Saudi Arabia's battle is not alone

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The truth is that you do not understand how the Arabs remain silent regarding this deviant situation in which the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, has found itself for some time. The period I mean extends its time limits to 2014, when the Houthi group entered the capital of Yemen, then closed it in the face of the legitimate Yemeni government that is recognized by the world, and known by Yemenis who are loyal to their country, and who are not satisfied with it or any alternative to it.

How have the Arabs been silent or are remaining silent all these years, while the capital of Yemen is in the grip of a group that plays with a regional agenda, and even an agenda with international dimensions, as it became clear to us as we recently followed the map of its communications, and then the map of the meetings of its representatives in an Arab capital.

I understand, of course, that the stability of Yemen is primarily a Saudi matter, for nothing, except because direct neighborhood links the two countries on the basis of geography, and therefore the Kingdom’s preoccupation with Yemen, its stability, and the necessity of the presence of its government in its capital is an issue that does not need explanation, explanation, or justification, nor does it accept compromise according to Saudi national security standards, nor does it accept compromise or separation.

But I understand, on the other hand, that the stability of Yemen is a comprehensive Arab matter, as much as it is a Saudi matter governed by neighboring factors. As for why it is an Arab issue in parallel, it is because the regional party that employs Al-Houthi, moves him, and sends him what keeps him alive is a party that targets the Arab presence to the same extent that it might target Saudi Arabia or the Gulf in general.

When Riyadh led the coalition to support Yemeni legitimacy and continues to do so, it was doing so with its certainty that Yemen is for the Yemenis and not for a group that says it is Yemeni. Then it becomes clear from what it practices that it is not Yemeni as a nationality in any way, nor is it something that serves the benefit of the people of Yemen in any way. Rather, it moves in its place in a way that achieves the benefit of the party or parties that are using it as a card. There is no difference here between the driving party being regional, which we see and know, and being international, which we see and know as well. There is no difference in reality, because the outcome in both cases is the same.

If Saudi Arabia took the initiative to activate the Mecca Defense Agreement as a deterrent against a rogue group, then this is an inherent Saudi right required by the public Saudi interest, called for by necessity, and called for by the reality that the Saudi government finds itself called upon to work to change in the land of Yemen, by supporting the legitimate government, strengthening the capabilities of the Yemeni army, and bringing the “Yemen Dawn” operation launched by the Yemeni army to its inevitable goal.

Yemen is a country with an extended history, a civilization with roots, and a culture that has its presence in the past, and it also has its own characteristics in the face of present Yemen, which may appear before us in any form. When this is the weight of a country like Yemen, the Arabs must pay attention to the danger of a country with this civilizational and cultural weight being excluded from the broader Arab entity, and the necessity for all Arabs to come together to repel every aggression against it, its civilization, its culture, or its history, for all of this is from our remaining Arab assets.

A person despairs and feels sad when he looks around and finds that the capabilities of a country like Yemen are in the hands of a frivolous group that does not care as it plays children’s games, and in a regional situation that cannot tolerate games like these, and the region cannot tolerate it as it steps between mines in every corner of it.

A person despairs and feels sad when he looks around and discovers that Arab capitals have been seeing what they have been seeing in Yemen for more than ten years, and then do not take the initiative to return Yemen to its people, rid it of the tampering of children, and reclaim it from a group that has invaded it and its children.

And if the bond of religion was the one that extended to include Riyadh, Ankara, and Islamabad in one thread, then next to this bond there is an Arab bond that should not be absent as it sees the sinful aggression attacking the city of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) once, then on the city of the Holy Mosque in Mecca a second time, and after them on schools, civilians, and markets in the south of the Kingdom!

This is absurdity. There is no alternative but to find an Arab will waiting for it to stop. Its practitioners must be uprooted from the land of Yemen, which the absurd Houthi has taken as a platform to target Saudi Arabia in particular, and to target the Arab body in general. What befalls a single Saudi civilian in Najran, Jizan, Taif, or other areas that were struck and attacked by the Houthi militia, is in essence a targeting of every Arab, regardless of his place between the ocean and the Gulf.

This ongoing battle to reclaim Yemen from its kidnappers is not the battle of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia alone, and it may not be its battle alone, but rather the battle of those who are united with the Kingdom by the ties of language, religion, and blood, and who are united with it by culture in the most comprehensive meanings that the word culture carries.

Sana'a is the capital of Yemen, and the seat of the government is Sana'a. The Yemeni government remaining outside its normal headquarters is an abnormal situation that will never be right, even if it lasts for a long time. Restoring the capital is inevitable.

Quoted from "Al-Sharq Al-Awsat"