Normalization with chaos and division in Yemen

In the middle of this week, the Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council (legitimate authority), Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi, paid a visit to Taiz Governorate, located in southwestern Yemen and overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait. This is the first visit of its kind by a Yemeni president to this governorate, which clings to the authentic essence of the unified Yemeni Republic, which international and regional powers are plotting a clear conspiracy to obliterate and dismantle, through a long, arduous and elusive path of normalization with chaos and division, in a country that is almost turning into a forgotten arena of conflict that is dismantling the ties of the largest population bloc in the Arabian Peninsula.

Taiz showed its greatest loyalty to the Yemeni state and to its head of authority, who belongs to this governorate as his birthplace, through long lines of welcomers, in a scene that Taiz has not witnessed for a long time.

The president should have taken the risk of showing the security depth that Taiz provides for him and his companions, not only by force of arms, but also by these sincere feelings and faith in Yemen and its republican system. However, the president was forced to make his late visit to his governorate, manned by Saudi forces, knowing that the resistance and the national army were able during the years of war to secure this precious part, liberating it from the sectarian Imamate project, and that Taiz was the main support for the fighters in the battle to lift the siege on the city of Sana’a and defend the republic against the Imamate forces that were besieging the city in the sixties of the last century, when many enemies conspired against the then-nascent revolution, one of which was the Zionist entity.

The most criticized aspect of the president’s visit was the security arrangements, which were dominated by one-dimensional thinking, namely protecting the president and his companions. These arrangements showed the president and two of his companions in the leadership council - all three of whom share a sincere love for Taiz governorate - in a pitiful security situation amidst a roaring sea of those welcoming their visit and looking forward to this visit inaugurating a new era of state influence; which is under the weight of a huge chaos of threats from the militias of the separatist project that control the temporary political capital, Aden.

The absence of the Presidential Leadership Council member, Brigadier General Tariq Muhammad Abdullah Saleh, who is close to the UAE and who has taken over the useful strategic part of Taiz Governorate (the western coast and Bab al-Mandab), was striking. His presence would have seemed very useful to confirm that the president and four members of the Presidential Council (in addition to Major General Sultan al-Arada) stand on the same ground, and more importantly, it would have confirmed the extent of respect that Brigadier General Tariq shows for the geographical unity of Taiz Governorate.

Member of the Presidential Leadership Council Aidarous al-Zubaidi, at a time that reflects a desire to clash with the moral tide produced by the president’s visit to Yemen’s most populous governorate, issued, in his capacity as President of the Southern Transitional Council, a decision appointing Abdul Rahman al-Mahrami (member of the Presidential Leadership Council) as Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Forces and Counter-Terrorism, in an effort aimed in part at gathering the turbulent security scene in the areas of influence of the Transitional Council due to the disasters caused by the criminal activity of the so-called “counter-terrorism” units (which have no connection to the Yemeni state), from killing, disappearance and torture of southern figures and leaders.

But the political message of this separatist measure is clear, as it aims to prove that the ground is not level for the main player in the Yemeni arena (Saudi Arabia), as there are other countries that have begun to act aggressively towards the Saudi arrangements, which is a matter that has a dangerous impact on the situation in Yemen and perpetuates the state of chaos and division, and increasingly adds a kind of rigidity to the Imamate (Shiite) project in the north, and the separatist project in the south.

There is a remarkable development in the agenda of the UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, after it became clear that his last tour in Muscat and Aden was only concerned with the issue of the kidnapped UN and Western embassy employees in Sana’a, coupled with focused statements on the behavior of the Houthis, which is an unprecedented trend in the envoy’s statements and briefings before the UN Security Council.

Despite the international focus on the Houthis’ aggressive behavior against various segments of society, there are fears that this issue will turn into the sole and perhaps final demand of this group that imposes its authority over the northwestern part of Yemen, where most of the country’s population is concentrated, after the option of returning to a comprehensive war receded and the roadmap agenda was reduced to understandings centered on consolidating the Houthis’ illegitimate gains.

Because Saudi Arabia has not yet shown any seriousness in restoring the camp that dominates the internationally recognized legitimacy, by insisting on proceeding with explicit bilateral negotiations with the Houthis on a roadmap to end the war without the clear and genuine influence of the legitimate authority, it is also dangerously contributing to perpetuating chaos and division, so that the high-level movements of the President of the Presidential Leadership Council and a number of members of the Council in the Yemeni geography appear to be merely a political maneuver that amounts to a complete deception of the Yemeni people.

(Arabic 21)