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Arabia
Disarming the Houthis
2013-05-13
[Yemen Post] One of the main issues of the National Dialogue Conference, Sa'ada team of representatives will concentrate on bringing the Houthis (Shia-led para-military political faction based in the northern provinces of Sa'ada, al-Jawh and Hajja) back to mainstream politics through the demobilization of its militias.
Good luck with that, guys. Really.
While Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, the leader of the group often expressed his willingness to lay down all weapons in exchange for political acceptance, he almost always argued that for that to happen he would have to feel confident that his political nemesis, essentially al-Islah (Sunni political faction) and Salafis (Sunni fundamentalists) would refrain from attacking his people.

After a decade of dissidence, the Houthis are believed to be at the head of a thousands strong well-equipped army. Allegedly funded and equipped by Iran, with which they share a common ideology, the Houthis are more often than not depicted as a warring tribal faction rather than a legitimate political party.

Sana'a, which wishes to usher a peaceful resolution to the Houthis dossier cannot however tolerate a tribal faction, however legitimate it fells its stance might be, to maintain such a military might.

Stuck in a dilemma of principles the Houthis and the central government will have at one point or another to find a way to compromise if a tangible reconciliation can ever be hoped to be brokered.

If the Republic of Yemen is ever to blossom into the moder civil state its people are longing for, the state will have to impose its sole authority over all of Yemen territories, tolerating no contender to its military and institutional capacity. As long as states with the state will be allowed to exist, Yemen will never know stability, neither politic nor economic as its resources would be spent in in-fighting.

The Houthis are now demanding that the state set up a fund for the people of Sa'ada in order to compensate them for the abuses and crimes which they allege the former regime committed against them during 2004 Sa'ada war. They also seek an official apology.

Sheikh Abdul Wahab Homaiqani, the Secretary-General of the newly-formed Yemeni Salafist al-Rashad Union party and a representative at the NDC stressed that the disarmament of the Houthis had everything to do with the state asserting its authority and nothing to do with one faction's political or religious ideology, rejecting allegations of sectarian tensions in regards to the Sa'ada dossier.

The Sheikh added he was concerned over the Houthis' push for control over more territories in the northern provinces.

Posted by:Fred

#1  The Houthis or the Hauthis, etc. like Hezbollah versus Huzbullah versus Hazballah, etc.

And all that.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2013-05-13 19:39  

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