What can Yemen expect from the Gulf Cooperation Council following the end of Storm of Resolve? And what do the other countries want to see happen in Yemen?
The operation was surely not carried out based on an improvised decision. In fact, the decision was a collective one that had even gone beyond Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations to include Arab and regional allies, who participated in the operation. This decision to go to war to back the legitimacy in Yemen was, as per the norm, linked to a politico-military programme, as well as a comprehensive economic development programme. What the world has witnessed on the ground during the Storm of Resolve was the politico-military aspect of the programme.
However, now that Storm of Resolve has been brought to a close, and once the military goals are achieved, the key parts of the programme will begin. The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Brigadier General Ahmad Al Asiri, said the goals of the coalition’s new phase, called ‘Renewal of Hope’, are to prevent Al Houthi militia from “targeting civilians or changing realities on the ground”. It is not thought that an Arab-GCC Marshall plan may be set up through the Sharm Al Shaikh Donors Conference. But, even if it is set up, it will not be a sufficient or logical response to the military and political effects of Storm of Resolve. Similar plans and projects, albeit much smaller, were carried out before in Yemen during different time periods. Most did not succeed in meeting the expectations of those who started and contributed to them. Aid in many forms has been given to Yemen before, including donations. Other aid provided to Yemen was in the form of loans with no interests and convenient instalments or financial grants given to the leaders of Yemeni tribes. That aid was presented as an effort to ensure the stability of border areas. However, in reality, the objective behind such grant was to seal specific political alliances.
Not many Arab nations helped Yemen. The ones who did the most were undoubtedly the GCC states and the aid of those who did help did not focus on setting up industrial or agricultural projects or investments in infrastructure projects in Sana’a and its suburbs or other big Yemeni cities. This kind of aid would have helped Yemen achieve real development and would have eased pressure on unemployment among the youth, which reached 51 per cent, meaning that the Yemeni job market requires the creation of 200,000 jobs. However, the aid remains financial and it has been shown that providing Yemen with such aid does not help the country or its people.
Once such financial assistance is announced, executives in the government would seize parts of it and what was left was usually distributed to the other employees. So the Yemenis view this kind of financial aid as simply an exciting bit of news for the media in both countries, but the Yemeni people never reap its benefits.
Yemen, at present, is in a number of joint agreements with GCC countries in the field of health care, culture, sports, security affairs and information exchange. However, the reach of these agreements stops when it comes to politics, an obstacle that the Gulf nations were not able to overcome due to many reasons. One of those is that Yemen’s ruling regime is not similar to those in the GCC. Nonetheless, such a justification was repeatedly refuted in statements issued by Gulf nations, who said that the ruling regime was not an obstacle if the GCC decided it was important to include a country as a member in the GCC. Everyone is well aware that the GCC once issued a statement following the war in Iraq in 2003, in which it said that it was studying the matter of including Iraq as a member of the organisation. Three years ago, GCC once again surprised everyone when it issued two separate statements, saying that it was studying the inclusion of Jordan and Morocco as members of the group. It was later revealed that both Morocco and Jordan were prioritised when it came to the care of the GCC, as both countries were granted assistance valued at billions of dollars.
At a time when one views the aid of the GCC in a positive light, it is important to encourage it and call for the Gulf to sustain it in order to preserve the nation-state and prevent it from collapsing, as is the case currently with many Arab nations. Nevertheless, one also cannot understand the nature of GCC aid for Yemen. A key factor of the aid is the geopolitical aspect of it for the GCC, as Yemen borders Saudi Arabia — the most prominent religious, economic and political power in the Arab world. This makes Yemen both a factor of strength and weakness for Saudi Arabia. The Yemeni people are also socially linked to the people of the Gulf on more than one level, in addition to the fact that the country is a source of honest workers who have proven that they can excel, as is reflected in jobs they hold in many GCC countries. The UAE is a shining example of this, as many Yemenis have integrated themselves into many of its institutions, such as the police and service institutions. Yemenis have shown outstanding performance, notable integrity and a deep understanding of vocational requirements, but most importantly, they have shown true loyalty, as many of them were granted citizenship in some GCC nations.
The GCC is going through a phase of difficult decisions and perhaps including Yemen as a member of the group will be the second most difficult and significant decision following the Storm of Resolve.
Mohammad Hassan Al Harbi is a writer and journalist.
