Photo source: Foreign Policy By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Due to a wave of Houthi missile attacks in Red Sea, shipping companies are departing it in droves. In 2023, the Iran-backed Yemeni group has launched at least 100 missiles and drone attacks against a dozen ships in the Red Sea, according to US officials. They threatened to target all vessels heading toward Israel, whether they are Israeli-owned or operated.  To avoid suffering the same fate, major energy and shipping companies, including BP and Maersk, have halted their operations there. It has rattled the energy markets by driving up global oil prices and soon everything else. The Red Sea is what connects Asia to Europe, in terms of cargo ships, so disruptions are felt around the world. The Houthi attacks ‘have created worries for global freight markets, for the flows of energy commodities, other commodities, goods,’ said Richard Bronze, the head of geopolitics at Energy Aspects, a research firm, to Foreign...

  Photo source: New York Times By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront A new glimmer of hope appeared for the breakthrough of the Yemen conflict, in April 2023 which in contemporary times is regarded as one of the world’s most gruesome conflicts ever witnessed. The talks could usher a new phase for Saudis after a complex conflict amid the harrying war, as talks have successfully made an eventual ceasefire with the Houthi rebels. The UN’s envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, ascertained that it was the nearest Yemen had been to peace negotiations since the infighting started. Although the optimism for peace could be clouded by mistrust due to the likelihood of pending major disputes. For Saudis, there are doubts about the reliability of Houthis as well. There are also continuing demands within Yemen’s south for a separate state. A path to a ceasefire in Yemen would be directly proportional to greater peace between Riyadh and Tehran, a bone of contention which may have been reminiscent of ...

  Photo source: Council on Foreign Relations By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront The grotesque war in Yemen entered a critical juncture in January 2022 when the Saudi-led coalition launched a series of air strikes at a prison facility. It was retaliation by Saudis for a missile and a drone attack, against the United Arab Emirates, in an industrial district of Abu Dhabi. Houthis called the reason for the attack on the prison facility 'baseless' and 'unfounded'. But, Saudis believed that they had attacked a facility which was not placed on the No Strike List, and that it didn’t adhere to international humanitarian laws. Although, the killing of civilians tells a different story. According to Medecins Sans Frontieres statements in Financial Times, Al Gumhouriyeh Hospital was so overwhelmed that it couldn’t take patients. This is the second time, after a period of some months when Houthis also suffered headcount losses. In October 2021, when Houthis tried to seize Marib,...

Photo source: The National News By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe UpFront S audi Arabia led coalition has found some proof against Qatar regarding their alleged funding to Houthi rebels. According to Al Watan newspaper, a monthly support of around $2 million (7.5 million Qatari riyals) was transferred, for a former top rebel leader in Taiz known as Hamoud Saeed Al Mikhlafi, part judge, part chieftain, part local political don. The monetary support was believed to be ordered by the Qatari minister of foreign affairs to the ambassador of Qatar in Oman to thwart the Arab alliance, as part of the charitable expenditures of Qatar Charity Association. The proof was further strengthened through a letter by the Qatari minister of foreign affairs to the ambassador of Qatar to the Sultanate of Oman, Jassim bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. Other Yemeni militia commanders have been promised similar amounts, but are often given much smaller sums. The source indicated that Al Mikhlafi has left Yemen for Qatar...

Photo Source: Middle East Eye By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe UpFront A s Southern Transitional Council has declared self rule in the southeast part of Yemen, on April 26, 2020, a north – south regional divide once again has come to the forefront. Now, it seems likely that there will be new conflicts emerging, not only within warring sections in the country, but also involving Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Iran, signaling a proxy war. The division between the two supposed allies is another facet of the Yemen’s complicated civil war: on one side there are the separatists, strong in and around Aden, and on the other are forces loyal to former President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Both have fought together in the Saudi-led coalition’s war against Yemen’s Shiite Houthi rebels, particularly in northern Yemen. The move was condemned by United Nations  recognised government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. Saudi Arabia has called the move as an ‘escalatory action...

Photo Source: Middle East Monitor By Naveed Qazi, Editor, Globe Upfront Ever since the Saudi led coalition entered the war in Yemen in 2015 through Operation Desert Storm, at least 5000 children have been killed mercilessly. More than 19000 air raids have ravaged Arab world's poorest country. It is believed that counterinsurgency operations, part of America’s global domination plans, proved pivotal in political instability inside Yemen. The public has often burned the American flag on the streets. Currently, the United States does not approve of the Yemeni army, with which it coordinated before, during the USS Cole bombing, due to government illegitimacy and chaos spreading in the national senate. According to inputs by offices of the United Nations, many children have been recruited as child soldiers. After more than three years of fighting, around 60,000 people have been killed. As per the Yemen Data Project, more than two-thirds coalition's air raids have struck non-...

Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront WAR IN YEMEN WAS A RESULT OF a failed political transition, and by 2017 a resolution was becoming increasingly difficult. The uprising that had toppled Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011 was supposed to usher in a new era of dialogue and reform, but the transition collapsed under the weight of factionalism, regional rivalries, and external interference. As the New York Times reported, the Houthis, a Zaydi Shia movement long marginalised, capitalised on discontent and expanded their influence, while the central government faltered. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, saw Iranian expansionism in Shia centred areas of Yemen and Lebanon as a direct threat, and actively supported Sunni movements in the Arab world to counterbalance Tehran. The Guardian noted that Riyadh’s military budget had soared to $87 billion in 2016, the third largest globally, with US approved arms sales during the Obama administration and military aid from the United Kingdom bolstering its ar...