The civil war in Yemen is a serious security issue for the nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and they have every right to be deeply concerned by Iran’s active backing of Al Houthi rebels and their allies under former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition to restore the legitimate government, in conjunction with other Arab and regional states.
The continuing fighting is why this week’s GCC Consultative Summit focused on Yemen, and Iran’s involvement in supporting the rebels in order to further destabilise the region for its own benefit. The GCC coalition is acting under the “principles of our foreign policy, which is based on fairness and aims at guaranteeing the security and stability of the member states of the GCC, inspired by the charters of the United Nations and the Arab League as well as the rules of international law,” as stated by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, this week in Abu Dhabi.
The GCC states have a twin mission of both halting the dominance of the rebels and helping to restore the legitimate government, as well as sponsoring a new programme of rebuilding Yemen’s shattered civil society. It has been a disaster for far too long that outsiders have looked at Yemen solely as a security problem, and taken a far too narrow focus on military issues like how to hunt Al Qaida cells while ignoring Yemen’s more genuine needs like better education, agriculture and manufacturing.
This is why King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia announced the setting up of a centre to coordinate humanitarian aid to Yemen, and also called on the United Nations to assist in the task of getting Yemen back on its feet. It is important that the friends of Yemen do not ignore the eventual civil task as they pursue the military option to find the necessary political solution before rebuilding the state.
