Opinion: Why did the Saudi backed forces in Yemen collapse?!

Why did the Saudi backed forces in Yemen collapse?

Susan Nevens

Here is a brief analysis of Yemen, a nation that has been bombed for the past 26 years, since the days of the George W. Bush administration. You might say, 'Well, Susan, this is not a brief analysis,' but there are some things that cannot be explained in a meme to fit within the mold of the American culture of a short attention span. There is no SparkNote to explain the political history of a nation, so I am afraid you need to read on if you want to learn something!"

 

Why did the Saudi backed forces in Yemen collapse?!

 

The entire citizen population of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain and Oman combined is smaller than the population of Yemen.

 

The combined number of citizens, not foreigners, in these Gulf states is approximately 26–27 million, while the population of Yemen is about 42 million.

 

There has long been a Gulf view that a unified Yemen represents a strategic threat to the demographically small, geographically limited Gulf states.

 

After the fall of Abdullah Saleh, Yemen entered a period of political turmoil. Islah gained considerable influence during the post-Saleh transition.

 

Saudi Arabia and the UAE later turned against Islah as part of their broader war against the Arab Spring. Islah eventually lost to the Houthis, who took control of Sanaa in 2014.

 

The Houthis received some Iranian support.

 

After getting rid of Islah's control of the capital Sanaa, Saudi Arabia and the UAE created and sponsored many factions in Yemen to fight the Houthis.

 

The factions in southern Yemen, like the Giants Brigades, received Emirati support, while most of the rest, like the Nation's Shield, Yemen Emergency Forces in Saada and al-Jawf, and Hadrami tribal forces, received Saudi funding.

 

Saudi and Emirati support was divided into two main parts:

 

Buying the loyalty of tribal leaders with money, and paying salaries to Yemenis fighting in their factions against the Houthis.

 

It is widely circulated in Yemen that Saudi backed Yemeni fighters are paid around 1000 Saudi riyals per month.

 

Because of the war, blockade and economic collapse, these salaries became a source of income for many Yemenis who joined these factions.

 

Unlike Iran, which provided decisive military aid to its Houthi allies in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the UAE intervened directly and wanted their Yemeni "allies" to follow their instructions, instead of following the Iranian model of providing similar military aid to Yemenis who don't agree with the Houthis and letting Yemenis decide for themselves.

 

The UAE interests later clashed with those of its ally, Saudi Arabia. 

 

The UAE, as a tiny state with a citizen population, excluding foreigners, of 1.1 million, sought to revive the North-South conflict Via The STC as perhaps the most achievable goal, so that instead of 1 Yemen, there would be 2 Yemens, North and South. 

 

This is not only an Emirati objective, but also an Israeli objective, as similar attempts were seen in Syria through attempts to establish a state for the Kurds and another for the Druze, so that Israel could fight smaller entities if necessary, and so that the UAE could overcome its demographic inferiority complex.

 

However, this objective is not limited to Yemen. Saudi Arabia may be the next target for partition after Yemen, because compared with the other Gulf states and Israel, Saudi Arabia has a larger population and a much larger territory.

 

This accelerated the Saudi-Emirati conflict, which ended with the UAE expelled from Yemen.

 

Below are 5 reasons for the military failure of the Saudi backed camp in Yemen:

 

1- Centralized command: The Houthi-led Sanaa government has 1 centralized leadership, while the Saudi backed forces are a mixture of several factions, each with its own loyalties and objectives.

 

2- The Houthis succeeded in neutralizing Saudi airpower by responding to airstrikes on areas under their control with attacks deep inside Saudi Arabia.

 

3- Military ideology: Fighters in the Houthi forces have a religious military ideology hostile to Israel and the US, and their fighters fight for this, compared with the salaries that fighters in the Saudi backed camp fight for.

 

4- Media propaganda: Houthi forces strictly prohibit their fighters from using phones, and all the information their fighters receive comes from their leadership.

This is the complete opposite of the Saudi backed camp, which greatly exaggerated its media propaganda.

 

5- The failure of Saudi religious mobilization:

 

When a Yemeni fighting in the Saudi backed camp reads that there are 200 American officers directing them from Saudi Arabia, while he knows about US involvement against his brothers in Gaza, and sees how Saudi media covers Gaza, its hostility toward it, and its complete adoption of the Israeli narrative, this alone is enough to deal a fatal blow to Saudi religious propaganda.