Saudi Arabia has suspended operations at its embassy in Yemen and evacuated its staff as the security situation there deteriorates, various agencies are reporting. Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, is currently under control of a Shiite militant group, the Houthis, who have battled the Saudi government along its long border with the Kingdom for years.
The AFP reports that the Saudi decision to evacuate staff in Sanaa follows that of the United States and other Western governments. Saudi Arabia and ally Egypt are reportedly preparing for greater involvement in the conflict should it worsen, according to the AP, which said that the Saudis are “arming loyal tribesmen across its southern border” and that Egypt is “readying a military unit to intervene if needed.”
Sanaa, Yemen’s Capital.
“The turmoil is starting to resonate around the Middle East, already shaken by bloody conflicts in Syria, Libya and Iraq…As Houthi fighters advance to take more ground, Yemeni officials said Saudi Arabia, a staunch U.S. ally, was sending arms and funds to tribesmen in Yemen’s Marib province to bolster them against the rebels.”
But the gains by Houthi militants are expanding. Today, fighters with the group that is suspected to be backed by Iran took a key military installation in the southern part of the country as reports of other seizures, including cars and small arms left by evacuating American diplomats, highlight the increasingly dangerous situation, according to the BBC. That report also said the U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, who recently visited Saudi Arabia to meet with King Salman, described the situation as “collapsing before our eyes.”
“We cannot stand by and watch,” Moon said.
Yemen has long been an economic and security challenge for Arab states and their Western allies, including the United States. On Thursday, The White House’s top counterterrorism official, Nick Rasmussen, admitted Thursday that “the overthrow of Yemen’s government by Shiite rebels last month caught U.S. intelligence off guard and resembled the situation in Iraq, according to a report in Fox News.
“The Yemeni army’s response to the advancing Houthi rebels resembled the Iraqi military’s response to an onslaught by the Islamic State terror group (ISIS) that ended in the capture of Iraq’s second-largest city this past summer.”
On Wednesday, SUSTG featured two detailed analyses on the Yemen situation by expert Fahad Nazer in Foreign Affairs, and Khaled Fattah in Carnegie Endowment’s blog.
