Archive: yemen

25th January 2017
By: Omar Mashjari
A guest post by Omar Mashjari The countries making up the Arabian Peninsula are no strangers to British influence, none are more impacted by this influence today than Yemen. Unlike the dominant Gulf States which were never formally colonialised by Britain, Yemen’s second city,… Read more
18th January 2017
By: Brian Whitaker
Yesterday I received a disturbing message from a young man in Yemen who fears for his life – not because of the tragic war there but because of something that he wrote. Twenty-year-old Mohammed Atboush (seen in the video above) is a medical student in Aden and the son of a judge. He also takes an… Read more
15th November 2016
By: Brian Whitaker
The war in Yemen has reached a point where all parties now want to halt the fighting, former vice-president Khaled Bahah said on Monday. But he warned that if they fail to seize the moment there may not be another opportunity for six months. The latest peace efforts are focused around a road map… Read more
10th November 2016
By: Brian Whitaker
Four weeks ago there was a flurry of media excitement over Iranian warships that were supposedly about to confront the US Navy off the coast of Yemen. In case you are wondering how the battle went, it didn't happen and was never likely to happen. On October 13, Fox News reported: "Iran deployed… Read more
5th October 2016
By: Brian Whitaker
Houthi-Saleh forces – the de facto government in the north of Yemen – have "warned" foreign ships not to enter the country's territorial waters without "prior authorisation from the competent Yemeni authorities".  The announcement, circulated by the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency on Monday,… Read more
25th August 2016
By: Brian Whitaker
With the military conflict in Yemen at an impasse, a battle has now broken out between the two rival governments for control of the country's Central Bank. The squabble threatens to exacerbate an already dire economic situation because the bank is the source of wages for state employees and also… Read more
26th July 2016
By: Thanos Petouris
On March 26, 2015, civil war officially broke out in Yemen. On that day, Saudi Arabia marshalled a hastily convened coalition of the willing to forcibly intervene in Yemen’s internal affairs, launching an all out armed conflict between forces loyal to the ‘legitimate government’ of president ‘Abd… Read more
23rd May 2016
By: Helen Lackner
There is no doubt that the military stalemate is a major reason leading to the Kuwait negotiations. After 14 months of full-scale war, the military situation is largely unchanged. Thirteen months into the full scale war which has encompassed the country, negotiations started in… Read more
17th May 2016
By: Brian Whitaker
Saudi Arabia is not only denying that its forces have committed war crimes in Yemen; it is now also denying that human rights organisations have been on the ground investigating them. Interviewed on NPR radio yesterday, General Ahmad Asiri, spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition, was asked … Read more
26th April 2016
By: Brian Whitaker
Renouncing Islam is a crime punishable by death in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. In practice, though, the law isn't implemented nowadays. On the rare occasions that an apostasy case comes to court, the accused person is usually allowed to flee the country or… Read more