News Release

End of “Yemen Model” — and Yemen?

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AP reports: “The U.N. Security Council called for a lasting cease-fire in conflict-torn Yemen on Tuesday and condemned the recent surge in violence aimed at undermining the country’s legitimate government institutions. … Violence has gripped Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since Monday and has been described as a coup. Yemeni authorities say Shiite Houthi rebels shelled Hadi’s residence and raided the presidential palace on Tuesday.”

FAREA AL-MUSLIMI, falmuslimi at gmail.com, @almuslimi
Al-Muslimi is a Yemeni youth activist, writer, and consultant who has testified at a Senate hearing and was featured on an IPA news release titled “Iraq: Is Yemen the Model?” last year. Some of his tweets today include: “Three years of Yemen straight walking toward #Hell via GCC [Gulf Cooperation Coucil] deal.” “Like it or not, admit it or fake it by new fake UN agreement, we are simply witnessing the END of The Republic of Yemen. #Yemen #Houthis.”

BARAA SHIBAN, baraashiban at gmail.com, @BShtwtr
Shiban is a member of the Yemeni National Dialogue Conference and is the British-based group Reprieve’s project coordinator in Yemen. He said today: “The recent actions by Houthi rebels who gained support of the deposed President Saleh, is an announcement of a full coup. The elected president is under house arrest, military personnel have left the streets and the Houthi Militia are in control now. This will fuel the tensions in the other provinces and I see that we will be living a year of chaos in Yemen.” Shiban’s pieces include “Drone Strikes in Yemen are an Obstacle to Democracy.”

MATTHEW HOH, mphoh1 at yahoo.com
Hoh, a State Department whistleblower, said today: “You don’t have to be an expert on Yemen, the Middle East, Islam or foreign policy in general to realize that what is occurring in Yemen is similar to what is occurring throughout the Greater Middle East. Decades of American interventionist policy, that can be at best be described as inept meddling, with roots going back to the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iran in 1953 and the establishment of the Shah’s authoritarian police state, have created, fostered and sustained sectarian, ethnic and religious conflicts that have birthed repressive regimes, extremist terror groups and genocidal civil wars throughout the Middle East. Yemen is one more glaring example of failed American policy in the Middle East, perhaps all the more tragic and absurd as Yemen was cited as an example of success by President Obama when he authorized his seventh bombing of a Muslim nation, Syria, last year.”

Hoh, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, previously directed the Afghanistan Study Group, a collection of foreign and public policy experts and professionals advocating for a change in U.S. policy in Afghanistan. Prior to that, Hoh served with the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq and on U.S. Embassy teams in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

In July, President Obama stated in his remarks about sending troops to Iraq: “You look at a country like Yemen — a very impoverished country and one that has its own sectarian or ethnic divisions — we do have a committed partner in President Hadi and his government. And we have been able to help to develop their capacities without putting large numbers of U.S. troops on the ground, at the same time as we’ve got enough CT, or counterterrorism, capabilities that we’re able to go after folks that might try to hit our embassy or might be trying to export terrorism into Europe or the United States.

“And looking at how we can create more of those models is going to be part of the solution in dealing with both Syria and Iraq. …” See IPA news release: “Iraq: Is Yemen the Model?