It comes to nobody’s surprise that there’s a divide between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Yemen. The joint statement for dialogue almost a month after the UAE-supported separatists ousted the Saudi-backed Yemen government is only an attempt to plaster the deep divisions over the war in Yemen.
The joint call by the two allies reveals that the ground situation in Yemen is making the on-going war more complex. Now three parties are fighting in Yemen: the government forces, the separatists and the Houthis. Will issuing a joint call end differences between the forces that were once united in the fight against Houthis but now fighting each other? It is difficult to answer this question in affirmative.
What can be said with conviction, however, is that the new divisions are more than enough to break the country apart. What is more evident now than ever is that the split will bring more miseries and devastations to Yemen’s infrastructure. What is more apparent is that the new rifts will exacerbate the human toll in the war that has no end soon.
However, what is not clear is if the United Nations (UN) will ever awake from its slumber. What is doubtful is if the UN will ever call a spade a spade by calling Saudi Arabia and the UAE as the originators of war crimes in Yemen. What will the UN say about Iran’s role in the conflict? Will the UN ever admit that it has failed in protecting the present and future generations from the scourge of war in Yemen?
And what about the white man’s burden? The United States (US), Britain and France are reducing it by selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and UAE despite the warning of the experts that their arms target innocent population of Yemen. It is brave of the UN to say that these countries may be complicit in Yemen war crimes. But this is too little to tell of these countries’ role in perpetuating the war in the country.
The costs of war in Yemen are beyond calculations. More than four years of war in Yemen has forced millions of people to leave their homes. The camps established for displaced people lack necessities of life. The practice of the Saudi-led coalition to starve the civilians as a war tactic has driven millions of people to experience famine. To cut a long story short, the long-forgotten but unending war has turned Yemen in a labyrinth of devastation. It is about time that the stalemate in Yemen is ended through a negotiated settlement.