The Dangers of US-UK Intervention in Yemen

6 January 2010
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh yesterday to discuss arrangements for the international conference on Yemen which the British Government has offered to organize at the end of this month. This reflects how seriously the West is taking recent developments in Yemen and the growing presence of the fundamentalist hard-line Al-Qa'ida organization in its territories.

Western countries were shocked by Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's attempt to blow up an American plane over Detroit. He had spent some time in Yemen and been trained in one of Al-Qa'ida's centres there.

Western governments' - and particularly the US - interest in Yemen and the dangers that could be posed by Al-Qa'ida's presence in its territories increased after Imam Anwar al-Awlaki, the extremist Yemeni cleric born in the United States, moved back to his family's home town, Shabwah, in southern Yemen. Imam Al-Awlaki is accused not only of having influenced Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab but also of of recruiting Dr Nidal Hasan, an American national of Palestinian origins, who opened fire on a group of American soldiers at the Fort Hood military base in Texas on 5 November 2009, killing 13 and wounding 30.

The London conference called for by Brown in coordination with the US administration brings to mind the Afghanistan conference held in Germany to find an alternative to the Taleban movement and prepare the legislative and executive institutions that would rule the country with the help of the United States and the West. The only difference with the forthcoming conference on Yemen is that it will seek to bolster the existing regime and prepare it militarily and economically to confront Al-Qa'ida and limit the danger it poses.

US intervention in Afghanistan succeeded in overthrowing the Taleban regime but in ten years has not managed either to crush al-Qa'ida or achieve stability in the country. It seems unlikely that it will fare any better in Yemen which is, if anything, a warmer place for Al-Qa'ida since Osmam bin Laden originates from the country and there is a long-standing and deep-rooted hatred for the US among its people. On top of all this, the country currently faces a critical lack of security and political stability.

The London conference might provide financial support for the Sanaa government and supply it with the necessary security training and armament expertise. There is talk about establishing a Western-style modern police force that will undertake the hunt for Al-Qa'ida. But any projected Western intervention could be totally counterproductive and end up benefitting Al-Qa'ida and weakening the Yemeni regime.

The Yemeni Government sent thousands of the joint security forces to hunt down Al-Qa'ida in three governorates -the capital and the Shabwah and Ma'rib Governorates - in a bid to prove its ability to impose security control after six Western countries -among them Britain and the United States -closed their embassies in Sanaa for fear of Al-Qa'ida attacks.

The US-British alliance is taking a dangerous gamble by sticking its nose in Yemen's internal affairs and pursuing purely security methods for fighting Al-Qa'ida without taking into consideration the social, economic, and political conditions that have made Yemen this organization's main and strongest centre.