Yemen Crisis in the Regional Context

Historically religious, tribal, racial, and lingual differences have contributed to the political chasm in Yemen. It lacks social and religious cohesion due to its primarily tribal culture; this has paved the way for regional players and trans-regional actors’ interference such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the United States. Unlike Saudi Arabia, the Iranian interference is not military but morall and politicall support. Yemen has special ideological and strategic value for the two regional players; under their direction and control, in recent years, the social groups and movements have become very active in this country. ; The competition among regional powers and their attempts to expand their influence among these groups has created a power struggle among different groups. This has created much friction and tension among different groups and has prepared the context for maximum interference of the regional and non-regional powers through exploitation of the conflicts among the religious groups. In response to Islamic Republic’s support of the Houthis, the Saudi government has aligned itself with the U.S. to stabilize Yemen by managing the crisis in a way to maintain political structure, or at most unchanged.

کلیدواژه ها:

Yemen ، religious chasm ، Houthis ، Iran ، Saudi Arabia ، U.S