Visit Of The Delegation Of Germany In Yemen To Solve The Conflict: Analytical Essay

On the 9th of August 2018, a school bus was traveling through the town of Dahyan in Yemen’s northern province of Saada. The students were returning from a picnic that they had shortly before going on the bus. The bus driver decided to pull over to get a drink at the market. A few moments later, a deafening sound silences the once peaceful town. Dust and debris scattered throughout the market, and victims were quickly rushed to hospitals. The Red Crescent reported receiving forty-eight injured people of which, thirty-eight were children. They later received the bodies of twenty-nine children. The deafening sound that not only silenced the peace in Dahyan but also silenced twenty-nine children their lives and condemned dozens more to live physically-ill lives was an airstrike from a Saudi-led coalition warplane. The attack on innocent children in the Dahyan was one out of many airstrikes carried out by the Saudi Arabian-led coalition against supposedly Houthi Rebel targets. Since 2015, twenty-eight million Yemenis have been bearing the tribulation of civil war. It has not only divided Yemen but divided the world as the once domestic conflict turns into an international proxy war between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Yemeni Civil War has created the worst humanitarian crisis in history, with over two-thirds of Yemenis suffering from food shortages and millions more affected with a Cholera epidemic due to poor sanitation. Earlier this April, a ceasefire has been declared due to the Coronavirus pandemic that has engulfed the world. The Delegation of The Federal Republic of Germany believes that this ceasefire is the right time to negotiate and open avenues for discussions even in this time of social distancing and isolation. This conflict can only be resolved not through force or regime change, but through diplomacy and mutual understanding with the involved parties.

The Federal Republic of Germany has had a history of pursuing peaceful initiatives in the Middle East. In 2003, when Prime Minister Tony Blair and American President George W. Bush was preparing for the war in Iraq over the basis of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the possibility that Saddam Hussein’s government possessed chemical weapons, the United States invited its allies to join the conflict. Germany politely refused this offer and decided to wait until evidence was found by the United Nations fact-finding mission that was sent to Iraq to determine its possession of chemical weapons. To this day, the United States and the United Kingdom are yet to give any evidence of any sort that states the possession of Chemical weapons by Saddam Hussein’s regime. After the assassination of Qassem Soleimani in Iraq, the Iraqi parliament promptly voted to expel foreign troops from their country. Germany respected the decision of the parliament and left the US-led coalition in Iraq and is expected to have all German military personnel to be withdrawn from Iraq by September 2020.

In contrast, US President Donald Trump has denounced the decision by the Iraqi parliament and has increased presence in the country through the addition of Patriot Missile Systems to protect American bases from airborne threats. In early 2018, Germany has made history by taking the lead in adopting a pragmatic foreign policy concerning the War in Yemen, unlike its American ally. The Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen that was code-named Operation Decisive Storm has raised eyebrows in the international community, as a disproportionate amount of airstrikes by the coalition were on civilian-populated areas, such as schools and hospitals. As a result of these incidents, a growing movement for arms exports bound for Yemen to cease was gaining momentum throughout the world. For example, in early 2019, protesters blocked cargo that was bound for Yemen in the ports of Le Havre in France. The United States has all but continued arms exports to the Saudi-led coalition, as well as opposing a bill by Congress that would end arms sales to the war-torn state by a veto from President Donald Trump. A twenty-eight-page framework agreement between two of Germany’s establishment parties, the Social Democrats and the Conservatives, outlined a suspension of arms sales to any country participating in the Yemeni Civil War. This document was a drastic change to Germany’s foreign policy in Yemen because as much as the German government considers the Saudi Arabian and Emirati government essential for the stability in the Middle East, their actions have only created more problems than solutions. The German government has previously supported the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with weapons and ammunitions years before the civil war and in the early stages of the civil war in an attempt to maintain stability in the Middle East by not allowing the Iranians to get a geographic advantage by creating a Yemeni ally. The Delegation emphasizes that this policy has dramatically change due to the evolving nature of the multifaceted conflict. Germany believes that the United States of America, as well as France and the United Kingdom, must cease arms imports to Yemen.

However, the Delegation has firm reason to believe that the Islamic Republic of Iran may need to do the same. Iran continuously denies the allegation by Western intelligence sources that they have participated in the civil war by providing weapons and training to the Houthi Revels and have clarified that they only offered verbal support. However, this possibility cannot be ignored. In early 2015, it was reported that a ship supposedly bound for Somalia was carrying Iranian-made Konkurs Anti-tank Guided Missiles and several other armaments. The ship was unflagged, and the crew claims that there was no intention to enter Yemeni ports. Some have speculated that Somalia could be an intermediate destination to reach Yemen being its ultimate destination. A Saudi-American investigation has shown that the rockets used in the 2019 Abqaiq-Khurais attack, wherein Ansar Allah (the Houthi Rebels) claimed responsibility for bombing oil refineries in the Saudi Kingdom, were of Iranian-manufactured origin. With these pieces of evidence in mind, the Delegation of Germany has strong reasons to believe that the Islamic Republic has supported Ansar Allah in Yemen and expresses to organize a fact-finding mission to determine the possibility of taking action against Iran.

Furthermore, Yemen’s civil war has brought another risk that might directly affect Germany and the rest of Europe – the militarization of the Red Sea. In 2015, the Emiratis and Eritreans signed a thirty-year lease that allows the UAE to use the port of Assab, which is only sixty kilometers from the Yemeni coast. In return, Eritrea would get oil and funds to boost its economy. This agreement has raised concerns among the international community, considering that Eritrea was subjected to international sanctions by the United Nations Security Council in 2009 due to supplying weapons to Al-Shabab in Somalia and failure to withdraw from disputed territory with Djibouti. The Emiratis have been using Assab as a staging point for launching attacks on the Houthi rebels, whether it be naval or aerial attacks, as well as shuttling troops across the strait to reach Yemen. This action would undoubtedly lead to the militarization of the Red Sea that leads to the vital Suez Canal. Germany shares the fears of many European countries that the Red Sea could become a battleground and restrict international trade. As such, the Delegation of the Federal Republic of Germany deems it necessary to uphold freedom of navigation calls for the demilitarization of crucial international trade routes, such as the Red Sea.

In addition, there is a growing presence of fundamentalist terrorist organizations in Yemen, with the most infamous being the Islamic State (IS) and the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Surrounded by enemies, the influence of the Islamic State and Al Qaeda has waned almost to the point of obscurity in the conflict with much media attention focused on coalition airstrikes. American airstrikes in Yemen have laid waste to the commanders of terrorist cells operating in the region. However, the Delegation would like to emphasize that Al Qaeda still retains control of 36% of Yemen and is still an existential threat. The Delegation of Germany fears that with the increasing amount of coalition bombings on civilian areas has a detrimental psychological effect on Yemeni civilians and would subsequently drive Yemeni youths to be radicalized and join these terrorist organizations. As such, Germany believes that the threat posed by terrorism must be erased and that radicalism must be quelled through bolstering education programs in the war-torn states.

Additionally, in August of 2019, the UAE-supported Southern Transitional Council (STC) has launched attacks against the forces loyal to the internationally-recognized government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and further seized the capital of the Hadi government in Aden. Further, it complicates the civil war due to conflicts within the Saudi-led coalition. The STC is a secessionist organization that has been fighting the Northern government in Sana’a since 1994. It was the first-ever Yemeni civil war and occurred four years after the reunification of North and South Yemen in 1990. The conflict erupted due to the failure of reintegration between both governments and that some politicians, inspired by decades of hate, to settle scores with their rivals. The Delegation of Germany believes that the current war with the Houthis has overshadowed the pre-existing war between North and South. The Delegation of the Federal Republic of Germany believes that this conflict with the Southern Yemeni secessionists cannot be ignored and proposes the establishment of a government federation composed of states to effectively represent regional interests. However, the Delegation would also be open to a referendum in South Yemen to determine the fate of the South once peace and the rule of law have been restored in the war-torn country.

Lastly, the current conflict with the Houthi rebels only illuminates the thousands of years of schisms in Islam and the political upheavals and violence that is commonly with the history of the Arab and Islamic world. The Houthi insurgency started with the death of Hussein Al-Houthi, a son of the Houthi tribe, who was killed in a battle with the Yemeni military. Al-Houthi became a parliamentarian in the capital of Sana’a in an attempt to improve conditions for his people. When none of his demands were met, he returned to Sad’ah province in the north and started his movement. The Houthis claim that they have been oppressed by the so-called “corrupt regime” that is supported by Saudi Arabia. Their ideology has also been keen to promote antisemitism with their banner displaying in vertical order “God is the greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse upon Jews, Victory to Islam.” When the Houthis killed the former President Ali Abdul Saleh in Sana’a, the Houthis dared to claim that the so-called “Jewish alliance” has been destroyed. While the Delegation highly denounces Houthi rhetoric for its antisemitism, the Delegation believes that extermination of the group is not the answer to this conflict, but rather dialogue and understanding. The Delegation of Germany would like to give credence to the success of cooperation despite persistent sectarian divides in the Arab and Islamic world. One success story is perhaps the warring factions in Lebanon’s civil war that pitted Maronite Christians, Shi’ite Muslims, and Sunni Muslims against each other. In 1992, the Lebanese Civil War ended with the Taif Agreement that enabled power-sharing between the religious sects. Ever since the signing of the agreement, there have been little incidences of sectarian conflict in the country. Lebanon today, however, is filled with corruption and poverty. However, the Delegation believes that this was not the result of the agreement; rather, the incompetency and lack of accountancy among Lebanese government officials.

In conclusion, the Delegation of Germany envisions a new Yemen where peace and the rule of law prevails. The Delegation puts forward a resolution to this conflict that involves the world powers halting arms exports that terrorize Yemeni civilians and a united Yemen despite sectarian and tribal divides through a federal republic under a power-sharing system. Germany hopes for the utmost betterment of the Yemeni people and their struggle for a peaceful country.