Talk:Yemen

Background
Backgrounder explanation of Yemen crisis by Caleb Maupin on RT: tweet by Dr. Bin Ghalib DO YOU REALLY WANNA KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING IN YEMEN ? – Watch this VID #StopArmingSaudi  --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:13, 12 October 2016 (UTC)

2016
Britain to demand Yemen ceasefire at UN security council -"The Guardian", 14 October 2016
 * It is unclear what Russia will do, getting itself aligned with Iran. Depending on details on what (and why) is proposed, may pass or not; and passing far from certain. --Resup (talk) 23:46, 14 October 2016 (UTC)

2018/2019
I guess there are questions on both nature and perceptions of the conflict: is this essentially a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, or essentially an aggression of Saudi Arabia on Yemen. Certainly there would be different experts and regional/global powers supporting either of those version of events. I guess understanding of what that really is will go some way towards resolving it, if this is something resolvable. It may be also in reality a mixture of those two clean versions, supporting split perceptions. Two particular aspects of this:

Southfront's assertion that since Houthis are Zaydi they are not at all Shiite is doubtful. Wikipedia-not fully reliable on sensitive matters, but anyway--lists Zaydi as one of the Shia sects, giving historic background; this is also often assumed in Western media covering the conflict. In reality, those alliances are more political than religious, and strictly religious differences, IMO, are quite small and esoteric. I am not sure what's the reality in politico-religious sphere. But there is some reason for Saudis to press ahead, and it is not because, say, Israel wants them to.
 * Are Houthis Shia?

Warfare requires ammunition, by at least truckloads, and with heavy weapons- by trainloads. And fuel. And food. Or money to buy all the above. Where all this is coming from, in a poor country torn by war? Weapons themselves, OK, maybe captured, some modified/adapted, but maybe coming from somewhere too. Missiles, somebody must have looked at it, to compare with Iranian, Soviet, North Korean. I was not following, but probably there is a conclusion somewhere in sources.
 * Where Houthis are getting weapons and supplies?

--Resup (talk) 09:37, 2 January 2019 (UTC)


 * Just to give you my rough sense (from my very limited understanding) of those questions; Although Iran does support the popular side to some extent, it's probably misleading to say its a proxy war and quite disparaging of alot of the Yemeni population to suggest they're just Iranian proxies. On the other hand it would seem to be an oversimplification to say its just a Saudi war on Yemen, without bearing in mind that it is the US/UK that prop up the house of Saud. Neither of those parties wants a popular nationalist government in a country so close to a major shipping route and with untapped resources. Also the role of UAE in the coalition is not minor with some analysts suggesting UAE and Saudi will be competing to grab their shares of South and North Yemen respectively.


 * I can't really comment on the religious identity aspects. Althought there is a clan aspect to the leadership there, narratives that focus on sectarian side probably obfuscate the nationalist and popular nature of Ansrahallah.


 * It should be remembered that most of the Yemeni army was allied with the Houthis - some officers have defected to the coalition. Sometimes reports can be confusing as both sides, the Hadi aligned and the authorities in Saana claim to be government forces. I will try to research these background issues further --Diagonal (talk) 13:47, 2 January 2019 (UTC)

If I understand those articles correctly, it is said that (1) French sell weapons to Saudis, UAE, and those weapons find their bad use in Yemen (2) French participate in other ways, like maybe air reconnaissance and other things not made very explicit in the article.
 * French involvement?

Unfortunately weapons are often sold to inappropriate customers; it is hard to stop, unless there is mass outrage or maybe UN resolution. One can only hope that at some point weapons/money will be regulated on grounds of ethics (the latter not at all in the loop presently) --Resup (talk) 19:15, 15 April 2019 (UTC)


 * The UK and Saudi have a stategic partnership and its hard to overstate the extent of the value of Saudi arms purchases to British and French arms industrial concerns like BAE, THALES and others - the european defence industrial concerns have become more integrated. Nexter who were mentioned have joint prokects with BAE. The recent German ban on exports to Saudi after Khashoggi has just been watered down in the interests of keeping those concerns happy. e.g. BAE/ eurofighter typhoons are dependent on components from Germany. The UK, French governments have been desperate to keep the extent of their involvement discreet, but we know the financial interests that have a stake in this have far more influence on what govt decides than ethical campaigners. --Diagonal (talk) 08:57, 16 April 2019 (UTC)