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Yemen Review section April 9, 2024 02:31 MIN Quarterly: January-March 2024 The Environment — The Yemen Review, Quarterly: January-March 2024 The fallout from the conflict in the Red Sea extends to its vibrant ecosystem and the communities it supports. On March 2, The Rubymar, a British-owned commercial vessel, sank after being struck by a Houthi missile in a February 18 attack. The Rubymar is the first ship to be sunk since the Houthis began targeting Red Sea trade last fall. The ship was adrift for 12 days, leaving an oil slick some 18 miles long, and it has been posited that its dragging anchor was the source of reported damage to undersea telecommunications cables. The wreck now lies 16 nautical miles off the Yemeni coast at a depth of around 330 feet, and could pose a threat to other ships… Continue reading The Yemen Review February 15, 2024 42:27 MIN The Yemen Annual Review 2023 Peace talks between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi group (Ansar Allah) dominated Yemeni politics over the last year. The negotiations began as backchannel discussions in October 2022 after the Houthis resisted UN pressure to renew a truce first agreed in April 2022 by making a series of eleventh-hour demands. The talks continued despite Houthi attacks on oil terminals in southern Yemen in late 2022 that effectively put the internationally recognized government under a form of economic blockade. As the months progressed, the government’s increasingly dire economic situation pressured it to accept the Saudi policy of seeking a settlement with Houthi authorities, seemingly at almost any price. The broad terms of a Saudi-Houthi agreement first became public in January, when international… Continue reading Main Publications December 19, 2023 32:42 MIN Challenges to Yemen’s Public Revenues By Ned Whalley, and Wadhah Al-Awlaqi Since April 2022, the war in Yemen has mutated from a high-casualty conflict to a protracted stalemate with relatively stable frontlines. The contest is now over the economy, as the Houthi group (Ansar Allah) leverages negotiations and its military power to put fiscal pressure on the internationally recognized government. The current phase has been marked by the expansion of economic warfare, with the Houthi authorities shutting down trade from government-controlled areas, stoking discontent as public utilities break down and the currency tumbles. The Houthi attack on government revenue streams began last fall with a blockade of oil exports and has expanded into competition for customs revenues and a ban on cooking gas produced in government-held areas. The precipitous decline in… Continue reading Yemen Review section September 14, 2023 22:18 MIN August 2023 UN, US Continue Shuttle Diplomacy The UN-led peace process has remained stalled since a formal truce expired without extension last October, and has since been superseded by direct bilateral talks between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi group (Ansar Allah). Nevertheless, the UN and US special envoys have continued to actively consult with the respective belligerents. On August 9, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg met with PLC chief Rashad al-Alimi in Riyadh along with other members of the PLC. In separate meetings, Grundberg spoke with Prime Minister Maeen Abdelmalek Saeed, Foreign Minister Ahmed bin Mubarak, and Saudi Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed al-Jaber. Discussions revolved around improving living conditions in Yemen, the political peace process, and increasing regional support. On August 15, Grundberg traveled to… Continue reading Main Publications August 24, 2023 36:53 MIN Recovering Lost Ground in Shabwa’s Oil Sector By Majd Ibrahim, and Casey Coombs Shabwa’s oil sector has developed in fits and starts. Its first commercially viable oil reserves were discovered in 1987 when the governorate was still part of South Yemen. In 1990, South Yemen united with North Yemen to form the Republic of Yemen, which enlisted foreign energy companies to help develop the nascent oil industry. This included the construction of a pipeline running from northern Shabwa to the governorate’s Arabian Sea coast, and over the next 15 years a growing number of foreign energy firms and state-owned companies tapped new oil fields and further expanded production. Shabwa’s annual oil output peaked in 2010 at more than 25 million barrels (about 70,000 barrels per day), before plummeting to about 8 million barrels… Continue reading Yemen Review section August 15, 2023 11:05 MIN June and July 2023 Saudi-UAE Spat Comes to a Head in Hadramawt The developing rift between Saudi Arabia and its coalition partner, the UAE, has come out into the open in recent weeks. The Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Crown Prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman told journalists that the UAE had “stabbed them in the back,” and threatened to take direct action against its gulf rival. The deterioration of the relationship could have devastating consequences for Yemen. Competition between the groups backed by the Gulf powers has been a feature of the conflict since 2018: the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) has representatives on the governing Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) and controls swathes of southern territory, including the interim capital Aden. The current locus of this contest is… Continue reading News May 17, 2023 06:18 MIN Sana’a Center Briefs the Security Council for the Second Time By Yasmeen al-Eryani PRESS RELEASE – Wednesday, May 17, 2023 New York – Yasmeen al-Eryani, the Co-Executive Director for Knowledge Production at the Sana'a Center, briefed the UN Security Council today, focusing on the ongoing negotiations, transitional justice, women’s rights, economic insecurity, and ecological justice in Yemen. In her address, Al-Eryani said that the ongoing talks between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi movement are important, but the interests of the country and its people as a whole must be considered, emphasizing that all talks must be coordinated under the UN umbrella and engage local peace efforts. “Yemenis are fully capable of rebuilding their country and shaping its future," said Al-Eryani, but “there is a shared international responsibility to steer Yemen out of its… Continue reading Yemen Review section April 14, 2023 12:24 MIN March 2023 Saudi-Houthi Talks Move Forward After weeks of little movement, the bilateral Saudi-Houthi talks appear to be headed toward agreement on a comprehensive ceasefire, though resolution of longstanding issues remains elusive. At month’s end, Saudi Arabia organized a meeting in Riyadh, framed officially as Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) President Rashad Al-Alimi summoning the leading figures of his government. After the Saudis met individually with each PLC member to discuss the recent talks in Oman, they reportedly agreed in principle to an initiative presented by Saudi Ambassador Mohammed al-Jaber. The proposal to the Houthis described a three-stage process for PLC-Houthi talks, to take place over two years. During the first six months, confidence-building measures would be taken, including the payment of salaries to civil servants to… Continue reading The Yemen Review February 20, 2023 27:56 MIN Yemen Annual Review 2022 By Sana’a Center Staff The past year has been one of extreme consequence for Yemen. The war has entered a new phase of low-level violence and economic warfare. Casualties are down since a truce was signed in April, and have remained relatively low even after its acrimonious expiration in October. The internationally recognized government has sworn in a new executive body, but it has been unable to bridge internal rifts or reverse the territorial and economic decline of recent years. The United Arab Emirates has fully re-engaged in Yemen through a variety of proxy groups, most importantly the secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC), which holds sway across much of southern Yemen. Saudi Arabia is pursuing talks of its own with the Houthis, though its… Continue reading Yemen Review section October 12, 2022 01:33 MIN September 2022 First Phase of FSO Safer Operation Fully Funded Yemen received some rare good news in September when the UN announced it had finally reached the threshold (retroactively reduced from $80 to $75 million) to begin the first phase of the operation to salvage the FSO Safer. Despite the expiration of the truce, preparations surrounding the FSO Safer operation appeared to continue in early October. Although weather conditions improved compared to August, flooding and torrential rains continued to affect areas across the country in September, with several civilians killed in flooding or lightning storms. On September 19, the UN announced that it had finally reached its pledging goal for the first, US$75 million phase of the emergency operation to salvage the deteriorating floating storage and offloading unit FSO Safer,… Continue reading Publications April 7, 2022 04:44 MIN March 2022 Politics and Diplomacy By Casey Coombs Yemeni parties came together in Riyadh at the end of March in an effort to build unity, but in the month running up to the event the schisms among them were on full display in southern Yemen, where the Southern Transitional Council (STC) pushed back against political competitors in Aden and Shabwa. On March 1, forces affiliated with the STC stormed the headquarters of the General People's Congress (GPC) party in Al-Tuwahi district in the interim capital of Aden, abducted its security guards and shuttered the building. The GPC issued a statement accusing the STC-aligned governor of Aden, Ahmed Lamlas, of ordering a “provocative criminal act that undermines the foundations and rules of democracy on which the peaceful political parties… Continue reading The Yemen Review July 14, 2021 94:51 MIN Eye on the East – The Yemen Review, June 2021 Through periods of tolerance and persecution, marginalization has remained a constant in the treatment of racial and religious minorities in Yemeni society. During the ongoing conflict, however, violence and subjugation against these marginalized groups has increased dramatically, to the point that it is fundamentally reshaping Yemeni society. For Yemen as we know it to continue to exist it needs to assure the existence of its minorities, as something fundamental to the makeup of a nation dies when its minorities perish. Yemen’s Jewish community, with a history tracing back millennia, played a foundational role in developing Yemeni culture and commerce, and creating much of the artisanal industries for which the country is known. While the community had already been dwindling in… Continue reading