News Analysis: Why Yemeni situation on tailspin

Airstrikes launched by Saudi-led Arab coalition forces on military bases controlled by the rebel Shiite Houthi group in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa continued Sunday for the fifth straight night, with unyielding stand of the Arab League (AL) to disarm and drive the rebel group out of the occupied region.

In Sanaa, shop owners were forced to shut down their business while a massive number of civilians evacuated themselves from urban areas in an attempt to escape from the warfare there.

Since the Saudi-led airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen started Thursday, the bomb rain has so far killed 35 people and injured 88 others, the Yemeni health ministry said Sunday.

Meanwhile, AL Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi, who attended over the weekend the 26th Arab League meeting held in Egypt's Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh with leaders of AL member states, said that the Saudi-led military campaign against the Shiite Houthi rebels will continue until they end their military actions and hand over their weapons.

WHY SAUDI ARABIA TAKES LEAD IN MILITARY ACTIONS

Saudi Arabia, as the leading party for the military campaign, has adopted a hardcore stance over the airstrikes that started days ago.

Those attacks aim at freeing Yemen from Houthi rebels, the Saudi side declared, accusing the Shiite group of being a tool in the hands of external forces.

Saudi King Salman bin Abdel-Aziz vowed during the AL summit that the military operation will not stop until Yemen becomes stable and safe.

In the past 30 years, the Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia had maintained close ties with the Yemeni government and authorized multiple military actions against the Shiite Houthi militants in Yemen until last September when the group seized Sanna by force and subsequently squeezed other political parties in a bid to capture full control of the government.

Shiite Iran, profoundly at odds with Saudi Arabia, was accused of trying to have a bigger say in the region by financing and arming the Houthi group, while both Tehran and the Shiite group have refuted the claims.

Analysts said Saudi Arabia's action in support of the Yemeni government is motivated by the desire to uphold its important status in the Middle East. What's more, as a major source of economic aid to Yemen, Riyadh could bear almost no tolerance to Sanna's leaning to Tehran.

RESPONSES FROM CONCERNED PARTIES IN YEMEN

Under the protection of Saudi Arabia, Yemeni President Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi on Thursday left Aden, a seaport city in south Yemen, and arrived in Sharm El-Sheikh a day later for the AL summit.

Addressing the summit, Hadi called on his people to stage demonstrations and safeguard his legitimacy as Yemen's president and urged the Arab states to continue their military operation against the Houthi group until it is fully defeated.

Former president Ali Abdullah Saleh on Saturday urged a stop of the Saudi-led airstrikes and called for resumption of dialogue among all parties and political solution to the Yemeni crisis.

Saudi Arabia, which also targeted pro-Saleh forces in its airstrikes, responded by accusing Saleh of allying with the Houthis to overrun the country.

Still uncompromising, the leader of the Houthi group, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, lashed out Friday at Saudi Arabia for violating international law, and one of the decision makers of the militant group later threatened suicide attacks on Saudi Arabia.

HOW SITUATION WILL EVOLVE

Due to the obstinate standing of the Houthi group, the Saudi-led airstrikes are feared to last a period of time.

It is reported that up to 150,000 military personnel of the joint forces led by Saudi Arabia have been deployed against the rebels.

Abdul Malik al-Houthi acted in response by deploying militants along Yemen's border with Saudi Arabia to falter the latter's advancing towards the province of Saada, the main stronghold of the Shiite group.

As a result of the warfare escalation, terrorist organizations including the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a powerful offshoot of the jihadist militant group, availed themselves of the power vacuum to expand their sphere of influence in the region.

In light of the worsening security situation in Yemen, countries including the United States, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have shut down their embassies or consulates in February and demanded their citizens withdraw from the war-torn country.

Out of the same consideration, more than 200 UN staff, diplomats, and employees of multinationals left Yemen from the Sanaa International Airport, and only a small number of personnel stay on to provide "necessary humanitarian assistance" there, said a UN worker. Endi