Aden. I personally know some southerners who bring family members and properties to Sanaa and then go back to Aden to fight with Saudis or Emirates forces against Houthi-Saleh.  Sanaa has about 2 million displaced persons from all over Yemen about 500,00 of them  from the south. All this means that unity is a necessity.

3) Does Saudi have any inclination to let them control the north?

Saudi has always the will to make Yemen a back garden of slaves. Without a State. Saudis work hard to prevent any kind of respected State. It wants a controlled chaos not even like now with real Yemen fighters taking towns and cities in Najran, Jaizan, Asir and astonishingly arming themselves from advanced US-Saudi weapons.
Saudi does not care much about unity or separation as long as it has the key of controlling the chaos.

4) If this is their aim where does it leave the rest of the political actors? How are they reacting, or will react to this?

The aim of Saudis is to keep Yemen weak, poor, lawless , stateless and always in a chaos controlled by them (Saudis). It's historic fact unfortunately.

The third round of negotiations fell through in early August, where do talks stand at the moment?


1) Briefly explain why the last round of negations fell apart?

No negotiations or any kind of talks succeeded before or would succeed from now on as long as the problem maker is not punished. The problem maker is simply Saudi Arabia. The last round of talks fell apart like the previous ones because Saudi Arabia wanted to gain with such talks what it did not gain with more than 18 months of war with 10 armies and most advanced weapons and mercenaries from all over the world. Saudi Arabia wanted Yemenis to surrender and be slaves after all that  sacrifices of blood and infrastructure. This is the impossible thing to happen.

2) Briefly explain what Saudi wants and why is it difficult for them to give up on Hadi at the moment?

Publicly, Saudis want Yemenis only to implement the "UN" resolution 2216 by handing weapons to Hadi and withdrawing from cities. And secretly, it actually does not want peace but it wants complete surrender and complete hand over of weapons to Qaeda/ISIS leaders who posed as members of Hadi's "internationally recognized" government. US Treasury Department designated as global terrorists 3 of the Riyadh-based Hadi government. Abdul Majid Al Zandani, Abdul Wahab Humaikani, and Naif Al Qaisy. The last one Al Qaisy was appointed as governor of Al Baidha. And Al Humaikani was sent to Geneva to represent Hadi. They all now fund and lead Qaeda/ISIS operatives from luxurious hotels in Riyadh.

3) Under what circumstances would the negotiation yield a more sustainable solution or at least a cessation of hostilities?

Simply, cease-fire means only stopping US-backed Saudi airstrikes and lift of blockade. The Yemenis (Houthi-Saleh) would also stop automatically as they only defend themselves with very modest weapons.

For the sustainable solution, it is there and every body knows it, but Saudis want something else. The solution is a unity government recognizing the new changes ( Houthi and Saleh new realities, new and high popularity) taking all weapons from all militias and handing them to this government not to an "unknown" third party as John Kerry said in his last initiative of Saudi coastal city of Jedda late August, 2016.  The first and foremost task of this transitional unity government is to prepare for elections on a date agreed upon and announced.

What impact has the recapture of Mukalla, Jaar, and Zinjibar had on AQAP and possibly ISIS as well?


1) Briefly explain how the conflict has benefited AQAP and ISIS? Not just in terms of operating more freely by gaining external support?

First of all, Qaeda/ISIS still exist in Aden, Mukalla, Zinjubar, Jaar and everywhere in south as long as Yemen is stateless. About 200 recruits (jobless young people) were killed last week in the heart of Aden by ISIS suicide bombing. The victims, the jobless young people had been told by warlords to go fight with Saudis in Najran. The suicide bomber Ahmed Saif, Abu Sufyan Al Adani was a Quran teacher in Aden. Qaeda/ISIS is deeply rooted in the social and educational systems thanks to Saudi money.

Second, everything in US-backed Saudi war against Houthi-Saleh was and is in the interest of Qaeda/ISIS. Leaders in Riyadh, Qatar and Turkey take money and weapons and hand them to the "resistance" which means Qaeda/ISIS.Yemenis  around Hadi in Riyadh either direct Qaeda/ISIS leaders such as the 3 I previously mentioned or Islah leaders, brotherhood leaders whose supporters in the ground fight with Qaeda/ISIS against Houthi-Saleh in the south, Mareb, Taiz, Jawf, and Baidha.Hadi has no popularity at all neither in the north nor in the south. Even those around in exile, they know that he is very important for them only to have the "title" of internationally recognized legitimacy. Nobody expects from him to play more than such a nominal but essential role for this stage.

For Saudis, Hadi is a sustainable and renewable mine of gold, bonanza. To do whatever they want of atrocities without being responsuble. The Saudis keep telling the world, shamelessly, they want only to restore the internationally recognized legitimate Hadi, without remembering what this legitimacy is for and about after all this unprecedented war crimes and devastation. Because of Hadi, Saudis portray themselves as peace lovers not war criminals, and mediators not party.

2) What is likely to happen to both groups if Houthis/Saleh succeeds?

If Houthi-Saleh succeeds, the Qaeda/ISIS will be vanished especially if the cooperation with US and international community for terror fighting is enhanced again . The Houthi and Saleh are the enemy number 1 for such groups, and no one would fight them more effective than them.

These groups almost vanished from Sanaa and all northern provinces during 2015 and 2016 after they had strengthened and expanded over the period 2011-2014 when the brotherhood rode the wave of the so-called Arab Spring, the age of Qaeda/ISIS prosperity.

3) What is likely to happen to both groups if Saudi succeeds?

If Saudi succeeds, it will be a big  victory for Qaeda/ISIS as the war was a big benefit to them to recruit, expand and move freely. The leaders will return from Saudi Arabia including the 3 I previously mentioned who are designated as global terrorists. More than 3500 Salafi schools will return to work outside the regulations of the government with finance and control from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. They seem to be normal schools, teaching Quran, but all Qaeda/ISIS operatives graduate from such schools  which are not under the monitoring of the goverment.

However, it does not mean that under Houthi-Saleh , these schools will be banned, but will be monitored to commit to and comply with  certain laws and regulations that require all groups and sects to respect each other and coexist with others to turn the diversity to positive thing for more security and stability.

At the present in Sanaa and all northern provinces, Salafi mosques and schools open and exercise their rights but under strict monitoring for fears of security problems and some of their leaders escaped to Saudi Arabia after they refused or failed to comply with new  security instructions to maintain security at the time of war.

The Saudi-backed Islah party, brthoerhood, for example, refused to hand over weapons in 2014 when Houthi said all groups must hand over weapons to the state not only Houthi. Furthermore, Qaeda/ISIS does not recognize the state nor democracy or any kind of ruling outside their interpretation and Houthi and other Yemenis are considered to be apostates in their eyes until they believe.

The situation in Yemen is increasingly becoming one of the most significant humanitarian crises in the region, what’s the prevailing feeling within the Yemeni population regarding the international community’s response.


1) The humanitarian situation, access to food and medicine?

Because of US-backed Saudi blockade, more than 20 million of the 30 million population are in need for food and medicine.  More than 50,000 civilians were killed and injured most of them women and children,according to local right groups.

Over 3 million Yemenis displaced from their houses most of them to Sanaa which became the safest city in Yemen despite the fact that no single day passes without Saudi airstrikes here or there. But no assassinations, no plundering, no thefts no suicide bombings like in Aden.

UN agencies and other local and international organization exert great efforts to help. The people themselves help each other in a way that astonished every one. For instance, in every small neighborhood in Sanaa, you find water tanks being filled every morning and some times twice a day. This is done by richer people from the same neighborhood.This happens in all cities now.

2) Who do Yemenis blame for the protracted conflict?

The Yemenis blame the Obama administration for most of their suffering. This is why they keep nation-widely campaigning under slogan (America Kills the Yemeni people) . You find huge posters in the streets with this slogan written on them. Anti-America sentiment is running high and it gets higher and higher when US-backed Saudi jets kill whole families in their houses and when they commit huge massacres in weddings, schools, hosiptals, factories, mosques, and markets where hundreds
 of women and children brutally get killed.

The Yemenis are very sure that Saudis would not have dared to do all that to them without Obama's consent. The Yemenis get happy, however, when they hear and see media and social media, in particular, the criticism  of free people from America to Obama administration about Yemen's war crimes and weapons sales. They circulated the tweets of Senator Chris Murphy,for instance, and portrayed him and many others as a heroes in big rallies. This improves a little bit the image made by the (America kills the Yemeni people). All Yemenis know that the war against them was announced from Washington not from Riyadh.

3) Is Saudi Arabia at all worried about popular sentiment in Yemen given proximity?

Yes, Saudi princes and Saudi citizens are very worried not only from rising hatred anti-Saudi sentiment but also from the Yemeni attacks on the south of  Saudi Arabia, from the photos and videos published almost daily showing defeats of Saudi army with the most advanced weapons in front of Yemeni bare-footed fighters. Everything turns against Saudis. War, blockade and hunger. The 30
million Yemenis would find an easy way to eat if US-backed Saudis keep starving them. Saudis used every dirty means to make Yemenis surrender. Now, Saudis, for instance, wants the world to stop dealing with the central bank of Yemen. Saudis get angry why this bank still pays salaries to army fighting with Saudi Arabia in Mareb and far east of Hudhrmout. The works professionally and neutrally but irritates Saudis. Yemenis not seem to be worried if US-backed Saudis stopped the bank.Yemeni are already in the south of Saudi Arabia and they will not die of hunger, but they like to die in cause of defending themselves and their homeland.

Yemenis made and circulated a lot of jokes about Yemeni fighters seizing American Abrams tanks and Bradley armored vehicles. The jokes boast of Yemeni brave fighters and make fun of Saudi fighters. Since middle of August and now when these scenes were shown almost daily and sometimes twice a day, the Saudis blocked or hacked Al Masirah Tv that reports from Najran, Jaizan, and Asir. Al Masirah shifted to a new frequency in less than 24 hours. The biggest concern of Saudis is the ballistic missiles that accurately hit vital targets such as military bases and oil facilities like Aramco of Najran  that was hit late August with ballistic missile and Saudi retaliated by hitting all  electricity stations that had been already hit and oil facilities of Ras Isa in Hodeida and many in her places
killing&injuring more than hundreds of civilians.

 Is there a possible to end the conflict?
The only possible solution is a just and fair one imposed by major powers and more specifically by US. Fair and just solution is known by everyone in all sides. But the biggest challenge is who would implement it?

Fair and just solution between Yemenis and then fair and just solution between Yemenis and Saudi Arabia who made the problem to allegedly protect itself from Iran.

When Saudi gets persuaded with this fair and just solution between Yemenis it will be even easier to reach a fair and just solution between Yemenis and Saudi Arabia.

The first step to this solution is that Saudis should acknowledge that they are the first party and all Yemenis are the second and only party.


1) What would it take to resolve this conflict
It would take only American will, American will, American will to resolve the Yemen conflict. The war was American will to just placate Saudis after the Iran nuclear deal that drove the Saudis crazy.

2) Who will have to rebuild the country? Saudi has been destroying civilian structures, presumably they will have to rebuild, why are they destroying something they know they will have to rebuild?


Saudis are happy to kill and pay, destroy and compensate, damage and rebuild. But this is not what humans and US should accept.

Yemenis think of how to get independent from Saudis much more than rebuilding? Yemenis  feel that Saudi regime wanted to keep them busy with rebuilding  over the  next 100 years. And if they rebuild everything, who would return to life the dead and the injured.
No one!

The 300-year old problem between Saudis and Yemenis must be re-solved. The solution is easy. The Saudi regime must let Yemenis alone to create their modern state and peace will come to all. 

Saudi-backed extremism is fueling Yemen outrage

Nasser Arrabyee ( http://carnegieendowment.org/sada/64528?lang=en)
The Saudi government wants the Houthis to implement UN Resolution 2216 by surrendering their weapons to the internationally recognized government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and withdrawing from the cities they occupy, including Sanaa and Taiz.

But what Riyadh wants is the Houthis’ complete surrender, and it seems unconcerned that weapons handed over to the Yemeni government could go to members of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS), some of whom pose as members of Hadi’s internationally recognized government.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury designated three members of the Riyadh-based Hadi government as global terrorists: Abdul Majid al-Zindani, Abdul Wahhab Humayqani (who represented Hadi’s government at the 2015 UN-sponsored talks in Geneva), and Nayif Salih Salim al-Qaysi (whom Hadi appointed as governor of Bayda in December 2015). 

Al-Qaeda and IS are the biggest winners of the war. First, despite reports over the past few months that they were driven out of a number of southern cities, they continue to operate in Aden, Mukalla, Zinjibar, Jaar, and elsewhere—and will remain as long as Yemen lacks a strong government. About 70 people were killed on August 29 in the heart of Aden by an IS suicide bombing.

That suicide bomber Ahmed Saif (also known as Abu Sufyan al-Adeni) was a Quran teacher living in Aden shows how al-Qaeda and IS are rooted in the educational and social system; this is the most dangerous aspect of the
problem.‬ Leaders in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey take money and
weapons and hand them to the “resistance,” which is often al-Qaeda and IS. 

As the atrocities accumulate and the humanitarian crisis worsens, Yemenis blame the U.S. administration for most of their suffering. Nationwide, huge posters in the streets proclaim, “America kills the Yemeni people,” as Yemenis are sure that the Saudis would not have dared to do all that to them without the consent of the United States.

However, many Yemenis happily share media and social media, American citizens’ criticism of the Obama administration’s role in Saudi war crimes and weapons sales.

They circulatedtweets by Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy that criticized the Saudi campaign and portrayed him and others as heroes in big rallies, improving a little bit the image advanced by the “America kills the Yemeni
people” campaign. 

Anti-America sentiment gets even higher when U.S.-backed Saudi jets kill whole families in their houses and commit massacres in weddings, schools, hospitals, factories, mosques, and markets, where hundreds of women and children have been killed. 

Saudis are increasingly worried—not only by rising hatred, anti-Saudi sentiment, and the growing number of attacks on southern Saudi Arabia, but also by the photos and videos published almost daily showing bare-footed Yemeni fighters defeating the Saudi army and its most advanced weapons.

 Yemenis made and circulated a lot of jokes about Yemeni fighters seizing American M1A2 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles (BFVs), boasting of Yemeni fighters’ bravery and making fun of Saudi fighters.

Since mid-August, these scenes are shown almost daily and sometimes twice a day, leading Saudis to block or hack the Houthi-run Al Masirah TV on August 26,which reports from the Saudi provinces of Najran, Jizan, and Asir. Al Masirah shifted to a new frequency in less than 24 hours. 

Still, a bigger concern for Saudis are the ballistic missiles that hit vital targets, such as military bases and oil facilities. An Aramco power plant in Najran was hit on August 26 with a ballistic missile, and Saudi Arabia retaliated by hitting electricity stations, oil facilities, and factories, including an attack on the Ras Isa sugar factory in Hodeida, cumulatively killing and injuring hundreds of civilians.

Yet on September 2 Houthis fired a home-made ballistic missile named Burkan-1 on Taif, unnerving Saudis. The range of this missile is over 800 kilometers (500 miles) and it weighs nine tons.

 Even though Saudis said they destroyed Yemenis’ ballistic capability in the
first week of war, after eighteen months they are stunned by how Yemenis moved such a huge missile and fired it on a military base hundreds of kilometers into Saudi Arabia—let alone how they made it and where. 

Nasser Arrabyee is a Yemeni journalist based in Sanaa and founder and president of the media service company Yemen Alaan.

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Why all these drone attacks on Yemen at once?!

Nasser Arrabyee, 16/08/2013

The Yemen Al Qaeda second man might have been killed in one of the 13 recent drone attacks on Yemen where more than 40 Al Qaeda suspects killed over 10 days. 

The Saudi national Ibrahim Al Rubaish, deputy head of AQAP, was the second target of those attacks that happened on July 30th, 2013 in Nakabah area, district of Sayeed district  of southern province of Shabwah.

Earlier this month, and amid the media frenzy about big imminent terror attacks, the Yemeni government published names of 25 men labeled as terrorists behind the security and military assassinations and those terror threats. 

The top of that list was the Saudi Ibrahim  Al Rubaish who replaced the slain Saudi Saeed Shihri as deputy of AQAP, though not yet officially announced as deputy. If death of Al Rubaish is confirmed, this would be a significant success for these  recent drone attacks. 

" I am not excluding the death of Ibrahim Al Rubaish in Nakabah drone strike, but we have to wait for statements from Al Qaeda," said Qaeda expert, Yemen researcher Abdul Razak Al Jamal who had access into inner circles and interviewed many leaders of Al Qaeda. 

Security sources said that 3 of the 25 were arrested  this week in neighborhood of Sunainah, western part of the capital Sanaa where young people calling themselves Shabab Mujahid, or Jihadist youth. There are at least 2 more similar neighborhoods in Sanaa city:  Musaik and Sawan known to many locals as neighborhoods of Jihadists activities. 

Yemen President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi met US ambassador to Sanaa Gerald Feiestein on Tuesday August 13th, the first day after Eid AlFetr holidays.  

Although US embassy was still closed due to alleged terror threats, the meeting between Hadi and Feierstien gave impression that the two governments felt they overreacted the threats to the extent that they helped Al Qaeda in a way or another. The embassy would remain closed even after such a meeting, according to diplomatic sources. 

The meeting was to  discuss the terror threats and alerts that led to closures of embassies and evacuation of staff from Sanaa, according to the official news agency.

The minister  of defense, Mohammed Nasser Ahmed shortly after the meeting of Hadi and Feierstien played down the terror threats as " limited" saying that security forces deal with them  wisely capably.

Security sources, however, said that authorities are taking serious  specific threats released this week by Qaeda top leader Nasser Al Wuhayshi to storm prisons and let his men go. 

The sources said that about 60 Qaeda prisoners were transferred from the intelligence maximum security prisons in Sanaa and Aden to secret places in the country as precautionary measures after such threats.

''We ask God to make us a cause for unlocking your incarceration and relieving your agony,'' said Al Wuhayshi in a statement published Monday by Qaeda-linked website that was described by experts as reliable. The words of this sentence indicate that suicide bombing can be used for breaking the jails where Al Qaeda prisoners have been languishing for a long time. 

The expert Al Jamal said the statement was important to say "We are still here"  to raise morale of remaining fighters and give hope for prisoners and sympathizes. 

Also  he belittled the terror threats came from the two governments of Yemen and US. 

" The US and Yemen  governments were very skillful in creating justifications for these drone attacks this time, only to reduce the reactions of the people," said  Al Jamal.

He said " The new thing this time is that the Americans with Yemeni cooperation recorded many targets and they wanted to strike them all at once , but before the strikes they were concerned about angry reactions," He said.

Al Jamal criticized the simi-ruling Muslim brotherhood and wondered why they kept silent after all these interventions and  violation of sovereignty.

"They were talking day and night about violation of sovereignty now they are not, if they  keep silent over drone attacks, they would be silent also over any direct American occupation," said Al Jamal.

The recent drone attacks caused a lot of anger and resentment especially after a lot of  Yemenis saw  with their eyes drones flying over their capital Sanaa during Eid holidays. 

Many activists of twitter and Facebook made a lot critical comments and jokes about President Hadi's last visit to White House. Drones started while Hadi was still paying  thar official visit to US late last July. 

The drone attack of August 7th killed three brothers in Damashekah Abeidah  Mareb, and the ministry of interior  labeled them as terrorists and identified them as :1- Abdullah Kayed Salem Afra, 2-Al Hassan Kayed Salem Afraj 3-Al Hussein Kayed Salem Aftaj, From Raghan, Dahm tribe, Mareb east of the country.

My local sources said  the older brother, Abdullah  is known to everyone as Qaeda member, he started by making money from Anwar Al Awlaki in return for easing his movements  between Mareb, Al Jawf and Shabwah. 

Local sources are not sure about the two younger brothers.

However, another source  from Mareb ( closer to the youth meaning Qaeda)  told me  that all the three brothers were with the "youth" meaning  Al Qaeda.

 For strike of August 6th, in Markha area of Shabwah,  the locals found only their man from the neighboring village of Naseen tribe, Sarhan Abdullah Ali Al Dhumluki.

 His family and tribe came immediately after the strike and found him only. Family and relatives buried Sarhan immediately. One of those who  attended the funeral said Sarhan was known as Qaeda local leader. 

Qaeda  men came before local residents and took 4 dead bodies, according to the locals. 

However, in the strike of August 1, Al Qaeda came after the strike and took all victims including a local young man who was given only a ride by Al Qaeda men who were driving nearby his village At Wadi Ser between Sayoun and Kutn. All the men were Saudis according to locals. 

Locals identified them as  Makdad Al Sayeri and two of his  brothers.

The local man, killed was from a known family called Ishak. 

Local residents from Al Kutn told me  that another Qaeda car came and  took all dead bodies including the local man, who had nothing to do with Al Qaeda. Until now the family of Ishak is looking for their son in his 20s not a  child  as reported by some media. 

" Although we need another way to fight Qaeda other than  the drones, but we are not angry at all, we do not know those people, they are Saudis and wanted by their government and they are doing problems to us by staying here," said Aref..

"For our son who was killed with them, that was his fate to be with them at that time," said Aref over phone from Al Kutn.