Yemen is not Houthi

Listen to the article. The audio text is automated, generated by an automated system

What is most painful in some Arab writings about Yemen is not the difference of opinion with them about what is happening there, but rather the reduction of an ancient country and an entire people to an armed militia that imposed itself by force. So how can Al-Houthi, who seized Sanaa and state institutions with weapons, be presented as if he were Yemen and the Yemenis?! How can a militia that did not come to power through elections or national consensus transform into a representative of a people who have not stopped resisting it in every governorate, city and village?!

Houthi is not Yemen. Yemen is a vast and diverse people. It includes tribes and parties, the right and the left, the patriots and the nationalists, the civilians and the military, the northerners and the southerners, the Zaidis, the Shafi’is, the Ismailis, and the rest of its social and political components. They are a people who paid a heavy price in defense of their state, their republic, and their right to have their citizens equal before the law.

It is ironic that some talk about the “Houthi siege” as if it were a siege of Yemen, and ignore what the Houthis did to the Yemenis in their cities at home. Taiz alone experienced two sieges; The first since 2015; Its roads were closed, medicines, oxygen, hospital supplies, food, water, fuel and electricity were cut off, and its neighborhoods and residents were bombed. Today, the city is being attacked and besieged again, as if Al-Houthi has not learned that Taiz does not surrender, and that its people do not accept that their city becomes a hostage of his project.

Civilians in Marib, Taiz, Hodeidah, Lahj, Aden, Al-Bayda, Shabwa, Al-Jawf and others paid the price of missiles, shells and mines, including women, children, displaced people and civilians who had nothing to do with any battle. A few missiles fired outside Yemen towards the Zionist enemy cannot become a certificate of innocence for the crimes committed in Yemen. The Palestinian issue is the issue of all Arabs, and neither Al-Houthi nor anyone else has the right to monopolize it or use it as a cover for his project. Any position against Israel does not give a militia the right to bomb Yemeni cities, recruit children, plant mines, confiscate the state, or subjugate people by force. It does not make killing or besieging Yemenis an act of nationalism or resistance. Resistance does not consist of oppressing the people, nor by turning the suffering of the Yemenis into a propaganda card, nor by using the same occupation methods against the Yemeni people.

In the areas controlled by the Houthis, there is no state of rights and law, but rather a power of arms without a constitution, elections, or independent institutions. Freedoms are confiscated, politicians, journalists, and activists are arrested, employees are deprived of their salaries, and taxes are imposed on people for their livelihood. Homes were demolished, mosques and property were attacked, and millions of Yemenis were displaced at home and abroad as a result of the war he ignited and the violations he committed.

It is a project that creates poverty, ignorance, and backwardness, and stands against everything that makes life: education, the economy, freedom, the city, and the state. He did not build a factory, a national institution, or an economy that protects people, but he claims to manufacture missiles and drones. The truth is that the advanced weapons it possesses are linked to external technologies and expertise, most notably Iranian expertise and techniques, which are used to serve Iran’s project, threaten the Yemeni people and the Gulf states, and endanger the safety of international navigation.

The Houthi occupation of the western coast and “Bab al-Mandab” was neither for the sake of Yemen nor in defense of its sovereignty, but rather was a direct service to the Iranian project of turning Arab waterways into cards for pressure and blackmail. “Bab al-Mandab” is not owned by a group nor is it an adventure park. It is an artery for international trade and the security of the region, and its security is a Yemeni, Arab and international interest.

Al-Houthi, at the core of his project, does not see politics as a competition between equal citizens, nor does he see the state as a national contract governed by the constitution and elections. It is not a political project with which one can agree, but rather it is an ideological military project based on weapons, and based on the idea of ​​preferring dynasty over citizenship. When citizenship is replaced by degrees of lineage, and people are differentiated in some of the literature on this project with descriptions such as “lanterns” and “lanterns,” we are not facing an ordinary political dispute, but rather a racist logic that contradicts the republic and the meaning of modern Yemen.

This language reveals the essence of the idea that Al-Houthi uses to justify his privilege and monopoly of power. Abdul-Malik al-Houthi does not accept to be a citizen competing with others. Rather, he speaks and acts as the holder of an alleged divine right to rule, which is rejected by the Yemenis of all factions, sects, parties, and tribes.

Today, Saudi Arabia stands with the Republic of Yemen and its internationally recognized legitimacy, and supports the restoration of the state that the Houthis overthrew. The support of Egypt or any Arab country for Saudi Arabia in confronting Al-Houthi is not support against the Yemenis, as some claim. Because the Yemenis, with their legitimate government, parties, and national forces, are the ones who support the Arab coalition led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in confronting the coup and restoring the state.

Saudi Arabia is subjected to Houthi attacks. Because it stands with the Yemeni people and their legitimacy, not because it is hostile to Yemen. It is strange that the attack on the Kingdom’s cities, airports, and civilian facilities is viewed as if it were a detail that could be overlooked. Just because some people look at the Gulf states with a preconceived eye, they do not see them as Arab countries with their own people, sovereignty, and right to security.

Egypt's position, under the leadership of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, deserves all appreciation. Its decision to support Saudi Arabia confirms that the Kingdom’s security is part of Egypt’s security and Arab national security, and that Cairo and Riyadh, when they unite in confronting threats, protect Yemen, the region, and the interests of the Arab nation.

On the other hand, sympathy for Iran's anti-Israel rhetoric does not justify silence about its regional project based on building militias outside the state, tearing apart national states, and weakening armies and institutions. The Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, and Yemenis paid heavy prices when the militias were presented as “resistance,” and then turned into authorities above their countries and peoples.

Whoever wants to do justice to Yemen must first not confuse Yemen with the Houthis. The Yemenis are not affiliated with an Iranian project, nor are they fuel for a regional conflict, nor are they a group whose will can be overridden in the name of Palestine, “resistance,” or any other slogan. They are a people who revolted against the “Imamate,” resist its return, and want one state, one army, one weapon, and one constitution. Standing with the real Yemen starts from this simple truth: There is no real resistance without freedom, no Palestine is liberated by oppressing the Yemenis, and no Arabism is preserved by demolishing the Arab countries and handing them over to the militias.

Quoted from Asharq Al-Awsat