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The Saudi Butchery in Yemen and the World’s Apathy
It is time for Muslims to stop killing each other. The only way out of the Yemen morass is reconciliation and peaceful coexistence.
Credit: Central Command Responsibility Map www.flickr.com
Takeaways
... The killing of Jamal Khashoggi pales in compared to the brutality and human rights violations Saudi Arabia is committing in Yemen.
... Over eight million people in Yemen are facing famine and two million are displaced and deprived of basic needs.
... The saddest part of the Yemen tragedy is that the US and other Western powers are supplying the Saudis with weapons to massacre the Yemenites.
... Saudi Arabia is determined not to allow Iran to have any foothold in the Arabian Peninsula. Iran is determined to expand its regional influence. Sadly, both have badly miscalculated each other’s resolve.
... It is time for Muslims to stop killing each other. The only way out of the Yemen morass is reconciliation and peaceful coexistence.
The cold-blooded killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, however gruesome, pales in compared to the brutality and gross human rights violations Saudi Arabia is committing in Yemen.
The Saudis are deliberately preventing food and medicine from reaching areas where children are dying from starvation or disease. Their indiscriminate bombings are killing thousands of innocent men, women, and children, leaving whole communities in ruin.
The saddest part of this unfolding tragedy is that the United States and other Western powers are supplying the Saudis with the weapons they need to massacre the Yemenites. They are trapped in this proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran (which neither can win), and the will continue to pay with their blood.
The butchering of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul is but a manifestation of how vicious and cold-blooded the Saudis can be.
Western governments must remember that silencing a journalist by slicing him to pieces is not only an assault on the freedom of the press, but an assault on us all as human beings. This bring us back to the merciless war in Yemen that defies any logic.
Yemen war: The statistics
Since 2015, the Saudis have led a coalition of mostly Arab states to fight in Yemen’s civil war, backing the ousted government against the Houthi rebels—a Shia-affiliated group with the full support of Iran.
The following statistics are not mere numbers. One has to graphically imagine what is actually happening to the multitude of Yemenites to grasp the magnitude of a war that has shattered a nation to the ground.
Out of a total population of 28 million people, 22 million are in need of humanitarian aid. Nearly 5.2 million children are starving to death and nearly one million are believed to be infected with cholera.
Over eight million people are facing famine and two million are displaced and deprived of basic needs.
An unwinnable war
Anyone who has followed the nature of this proxy war and its long and short-term implications will attest that this is not a winnable war. After three-and-a-half years, neither the Saudis nor the Iranians have made any significant progress and there are no indications that either could gain the upper hand any time in the foreseeable future.
Sunni Saudi Arabia is determined not to allow Iran to have any foothold in the Arabian Peninsula. That includes Yemen, which borders Saudi Arabia to the south.
Shiite Iran is determined to expand its regional influence and has seized the opportunity in the conflict between the Houthis and the recognized government to interject itself on behalf of the Houthis.
Sadly and tragically, both governments have badly miscalculated each other’s resolve, except that the Saudis, who have a higher stake in any final outcome, adopted a no-holds-barred strategy in its execution of the merciless war.
If left to their own devices, Saudi Arabia and Iran will continue to fight, as neither has reached a point of exhaustion.
No outside power, including the United Nations, has been moved enough by the human disaster, which is devouring a whole country, to act. The world is still looking on with pathetic silence.
The Trump administration
The Trump administration, which views Iran as the greatest threat to the region’s stability and has concerns over its nuclear ambitions, is probably the only power broker that can end this conflict.
The human catastrophe being inflicted on Yemen may well provide the United States the opportunity to change the dynamic of multiple conflicts in the region by taking a new initiative that can achieve four significant objectives.
End the calamitous war
First, it will bring to an end the calamitous war in Yemen and save the lives of millions of Yemenites, many of whom will otherwise perish if the war continues for another two or three years.
The Saudis, whose reputation has been badly tainted by the gruesome murder of Khashoggi, been severely criticized by the international community and knowing that they cannot win this war, will have little choice but to embrace the United States’ initiative.
Moreover, the Saudis are heavily dependent both politically and militarily on the US, which they cannot forsake at any price.
Iran may cut its losses
Second, Iran is fully aware of the fact that the Trump administration, regardless of the Khashoggi episode, will not abandon Saudi Arabia as long as the kingdom continues to cooperate.
Iran too is not oblivious to the fact that it cannot win this costly war and its prospect to obtain a permanent foothold in the Arabian Peninsula is very slim.
It may well opt to cut its losses, especially if it believes that its cooperation may well help lift U.S. sanctions in conjunction with a revised nuclear deal with the United States.
Abandon the hope of Iranian regime change
Third, regardless of Iran’s public refusal to renegotiate the Iran deal, the U.S. sanctions are becoming increasingly painful and the public is showing growing frustration in the way their government is addressing their economic hardship.
Those in the Trump administration who are entertaining the illusion that the public outcry resulting from crippling sanctions could precipitate a regime change in Iran should also disabuse themselves of this wishful thinking.
The Iranian government is there to stay, as it continues to enjoy the full support of the military and is more than capable of dealing with any public unrest by whatever ruthless means necessary.
Mending relations with Iran
Fourth, ending the war in Yemen and mending relations with Iran will have major positive implications on the entire region.
The prospect of an Israeli-Palestinian peace will dramatically improve, as the Saudis will continue to bring Israel ever close to the Arab states.
It will dramatically change the nature of the Iran-Israel conflict should a modified nuclear deal be struck between the United States and Tehran and it could also accelerate the ending of the civil war in Syria.
Not just a pipedream
Some may think that what I am suggesting here amounts to nothing but a pipedream. I beg to differ.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are permanent fixtures in the Middle East and must sooner or later learn to share a region that has not been dominated by either country. Sunnis and Shiites have coexisted for millennia and have no choice but to continue to coexist.
Neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia can become the region’s hegemon. They can fight in proxy wars in Syria and Yemen for a hundred years, but in the end neither can gain the upper hand—not now and perhaps not ever.
It is time for Muslims to stop killing each other. The lesson from Yemen should leave an indelible mark on the psyche of every Saudi and Iranian that the way out of their morass in Yemen is reconciliation and peaceful coexistence.
Trump, who can turn on a dime, may well be in a unique position to make it happen.
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More on this topic
Is Peace in Yemen Possible?
Saudi Moderation: How Far Will Crown Prince Mohammed Go?
US Spurring Instability in the Middle East
About Alon Ben-Meir
Senior Fellow at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs and Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute [United States]
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Alon Ben-Meir
Middle East Director of the World Policy Institute, New School for Social Research
Dr. Alon Ben Meir is a professor and Senior Fellow at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs and Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute.
Dr. Ben-Meir is an expert on Middle East politics and affairs, specializing in international negotiations and conflict resolution.
In the past seventeen years, Ben-Meir has been directly involved in various negotiations between Israel and its neighboring countries and Turkey.
Ben-Meir hosts “Global Leaders: Conversations with Alon Ben-Meir,” a speaking series of debates and conversations with top policy-makers from around the world held each semester at NYU. He also regularly briefs at the U.S. State Department for the International Visitors Program.
He writes a weekly article that appear in scores of newspapers, magazines and websites including the Huffington Post, Jerusalem Post, Middle East Times, Times of Israel, Epoch Times, the Political Quarterly, the Harvard Review, and many other publications in Arabic and English.
He has been featured on networks such as ABC, Al Jazeera (English and Arabic), Al Arabiya, al-Hurra, CNN, Russia Today and NBC.
He has authored seven books related to Middle East and is currently working on a new book about the psychological dimension of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Dr. Ben-Meir holds a master’s degree in philosophy and a doctorate in international relations from Oxford University.
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