The Yemen crisis seems to be following the same route as the civil war in Lebanon before the Taif accord ended it, but in a more settled way, with all the Yemeni forces concerned assembling in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to secure Yemen’s future.
Finding a satisfactory formula for all parties to manage Yemeni affairs after a national dialogue failed as a result of the Houthis’ occupation of the capital, Sana’a. It has become a major roadblock to internal dialogue.
The problem does not lie in moving the dialogue from Sana’a to Riyadh, but in who will attend the dialogue to give valuable political inputs to make it a success.
The Yemeni tribes are not politicised, and there is no influential political force on the Yemeni scene whose absence will doom the dialogue to failure.
Therefore, we must first look at the key parties that control political life in Yemen.
The People’s Congress Party, controlled by former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, comes first, being a former ally of Saudi Arabia; but that relationship has deteriorated after he supported the Houthi takeover of Sana’a.
It is crucial that this man is present in the Yemeni dialogue as a representative of his party, which makes it incumbent upon the dialogue’s facilitator to engage Saleh in political consultation and remind him of his previous alliance.
This shouldn’t be difficult as Saleh’s ties with the Houthis are temporary and based on factors that will soon cease to exist. They will soon fight each other, especially since Saleh had Hussein Badr Eddin Al Houthi, founder of the Houthi militia and elder brother of current leader Abdul Malik Al Houthi, killed in 2004.
The second Yemeni power is the parties opposed to the former president. At their forefront is the Islah Party, which is considered part of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is classified by Saudi Arabia as a terrorist group.
Due to the changing relationships between the Yemeni parties and Saudi Arabia, there are doubts whether this dialogue can occur in Riyadh unless strategic negotiations take place to forge a new relationship between the Yemeni parties and the GCC countries.
The third power is the Salafi factions that feel disappointed with Saudi Arabia because it didn’t support them in the town of Dammaj until they were forcibly evicted by the Houthis, who had surrounded them for years. However, they know that unity will be in Yemen’s interest.
If the Yemen dialogue takes place in Riyadh, it will put Al Houthi where he belongs.
Then the Salafis could enter the political process, which will involve all Yemeni groups that give up arms, dissolve their militias and integrate with state institutions to fit into the national project, which everyone wants for Yemen, the place of origin of all Arabs.
The author is a columnist and an expert in counterterrorism issues
