News Analysis: Escalating violence, military interventions serve no peace in Yemen

The Saudi-led Arab coalition on Wednesday escalated air strikes against the Houthi militants in the Yemeni capital Sanaa and southern cities, as the militants were continuing expansion.

The daring situation in Yemen has come to an impasse as neither the Houthis nor Saudis are willing to make concessions, despite the fact that military options can never solve their contradictions, observers said.

WIDENING GAP

The gaps between the warring sides are widening given the flaring conflict, observers said, adding that the Yemeni people pay will in the end pay a heavy price.

A large number of civilians, including women and children, have been either killed and or wounded in the air strikes that were intended to hit weapon depots located near populated areas, as well as battles between the Houthis and tribal fighters.

Fuad Alsalahi, a political sociology professor at Sanaa University, said that continued flow of weapons for the Houthis and forces loyal to ex-President Ali Abdullash Saleh, al-Qaida network and pro-government fighters are taking Yemen into a full-blown civil war and a complete collapse.

"Meantime, what kind of concessions and who is going to make concessions top the agenda, so that the Houthi militants could attend a conference under the UN sponsorship," Alsalahi asked.

The UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has revealed that the UN will sponsor a conference which will be attended by all factions including the Houthis.

"For years, Yemen has been facing two problems, one lies in the endless divisions of local factions and the other in unhelpful foreign interventions," he said.

Iran is accused of supporting the Houthis, yet it always refutes such claims. More than that, it has been almost on a daily basis grumbling about Saudi-led aggression against Yemen, and urging foreign countries to refrain from interfering in the Arab state's internal affairs.

FOREIGN INTERVENTION

It is tragic yet well-anticipated that after the five-day humanitarian cease-fire, alliance air strikes resumed, not to mention that ground battles between the Houthis and tribal forces never stopped during the truce.

These bloody fightings would certainly foreshadowed the just-announced UN-brokered peace talks on the Yemeni crisis due in Genva, Switzerland, next week.

After the military operation was launched against the Houthis in late March, the humanitarian situation has fast deteriorated.

Recent violence added to chronic poverty problem which has left more than half of the country's population to live on foreign aid.

According to the World Health Organization, around nine million Yemen citizens need emergency medical aid.

About 1,800 civilians have been killed, 7,000 others wounded and hundreds of thousands displaced in the violence, it said. While the Yemen government put the death toll at more than 1,400.

A blockade on all ports of Yemen, which imports around 90 percent of its basic foodstuffs, has left the people to face the worst fuel, food and medicine lacks.

Besides violence, the fuel shortage has forced hospitals, businesses, power plants and transport to shut down.

The UN and international organizations have lately warned the situation is catastrophic in Yemen while urging the Arab coalition to lift the blockade. And during the five-day truce, insufficient aid was sent to Yemen and only part of it was delivered because of ground battles and lack of fuel.

However, it seems that fighting will not stop as the Houthis boycotted the conference held in Riyadh and the Saudi-led coalition vowed more support for anti-Houthi forces.

A closing statement of the three-day conference called for backing the pro-government fighters resisting the Houthis and Saleh militia, and urged the UN to take action so as to implement its resolutions on Yemen and an immediate humanitarian program to help those affected by growing violence.

The conference, also stressed the importance to take military and political measures to restore power from the group.

It also called for a safe zone where government institutions could resume their activities, with participating countries suggested an Arab peacekeeping force to secure Yemen's major cities, with UN Security Council approval.

Abdul Salam Muhammad, head of the ABAAD studies and research center, said the conference represented political support to the government.

"And the solution then should be through the victory of the pro-government fighters in their battles against the Houthi militants," Muhammed added.

However, although Saudi Arabia and its coalition of Sunni Arab allies have been on an air offensive against Yemen for about seven weeks, hoping to curb the Houthi advancements in the country over the last year, the Houthis remain in control of large swaths of the country. Enditem