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Yemen in Crisis: A Special Report
A crisis in Yemen is rapidly escalating. A standoff centered on the
presidential palace is taking place between security forces in the
capital city of Sanaa while embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh
continues to resist stepping down, claiming that the “majority of Yemeni
people” support him. While a Western-led military intervention in Libya
is dominating the headlines, the crisis in Yemen and its implications
for Persian Gulf stability is of greater strategic consequence. Saudi
Arabia is already facing the threat of an Iranian destabilization
campaign in eastern Arabia and has deployed forces to Bahrain in an
effort to prevent Shiite unrest from spreading. With a second front now
threatening the Saudi underbelly, the situation in Yemen is becoming one
that the Saudis can no longer leave on the backburner.
The turning point in Yemen occurred March 18 after Friday prayers, when
tens of thousands of protestors in the streets calling for Saleh’s
ouster came under a heavy crackdown that reportedly left some 46 people
dead and hundreds wounded. It is unclear whether the shootings were
ordered by Saleh himself, orchestrated by a member of the Yemeni defense
establishment to facilitate Saleh’s political exit or simply provoked
by tensions in the streets, but it does not really matter. Scores of
defections from the ruling party, the prominent Hashid tribe in the
north and military old guard followed the March 18 events, both putting
Saleh at risk of being removed in a coup and putting the already deeply
fractious country at risk of a civil war. Read more »
