Yemen in Crisis: The Houthis (Ansarallah) Documentary (2022)

Speaker 1: Yemen, labelled by the UN as the world's worst humanitarian crisis in modern history, has shocked humanitarians across the globe. Widespread famine, malnutrition, water scarcity, and disease have plagued the country, and today more than 24 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance as a direct result of the war which began in 2015. The war has cost the lives of over 130,000 people so far and as of yet it sees no end. Throughout the coverage of the war in Yemen, a considerable amount of media attention has been focused on the Houthi movement, formerly known as Ansar Allah, since it gained control over most of the northern part of Yemeni territory in 2014. And has since been resisting the Saudi-led military intervention in the country, which claims to seek to restore an internationally recognised Yemeni government to power. Since the Arab Spring in 2011, the Houthi movement, which champions Yemen's Zaydi Shia Muslim minority, has gained popularity across the country. Many Yemenis, including Sunnis, have shown support for the Houthi movement after being disillusioned with the transition from President Hadi and the next Saudi-approved government. But who are the Houthis and what are their origins? What have they been doing in Yemen and what are their political ambitions? And how have key events since the first Saudi airstrikes led to Yemen becoming the worst humanitarian crisis the world has seen in the modern era?

Kim Sharif: The Houthis are a tribe of people who come from an area known as Houth in the Saada governorate. Majority— well, some of them are Hashemites, who are descendants of Imam al-Hassan bin Ali bin Abi Talib, alayhi salam, but others who are just locals, who will also be called Houthis, because people are often named after the town or the governorate or the area they come from in Yemen.

Ahmed Moaiad: الحوثيين اسمهم أنصار الله لكن خصومهم يسموهم بالحوثيين هم يرفضون هذه التسمية لأنها تسمية سلالية لكن أنصار الله هو اسم مقتبس من القرآن يا أيها الذين آمنوا كونوا أنصار الله فهم أخذوا هذه التسمية من القرآن هي حركة ثقافية سياسية ليست مذهبية وليس لديها لديها عداء مع المذاهب، لكن تعتقد أن المذهبية في هذا الوقت هي جزء من المشكلة وليست جزء من الحل. إذن فهي حركة خرجت من ضيق المذاهب إلى فضائل القرآن.

Kim Sharif: Huthis majority of them are Zaidis, but it is what wouldn't be surprising if there were others like for example Shafis or Sufis. Because in Yemen, people are mixed, and they have been intermarrying over the years. And the majority of the people are Shafi'i Sunnis and Sufis. And the Zaydis and the Sunnis have always coexisted without any complications, intermarried, had children. It's not unusual for there to be a father who is a Sunni, a mother who is a Zaydi, and have children who can be either or both. And so, that is the reality of Yemen.

Speaker 1: Yemen is home to a large Sunni population, with about 65% of the population ascribing to the Sunni sect of Islam. Approximately 35% of its population are Zaydi Shia, with a small minority of Twelver and Ismaili Shias. Zaydis are ideologically much like the Twelver Shias. However, unlike Twelvers, they diverge on the 5th Shia Imam. and believe that Zayd, son of Ali, son of Husayn, succeeds him to the Imamate instead of his brother Muhammad, son of Ali. Also, unlike the Twelvers, they revere and hold a favorable view of some of the companions of the Holy Prophet, whom the Twelvers would disagree with.

Annelle Sheline: In, I believe, 1979, you had a Zaydi figure who had converted Islam to the Saudi Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. And he had actually been involved in the 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. And so when he was released from prison, he came back to Yemen, and he set up the Dar al-Hadith, which was this sort of outpost of Saudi Wahhabi religious doctrine in the heart of Zaydi Yemen. And so you had a lot of Zaydis in that area who were not happy about this, because they saw it as Saudi Arabia extending its reach into Yemen.

Ahmed Moaiad: And then you had a bunch of people كان هناك نوع من التمييز هكذا ضد الهاشميين ضد المذهب الزيدي على اعتبار أنه هذه الجمهورية الموجودة حاليا هي قامت على أنقاض الملكية في عام 62 والتي كانت هاشمية وتنتمل مذهب الزيدي كان هناك نوع من التمييز لا نقول كثيرا ولكن كان فيه تمييز وكان هناك غزو للمذهب الوحابي من خصوصا من الثمانينات هذا المذهب عادة هو معادل الشيعة بكل طوائفهم زي ديا كان أو اثني عشرين وإلى آخره فبالتالي يريد أن يمسح من أمامه أو يقضي على من أمامه.

Kim Sharif: It was the movement that started in the nineties in fact through the late Shahid Hussein Badreddin Al-Houthi. This man in his sermons and speeches and teachings and writings. As far back as the early '90s, he was already speaking about the plans of Western countries invading Muslim countries on the pretext of fighting terrorism. Now, this is 1990s. We didn't have the war on terror yet at the time. And a lot of Husain's writings are full of this material.

Annelle Sheline: Husain al-Houthi and other members of the Zaydi community were very frustrated by the fact that The Saudis continued to pump resources in, and they saw efforts to sort of dilute Zaydi Islam. And so Husain al-Houthi founded a movement known as the Believing Youth in the early— or in the 1990s. And it was sort of out of that movement, which sought to establish a revival of Zaydi Islam, the Houthi movement grew out of that.

Kim Sharif: He had a group of educators with him, young men, And they were called the Faithful Youths. And these Faithful Youths' objective was basically to educate the people, to enlighten the people, to raise awareness, to return people into the Quran, which has been more or less forgotten or left aside in preference to the hadiths. As I said, Wahhabism invaded Yemen through the back door. And so the hadiths became more important than the Quran. And this man and his— youth followers were quite upset about that, you know, putting the Quran as a secondary or a non-issue, whereas the hadiths were being promoted as like so important and everything. And so that educational movement took hold as early back as 1990s. And as I said, a collection of his writings that exist today and his sermons known as the Malazim contain material, philosophical thinking, deep analysis of the Quran using a language that an ordinary man of the street Who has never been to school to grasp and understand what's being said to them.

Ahmed Moaiad: في الأساس حركة أنصار الله كانت عبارة عن تجمعات للمراكز الصيفية في نهاية التسعينات كل سنة في الصيف يجتمعوا فبعد مرور يعني ثلاثة إلى أربع سنوات تقريبا في ألفين واثنين أو ألفين وثلاثة السيد حسين الحوثي هو أساسا من أسرة عريقة دينيًا وسمعته معروفة مشهور يعني. فبدأ يعمل محاضرات في بيته وبدأت الناس تأتي إليه وتتجمع فمن هناك نشأت النواة الأولى لحركة أنصار الله.

Kim Sharif: Having been aware of the disadvantaged nature of the Yemeni people north and south insofar as education was almost nonexistent, people were majority encouraged to be cat addicts and not effective, not not enlightened, not aware, not thinkers. There was dictatorship of an extreme kind at the time through Saleh. And of course, his dictatorship was emanating from the dictatorship of the Saudi regime, who were paying him, maintaining him, and he was a mere puppet operating for them and overall on behalf of the Western countries that desire, require, insist on colonizing Yemen. So the movement goes back to the '90s.

Ahmed Moaiad: لما جاء الأمريكان الكل يعلم أنه الحركة الوهابية ليس لديها مشكلة مع الأمريكان يعني وليس لها حالة عداء أساساً وبالتالي عادة هي موجودة حيث يوجد الأمريكان للفتك بأعداء الأمريكان. فكانوا هم رأس الحرب في حرب الفين وأربعة في الحرب الأولى كانوا هم رأس الحرب وبالتالي الحروب التي بعدها وكانت أيضا تشن تحت شعارات طائفية روافض مجوس نفس القصة التي في العراق في لبنان في سوريا في كل مكان نفس الطريقة.

Kim Sharif: Now what happens in the two thousands is that we then witness the invasion of Afghanistan in two thousand and one on the pretext of fighting terrorism. Now Hussein was already speaking about this subject in the 90s, as I just said, and this was like shocking because okay today is Afghanistan tomorrow who?

Ahmed Moaiad: اشتدت هذه الحركة يعني سياسياً في عام 2003 عندما احتل العراق من قبل الأمريكان ودعا سيد حسين الحوتي أنه الدول العربية ستأتي تباعاً بعد العراق يعني الأمريكان لا يريدون العراق فقط. يريدون أيضا دول أخرى في الوقت الذي كانت السلطة في ذلك الوقت تتماها مع ما يريده الأمريكان وبدأوا بتخفيض أي أنشطة عدائية للأمريكان وعلى العكس من ذلك السيد حسين الحوثي صدع بشعار الموت لأمريكا الموت لإسرائيل إلى آخره على اعتبار أن أمريكا وإسرائيل هما أعداء المنطقة وبالتالي يجب أن تتجه الشعوب العربية إلى أعداء المسبب وليس إلى أعداء النتائج يعني لا تذهب للنتيجة اذهب للمسبب الرئيسي هذا الأمر أثار عليه سخط من قبل السلطة وأحرج السلطة أمام الأمريكان فشنوا عليه حروب ابتدأت في الحرب الأولى ثم انتهت إلى ستة حروب.

Kim Sharif: With that declaration, of course, Saleh was very annoyed with it, and he tried to persuade Hussein to not do that declaration. And he used all kinds of means through diplomacy, through pressure. And but then the the declaration just took hold. People everywhere in Yemen, in San'a, in Amran, in Sa'dah—they started in Damar, in Ib. They started. Shouting the declaration in mosques and everywhere. And of course, Saleh was under immense pressure from the Saudi regime and the Americans, who— with whom he enjoyed a very, very strong relationship. He then was ordered, literally commanded, to start fighting the Houthis. And that's where the fighting of the Houthis starts. There was a spate of arrests, mass arrests, up to 600 people at one time. Time, were arrested, tortured, some died. And that didn't work. The shouting, the declaration continued to echo everywhere. Saleh continued and upped his game. And in 2004 was the first declaration of the first of the 6 wars against the Houthis in Saada by Saleh's government and Saleh's forces, aided by the Saudi regime. The Saudi regime did actually take part in air raids attacking the Houthis. Houthis in Saada back then. And then Hussain was killed in that first war.

Annelle Sheline: He is seen as a martyr because he was killed by this— by the government, the Yemeni government, in 2004. And it was his death that then galvanized this Zaydi movement to fight back against the Yemeni military, which then subsequently has led to the Houthis Now taking control of a significant portion of Yemen.

Kim Sharif: It seemed like the Yemenis were craving, hungry for independence, for development, for improvement of their condition, which was getting worse and worse year after year. Saleh is receiving aid from everywhere, of course, and bribery from everywhere, but he's not spending it on the people. Instead, he's spending it on creating images of glorification for himself. There was no shop, no street, no inch of Yemen that you would go to and see— and not see a huge portrait of Saleh beautifying himself as this glorious, fantastic leader, when right underneath that glorious photo you see large families sitting on the floor begging, dusty, desperate. So that was basically the situation in Yemen, and the Houthi movement was to overcome that.

Annelle Sheline: He prioritized his own tribe, and he distributed patronage to the sheikhs of tribes who were loyal to him. And so, if you weren't loyal to President Saleh, life was very, very difficult for you. And so, the Houthis are saying they wanted a system that was more just for all Yemenis. They especially wanted a system that was more just for Zaydis and for the people of their province of Saada. Because this is a very arid region, it is a region without many resources, it's landlocked, and they were frustrated at the lack of economic development and lack of opportunity that was the norm under President Saleh's rule.

Ahmed Moaiad: بعد الحرب الأولى التي استشهد فيها سيد حسين الحوثي اندلعت أيضا خمسة حروب وكان السبب فيها أن الحركة لم يتم القضاء عليها كانت السلطة في وقتها سلطة اليمنية منزعجة أن حركة أنصار الله تتوسع يصبح لها أنصار كثر في عدة قرى يعني بعد أن كانت في قرية واحدة انتشرت إلى عدة قرى إلى أن شملت المحافظة وفي كل فترة من الحروب الخمس الأخرى كانت السلطة تحاول قضاء عليهم ولكن كانت النتيجة العكس أنهم يزدادون عدداً إلى أن يعني حتى إلى أن سيطروا على محافظة صعدة بشكل كامل في ألفين وعشرة.

Speaker 5: Under the presidency of Ali Saleh. From the 1990s to 2012, President Saleh allowed the United States to continue plundering Yemen of its resources and becoming a base for its Navy SEAL, and also setting up, allowing the United States to set up and occupy southern Yemen alongside the United Arab Emirates. And so, while this war was Raging on in Yemen, the people in Yemen were suffering a great, great test of their humanity. They were starving and facing political upheaval. It was very much the center of a divide and conquer outpost of modern-day colonialism.

Ahmed Moaiad: قبل مثلاً ألفين وعشرة قبل ثورة كان الوضع سيء لم تكن الوضع الاقتصادي جيداً لم يكن هناك كهرباء لم يكن هناك ماء لم يكن هناك سلطة للدولة. لم يكن هناك عدالة، لم يكن هناك تطبيق للقانون، وبالتالي بالنسبة اليمنين تقريباً لا يوجد شيء يتغير عليهم يعني الرواتب كانت ضعيفة جداً ونفوذ الدولة منعدم فقط في العاصمة أما عندما تخرج منها إلى خمسين كيلو وستين كيلو لا وجود للدولة أساساً.

Speaker 1: In late January of 2011, thousands of Yemenis took to the streets to protest against the corrupt government of Yemen. In its early phase, protests were against unemployment, economic conditions, and corruption, as well as against the government's proposals to modify Yemen's constitution. Protesters' demands then escalated to call for the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The results of these protests were Saleh announcing he would not run for re-election in 2013 and that he would not pass power to his son. However, the protesters did not believe Saleh, who had previously broken the same promise he'd made in 2006. On the 23rd of April that year, President Saleh indicated approval of a plan drawn up by the Gulf Cooperation Council that would remove him from power and begin the transition to a new government. A month later, however, President Saleh refused to sign the transition agreement at the last minute. Following his refusal, Saleh and several others were injured, and at least 5 people were killed in a bombing of the presidential compound. The next day, Vice President Abdurabbuh Hadi took over as acting president, while Saleh flew to Saudi Arabia to be treated.

Kim Sharif: In that revolution, you had Ansar Allah, aka Houthis. You had the Islah Party, the Muslim Brotherhood. You had the Ishaqis, communists, the socialists, the Hirak, southern secessionist movement, all joined in to revolt against Saleh. And they did overthrow him in the event.

Annelle Sheline: Unlike in places like Tunisia or Egypt, where the presidents agreed to step down after just a matter of a few days or weeks, in Yemen, it took about a year before the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, agreed to step down. And before that time, he used deadly force against protesters. He fired on the people who had camped out in various public squares, especially in the Sana'a, in the capital of Sana'a. And eventually, he did agree to step down because the GCC, the Gulf Cooperation Council, stepped in and essentially granted him immunity, that he wasn't going to face charges for what he had done throughout his rule, the abuses he'd committed against his people, and especially during the Arab Spring protests. And his political party, the General People's Congress, which he himself had set up, they decided that the person who was going to replace him was his vice president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. And what was decided was there would be an election, but President— or Hadi was not contested. So essentially, people could go vote, But they only had one choice, and it was Hadi.

Kim Sharif: By meddling again from the Saudi regime, they managed to install another puppet through the back door with the Gulf Initiative. And that was— that puppet then was Abdurabbuh Mansour Hadi. And he had a mandate of governing for 2 years, during which he was to hold elections, etc., under the Gulf Initiative. And, inshallah, Anwar al-Hirak of the South Reluctantly signed this agreement just to avoid bloodshed and to give him an opportunity as well to see what he will do. So he stepped in. But of course, we know the rest. It didn't work out quite as it was planned. 2 years later, obviously, under this initiative, his term had expired. So to say that he is the legitimate government, like I'm saying, and I've been saying it for the past 6 years, It's blatant, disgraceful, disgusting lies to kill millions of Yemenis with impunity.

Annelle Sheline: And the idea was that he would be an interim president for 2 years, and then his term would end. They'd have actual competitive elections, and Yemen's political transition could move forward. So he was just supposed to be a caretaker president. And part of his mission was to oversee this National Dialogue Conference. Which, again, brought in a bunch of people from all over Yemen who met for, I believe, over a year talking about what did they want for Yemen's future. And the conference got a lot of positive attention because it included women, it included young people, it included groups who were previously not well represented. And they decided, as I said, that Yemen was going to move towards a more federal system where control would be less centralized. And essentially, what came out of that, unfortunately, was that you had groups in the former South Yemen who rejected the outcome. They wanted independence. And you had the Houthis, who, as I was saying, didn't want to be relegated to their sort of impoverished province. And so both of these groups turned to violence rather than agreeing to abide by the outcomes of the National Dialogue Conference.

Speaker 1: Yemen remained deeply divided under Hadi's presidency. Hadi's government continued to face challenges from the Houthi resistance as well as Islamist militants. Economic conditions were dismal, and a year into Hadi's term GDP remained well below its pre-2011 level. Unemployment soared, particularly among young people. Much of the country faced shortages of food, water, and basic goods. In the southern parts of Yemen, dissatisfaction led to a resurgence of secessionist sentiment.

Annelle Sheline: While Hadi was president, it was fairly— it was somewhat difficult because President Saleh almost immediately, although he had agreed to step down, he never really gave up control, and he wanted to reassert control of Yemen. And so he, even though he had fought a series of wars, 6 wars against the Houthis between 2004 and 2010, he actually allied with the Houthis because he saw them as a means of getting himself back into power. And what he brought to the Houthis was a lot of— some parts of the Yemeni military that were still loyal to him. So it was a very convenient alliance for the two of them, for the Houthis and for President Saleh. So during Hadi's rule, Unfortunately, the economy was not doing well. Yemen's economy was already not doing well. It was already classified as a fragile or failing state even before the Arab Spring. And you had the National Dialogue Conference, which was moving towards trying to implement this political transition for Yemen. But for many people, you know, for some groups who ultimately rejected it violently, but you had other groups who felt dissatisfied with it, who felt that it did not, in fact, necessarily reflect their concerns. And so, in general, there were people in Yemen who were concerned that the transition was not actually going to realize their objectives, that they, you know, they wanted economic development, they wanted jobs, they wanted to be able to provide for their families. And none of these things were really happening while Hadi was in charge. And unfortunately, under the conditions of war that subsequently followed, it's just gone from bad to much, much worse.

Kim Sharif: I went to visit Sana'a in 2013, twice, in fact. And I saw what was going on. It was incredible, intense atmosphere of fear and intimidation. You couldn't go anywhere. And everywhere you went, there was a military checkpoint. And prices soared, hit the roof. Like, for example, a gas unit used to cost something like 1,500 or 1,600 prior to that. But during his time, it doubled and tripled and multiplied. And people became poorer. And the situation was worse. He didn't hold the election he was mandated under the Gulf Initiative. Right. That the parties reluctantly signed, and continued to retain power by— he appointed a team of friends of his into a kind of a cabinet of his to vote him back in or extend his mandate under the Gulf Initiative. So, there was a conflict of interest. It was a breach of the Yemen Constitution. Nothing of the procedural requirements that are laid down under any instrument were followed. So this became yet another form of dictatorship of a grotesque kind. And so during that time, uh, people were getting even more and more fed up. They were worse off than before the revolution.

Speaker 1: Hadi's government faced a new wave of public discontent in July 2014 after it enacted deep cuts in fuel subsidies that it said were necessary to address the widening budget deficit and attract foreign funding. Many of the protesters were mobilised by the Houthis, whose leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, accused the government of corruption and ignoring the needs of the country's poor.

Kim Sharif: In September 2014, this is during the Houthis' expired term, he's still clinging on to power. The conditions became worse. People were getting more fed up. And so, they haven't seen him hold an election, as he was mandated under the Gulf Initiative. So they then came back to Sana'a, to the capital— not just Houthis; everyone else who was involved in the early revolution of 2011, by the way. Contrary to the misleading information they give to the world that Houthis seized control of Sana'a by power. Nonsense. It's a lie, blatant lie. Same parties, like I said, the Communists, the Justice Party, the Unity and Development Party, the Socialist Party, the Hirak, they were all again together, demanded that Hadi fulfill his mandate under the Gulf Initiative. That's all they were saying in September 2014. By that time, there was the National Dialogue as well, and the parties had reached an agreement on everything, by the way, according to the former envoy of the UN, Jamal Ben Omar. He confirms this. The parties were all in agreement, save for one or two points about who's going to be the actual president for another term to facilitate elections, all kinds of things. And that didn't happen. So the parties came demanding compliance. That's all they were doing. But Hadi resigned. So he resigned deliberately in order to create a political vacuum, constitutional vacuum. Right? Can you see what he's doing? And in order to open the door, as well, for the U.N. to say then, whoa, we're going to have to put Yemen under Chapter 7, because Chapter 7 only applies— Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter only applies where there is no government. Then U.N. has to step in and put in place Chapter 7 measures to prevent chaos and bloodshed. But that was a complete falsity. He resigned. Revolutionaries— I will call them, because not just Houthis, they were everyone— revolutionaries were saying to him, stay and effect an orderly transition from you to another person, now that we have an agreement signed, the National Dialogue, the Peace and Cooperation Agreement, became known as. Just do that orderly transition, which is a reasonable request. He refused. And under this— Yeah. He then escaped from the capital altogether, because, like I said, he was under instructions from the Saudis to create this chaos in order for them then to step in and take over Yemen. That was what was planned. But God is there. You know, إنهم يكيدون كيدا وأكيدوا كيدا. And subhanallah, the people, the revolutionaries in Sana'a got together, realized what was being planned for them. And decided to form a coalition. And so they formed a coalition even with the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who up till then wasn't entirely faithful or honest or loyal to them, but joined them in order to keep an eye on their movement for the benefit of his masters, as usual. But meanwhile, Hadi came out of the country, escaped dressed up in women's clothing.

Annelle Sheline: Houthis took control of the capital city of Sana'a In September of 2014. And from there, they then expanded control. And they still have control of the capital currently. Even the UN Security Council resolution that was passed would require them to give up all territory they have seized since 2014. And at this point, they've seized much more territory than they had in 2014. So they're still in control? So this is part of why the UN Security Council resolution is something of a non-starter for the Houthis, because from their perspective, why? They feel they're winning, and so why would they agree to give up all of this territory and to give up their weapons, which is also part of what the Security Council resolution requires?

Ahmed Moaiad: المناطق تحت سلطة صنعاء هي مناطق تتميز بجودة الأمن، الأمن فيها مستتب. مستوى الجرائم منخفض جداً يوجد هناك خدمات بشكل جيد لكن لا يوجد رواتب لأنه ثروات البلد يسيطر عليها الطرف الآخر الحالة الاقتصادية سيئة لهذا السبب بسبب الحصار ولكن الخدمات والأمن متوفرة بشكل جيد أفضل من المناطق التي يسيطر عليها هادي وجماعته المدعومين سعوديا إذ الكهرباء ليست متوفرة الرواتب منعدمة حتى مستوى الصرف سعر الصرف عندهم أعلى من صناعة سعر الصرف في صناعة ثابت المئة دولار بستمائة ريال هناك المئة دولار بتسعمائة ريال بينما يفترض العكس يفترض أن لديهم دعم من التحارف ودول نفطية يفترض أن سعر الصرف مستقر أو على الأقل متدنى ولكن العكس هو الحاصل إضافة إلى وجود مراكز نفوذ هناك يعني لا الرئيس غير موجود هو في السعودية لمدة ست سنوات ولا يوجد رأس فعلي للدولة فهي هناك تعمها الفوضى بينما في صنعاء هناك دولة متكاملة.

Speaker 1: After the Houthis took control of the capital of Sana'a in late September of 2014, President Hadi fled the city and sought refuge in the southern city of Aden. The Houthis forced him to declare a public resignation, and he subsequently stood down as president. But in February 2015, when Hadi re-emerged in Aden outside the Houthis' control, he retracted his resignation and asserted that he remained the legitimate president of Yemen. His position in Aden remained precarious, leading him and his supporters to appeal for international military intervention against the Houthi rebels. Hadi subsequently escaped and sought refuge in Saudi Arabia.

Annelle Sheline: He appealed initially to the Gulf Cooperation Council, saying, look, you all have helped Yemen in its political transition. The Houthis now are derailing this political transition. And so it's your responsibility to come in and help kick the Houthis back out. We want to get back on track with our transition towards democracy, was what he said. And then he also appealed to the U.N. Security Council, saying, U.N., you've also been involved in this political transition.

Kim Sharif: Right.

Annelle Sheline: You have responsibility now to help Yemen get back on track. And so, essentially, this appeal that he had sent to the U.N. Security Council was then used by Saudi Arabia to justify its military intervention.

Kim Sharif: As he was on his way to escaping, the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen on the morning of March 26th, 2015 happened. Hadi claims the Americans assured him they wouldn't attack Yemen. In a well-known video recording for him, known as the Zagarna affair. And he says he had no idea that the Saudis were coming to attack Yemen, as the Americans had assured him that there would be no attack on Yemen. So, for the Saudis and the Western backers to now continue saying for 6 years they are there on the request of Hadi, again, is another grotesque, disgraceful, Filthy lie to use as a cover to kill, maim, injure Yemenis and destroy their country and steal their resources.

Annelle Sheline: Evidently, they only gave the United Arab Emirates a day's warning that, look, we're going to invade, or we're going to launch this air war on Yemen. Are you going to help us? And the UAE said, yes, we are going to help. And most of the members Most other countries, the members of the Arab League, also joined in, at least in name. Many of them did not, in fact, provide much real support, but they said they were supporting what the Saudis and Emiratis were doing. Other than Oman did not provide any support. Oman tends to maintain a position of neutrality. And subsequently, this has been useful for them because they are often the intermediaries for the Houthis Presently, for the moment, they're who the Houthis sort of trust to speak for them on the international stage. And also Algeria did not participate. But all the other members of the Arab League lent some kind of support, either symbolic or material, to the Saudi effort to try to oust the Houthis from Sana'a.

Speaker 1: The Saudi-led air campaign succeeded in enabling pro-Hadi forces to retake control of Aden. in July 2015. But dislodging the Houthis from northern Yemen, including Sana'a, proved far more difficult for the coalition. Saudi-led bombing raids killed thousands of civilians and caused immense damage to Yemen's infrastructure, but it failed to loosen the Houthis' grip on the capital.

Kim Sharif: On the one side, you've got the Saudi-led coalition, which has multi-layers of people. You've got in the background imperialists arming them to their teeth, giving them political, diplomatic backing at the U.N. level and elsewhere, and also enforcing the illegal blockade that has created the worst humanitarian catastrophe. And then you have the second level, the proxy Saudi-led coalition, going and committing the act of actually bombarding the Yemen and killing them day and night, whether by starvation or by weaponry. And then you have the third level, which is the mercenaries brought in from other countries of the world, as well as local Yemenis. Now, that is basically— and the Houthis, what's known as the Houthis, are the government of Sana'a, which contains all political parties of Yemen, who were involved in the 2011 revolution and are now in cooperation or collaboration with the government of Sana'a They are governing the country under the existing constitution. They run parliament in the usual way of business, and they are with each other. Even if they agree disagree with each other by ideologically, they are now united on one point, which is to defend the country and to get rid of these occupiers.

Ahmed Moaiad: من يقاتل مع السعودية اليوم هم مرتزقة من من اليمنيين ولكن للأسف في عقولهم الفكر الوهابي يعني إذا تمسك واحد وتسأله لماذا تقاتل يقول لك قاتل الشيعة الروافضة المجوس يعني هذا هذا ما غُسلت عقولهم به وهم يسلمون أموال من السعودية ودعم عسكري ولوجستي وتحت إمرض ضباط سعوديين هناك أيضا تنظيم القاعدة وداعش والذي هو يؤمن فكر وهابي وأيضا لديه دعم سعودي وكان موجود في مناطق في مناطق كان موجود فيها لمدة عشرين عام لم يقضي عليهم إلا أنصار الله أزالوهم تماما من تلك المناطق كانت تسمى تورابورا اليمن مناطق في محافظة البيضاء هناك أيضا مقاتلين من السودان، هناك مقاتلين من بلاك ووتر، من السنغال أيضا، وهناك أيضا مؤخرا جاءوا من سوريا بعض الدواعش أرسلوا من شمال سوريا ولا زالوا يقاتلوا لحد اليوم ولكن هم لا يحققون أي نصر عسكري حقيقة.

Kim Sharif: Basically Yemen is besieged in that way by the world powers, great many countries, many mercenaries, billions of dollars being thrown in this war. And thousands being murdered mercilessly every month. 2,000 people, civilians, apparently, according to the health authorities of Sana'a, die as a direct result of actions connected with the Saudi-led coalition aggression on Yemen.

Speaker 6: A lot of people call the Yemeni war a civil war. It's not a civil war. It is a Saudi-led war on Yemen. It is called the Saudi-led coalition. You cannot have a war called civil war when a Saudi-led coalition is the main actor in it. So this is definitely not a civil war. It's an aggression on Yemen and the Yemeni people.

Ahmed Moaiad: فشل هذا التحالف في فرض أي أجندة أو في تحقيق أي نتائج لماذا؟ لأنه لا يوجد لدي حاضنة شعبية تقبل بأفكاره. صحيح أنه مارس إجرام في البلد وقصف يومي وحصار وضرب القنابل العنقدية والأسلحة المحرمة دولياً ومارس أبشع أنواع الأذية من ضمنها الحصار ونقل البنك المركزي اليوم الشعب دور رواتب لخمس سنوات ورغم كل ذلك لم يستطع هذا المشروع أن ينجح في اليمن لأنه لا يوجد لديه حاضنة شعبية بينما أنصار الله استطاعوا أن يصمدوا لأن لديهم حاضنة شعبية قوية استطاعوا أن يطوروا أسلحة يمنية ويصنعوا شيئا جديدا مثل الصواريخ الكروز والطائرات المسيرة وبعض الصواريخ أجيال الصواريخ لم تكن في ترسانة الجيش اليمني السابق استطاعوا أن يصنعوها وبدأوا يضربوا السعودية الرد على السعودية بالصواريخ مع الصمود الداخلي أدى إلى أن السعودية خسرت مالا كثيرا وبدأت تضرب في أهم مفاصلها بخصوص شركة أرامكو التي كان يفترض أن تدرج في البورصة في 2018 ولحد الآن لأنها لازالت تحت القصف اليوم إحنا في ألفين واحد وعشرين ولا زالت لم تدرج.

Speaker 1: Throughout the war on Yemen, the UAE has worked closely with Saudi Arabia and its Western allies, particularly in asserting control over much of the southern parts of the country. It's been involved in the war in a number of capacities, militarily and politically, and has supported some factions of the conflict, especially the southern separatists.

Speaker 5: Not only is Yemen the victim of the United States and NATO's ongoing and never-ending war on terror, but it's also the home to the UAE, the United Arab Emirates' occupation of the southern half of Yemen, where grave, grave human rights abuses have taken place.

Kim Sharif: Although the Emiratis claim that they have withdrawn their troops from Yemen, It's a lie. They have their mercenaries in the western coast, led by Tariq Afash, a nephew of the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who gets paid and instructed directly by the Emiratis. So he is actually fighting there along with a lot of mercenaries bought for him by the Emiratis, on behalf of the Emiratis, paid for by the Emiratis, armed by the Emiratis. And then you have the Southern Transitional Council, who have control of the Aden Park, also under the command, instruction, control, etc., of the Emiratis, paid for, etc. So they're not really independent. And then you have the Emiratis actually occupying Yemeni islands such as Socotra and Mayun. In there, in Mayun, it has recently been revealed by international outlets that the Emiratis have built their air bases. So why would they have military and air bases in Mayun? What rights do they have? To violate the sovereignty of the state of Yemen? Who gave them that consent? Yemen is still legally a united country under the leadership of Sana'a. They have instituted what is known as the Southern Transitional Council. The Southern Transitional Council is supposed to be getting independence from the rest of Yemen in order to be a different state. That's impossible, because the same situation that has happened in Somalia, northern Somalia versus southern Somalia— for 30 years they've been telling the northern Somalis, we will help you become an independent nation. Today they are not. Southern governments, the governors, they cannot get independent statehood because there are legal procedures to follow and political steps to take. Under the United Nations and such-like rules. And in the absence of those procedural requirements, it's impossible for them to get independence. But they like to lie and to mislead the people of the South into thinking that they become— they can become an independent country, they will become very rich, just like Kuwait and Oman and the United Arab Emirates, etc. These are the falsehoods that they've been told right from the start. 6 years on, they now started to wake up to the truth of what's really being done to them, that this was a conspiracy to steal their land.

Speaker 5: Why Yemen is so strategic and important for Saudi Arabia to control this nation is because of Yemen being a major resource-rich nation for oil.

Kim Sharif: Saudi Arabia needs control of the Strait of Hormuz The war was strategically planned from the outset with a view of creating almost complete economic destruction of Yemen. This is not just my words. This is the words of also Professor Martha Mundy of LSE. She wrote a report, a detailed report. I strongly recommend that you read it. I think it's important to note that the war is not just a war of Yemen. Everyone read this report, and in her own research she found that there was a strategic plan to starve Yemen Yemenis and to destroy them economically. And she cites references to frequent targeting of food storages and food production installations, farms, factories, things like that.

Ahmed Moaiad: الصراع اليوم الدائر هو محاولة من السعودية لإعادة هيمنتها على البلد. التي فقدتها بسبب أنصار الله يعني أنصار الله هم مكون سياسي جديد ليس لهم علاقة بالسعودية من السابق بينما كانت كل المكونات السياسية في اليمن لها علاقة قوية بالسعودية فهذا المكون الجديد مع الفكر الجديد اكتسب شعبية كبيرة أخذ السيطرة على اليمن من يد السعودية فغضبت السعودية لذلك ولذلك شنت الحرب اليوم Liberate Yemen, develop Yemen.

Kim Sharif: Yemen is full of resources. It has gas, it has oil, it has many other minerals—gold, diamond—all kinds of things. But it's not taking advantage of its natural resources. It has vast lands of arable land for farming in the north and in the south. I've never seen anything greener than Ib in my life. Ib is between the north and south a bit, and yet. The Yemenis are starving, and this is well before this aggression on Yemen. Why? Why? Where? Where have Yemeni resources not been exploited and used for the benefit of Yemenis? It's always been used for the benefit of the Western countries that have been supporting Saleh to stay in power and use oppressive means to to to repress the people. And of course, the Saudis were basically the actual rulers of Yemen. Through the curtain known as Saleh and his government back then. So the Houthi movement, that's why it's popular. You see millions of people in the streets supporting them. These millions aren't all Zaydis. These millions aren't all Houthis from the town of Houth. They are Yemenis from different parts of Yemen: north, south, west, east. They all want independence, freedom. When they rose in 2011, that is what they wanted. That's still what they want. And the Saudi-led aggression came in to prevent this movement of liberation, independence, and sovereignty of the state of Yemen.

Speaker 5: And since the crisis began, the Houthi resistance movement obviously wants to nationalize its oil. It doesn't want its oil to be put in the hands of its occupiers, like the United States, the UAE. So the Houthi movement has now actually taken control of 2 chokepoints in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, where Saudi Arabia would normally be exporting oil to the international community.

Speaker 1: Through military intervention in Yemen, Saudi Arabia aims to suppress the Houthi uprising and install a government which it recognizes as legitimate in the country. The Saudi-led coalition aims to curb so-called Iranian influence in the region, as it claims, along with many Western media outlets, that the Houthis are militarily and logistically backed by Iran. But to what extent does this accusation hold true?

Speaker 5: While Yemen has been presented within the mainstream corporate media, and sometimes within even the international community, and described through the lens of a sectarian war or a regional war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. This war, like every single war that the United States wages against, is the victim of modern-day colonialism and Western imperialism. And we cannot begin to discuss Yemen without contextualizing Yemen through the lens of humanitarian means and understand that Yemenis Are standing up to a very, very large military industrial complex being waged against them by the international community to plunder its resources and its oil.

Ahmed Moaiad: مسألة الدعم من إيران هذه مسألة توجهها أمريكا والسعودية إلى كل القوى المناحضة لها في المنطقة أحزاباً كانت أو دول إيران عفواً سوريا حزب الله حركة حماس إلى آخره. هناك دعم من إيران إعلامي ودعم سياسي لكن لا يوجد دعم عسكري لوجستي لأنه هناك حصار على اليمن والمسافة بعيدة جدا وهناك عدة دول لا يمكن والبارجات البحرية الأمريكية تسيطر على البحر بشكل كامل يعني المنافذ تقريبا مسؤولة ربما يكون هناك مثلا دعم من إيران فيما يخص تكنولوجيا صناعة البحرية الصواريخ أو تكنولوجيا صناعة الطيران المسير هذا ممكن يكون لأنه هذا العلم إيران متفردة فيه ولم يكن موجود سابقا في اليمن لكن دعم لوجستي مباشر لا يوجد لأنه غير ممكن أصلا.

Speaker 1: With the two sides of the conflict locked in a stalemate since late 2015, Yemen has descended into a dire humanitarian crisis. In 2016, the UN estimated that more than three quarters of the population of Yemen lacked access to safe drinking water and sanitation, and nearly half lacked access to sufficient food and medicine. The situation deteriorated further with the 2018 assault on Al-Hodeidah, effectively blockading the main source of food imports. By the end of 2018, nearly 16 million Yemenis were on the brink of starvation and the country was facing the world's worst famine in a century.

Speaker 5: Yemen is home to the world's worst humanitarian crisis of the modern era. It is a man-made, manufactured crisis at the hands of Saudi Arabia, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and a handful of countries that are assisting militarily and through intelligence. And those countries that are abetting this genocide include Israel, the United Kingdom, France, Egypt, Morocco, and Sudan. Since Saudi Arabia began bombing Yemen in 2015, it has completely decimated entire neighborhoods, schools, and agriculture sites. It has targeted fishermen who are fishing for the day in the seas Of— near Aden. And because they have targeted hospitals and medical supplies and the water treatment facilities, a man-made cholera outbreak has taken place in Yemen, leaving the country completely sick and ill. 23 million Yemenis today face starvation. 23 Yemenis could die at any moment, according to the UN.

Speaker 6: Wow.

Speaker 5: Because of famine. Over 500,000 children are malnourished in Yemen, and over 3 million children face starvation out of those 23 million.

Kim Sharif: The Saudi-led coalition illegally blockade Yemen by detaining ships carrying food, fuel and medicine, killing thousands of people. The U.N. itself has accepted that up to to 300,000 people have been murdered by this Saudi-led coalition intervention in Yemen, majority of whom have died as a result— direct result of the illegal blockade. The blockade was declared illegal by the Human Rights Council's special rapporteur as early back as 2017. But the Saudi-led coalition continues to detain tens of ships, necessitating fines of billions of— millions of dollars per day. These ships have been searched and given passes by U.N. officers in Djibouti as not containing any weapons, merely containing supplies for eating, for fuel and for medicine. The Saudi regime-led coalition and Saudi regime and Emirati regime have no business detaining these They are doing it in breach of the law, as I can say. That amounts to a war crime under the Rome Convention, Geneva Conventions. It also amounts to crimes— it also amounts to genocide, because of the large numbers of people dying. It also amounts to crimes against humanity. So these are very, very serious crimes.

Speaker 6: The blockade also destroyed the livelihood of many people, because people who had businesses are not able to continue their businesses. A lot of the factories, almost every single factory in Yemen, was destroyed by airstrikes. So that also destroyed livelihoods.

Kim Sharif: For the Saudi regime to then come back now and say, well, in return for lifting some of the blockade, will you sign ceasefire in relation to Marib? That's basically their peace proposal. That is not a condition that can be accepted by anybody. Irrational, as you can see. So a criminal, as in this case Saudi-led coalition and their Western backers, they are criminals, cannot benefit from its own crime. That is Western jurisprudence, well established. They can't run away from it. They must lift this illegal blockade at once. Closure of Sana'a airport alone caused up to 90,000 unnecessary civilian deaths. For lack of medicine or inability to get medical aid abroad. Those ships containing— carrying fuel necessitated the hospitals having to shut down. They can't operate anymore. So kidney dialysis can't be done. Cancer treatments can't be done. So many people have died unnecessarily. This is a very serious crime, in my view, descending on a level of Nazism. And they ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Speaker 6: Thank you.

Kim Sharif: The unconscionableness of their actions in relation to Yemen for the past 6 years will leave a very, very stinky scar on the conscience of humanity for years to come. And they're not going to be able to escape liability, in my view, sooner or later. These crimes don't fall with time. Sooner or later, there's going to be accountability. I hope that is sooner than later.

Annelle Sheline: Areas where food insecurity is worst are areas that are subject to the worst fighting. So in general, we know that obviously it's very difficult for imports to get in, for food aid to be distributed in areas where there's very heavy fighting. So all that to say, most of the really dire food insecurity is directly related to the conflict.

Ahmed Moaiad: بالنسبة للوضع الإنساني هو سيء. حقيقةً لكنه وصل من حيث الحالة الصحية إلى مستوى متدني جداً لكن على مستوى المجاعة لا تجد مجاعة ولكن توفر الغذاء هو في الحد الأدنى لأن هناك منظمات قد أخذت دورها وبدأت تغدى الناس ولكن بالحد الأدنى فهم لا زالوا على قيد الحياة لكن الحالة الصحية إذا تفاقم الوضع صحياً مع أمراض معينة ربما يموت الإنسان لأنه لا يستطيع الحصول على مستوى عالي من العلاج أو الخروج للسفر وللأسف العدد في هذا الجانب كبير جدا في فترة من الفترات في 2017-2018 عندما تشدد الحصار قالت الأمم المتحدة أنه طفل يموت كل عشر دقائق بسبب انعدام الدواء وانعدام الغذاء وبسبب عدم القدرة على السفر خارجا اليوم السعودية من تقفل المطار مقفل المطار مقفل الميناء البلد محاصر بشكل كامل بلا سبب يعني يعني لماذا تحاصر يعني الذي سيسافر ليس الحوتيين وليس العسكريين سيسافر الشعب من يريد علاج من يريد دواء هو الذي سيسافر ورغم ذلك السعودية تقفل البلد وتتسبب في موت الكثير للأسف.

Annelle Sheline: Almost no public servants have been paid a true salary in years and so you have doctors who who aren't coming to work anymore they're not being paid they don't have They don't have any medical equipment, so there's really nothing they can do to help the Yemeni people. So there really are a lot of different interlocking factors that are producing the world's— what has been called now for several years running, the UN has acknowledged, is the world's worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

Speaker 6: There are a lot of organizations that are working in Yemen in terms of services and providing aid. However, a population of, you know, 30 million people cannot survive on aid. No country in the world with 30 million people can survive on aid. We do need the ports to open. We need the blockade to be lifted. For example, Sana'a Airport has been closed since August of 2016. There are a lot of people who need medical evacuation. who are not able to travel outside Sana'a. And Sana'a is close also to where major population centers are in Yemen. So, the last statistics I heard, there were 35,000 Yemenis who needed medical evacuations, are not able to travel. Again, many people die because they cannot travel for medical evacuations.

Kim Sharif: Adnan, for example, is so lawless that life is impossible there. The people aren't receiving salaries. They are being impacted by the blockade more or less in the same way as the rest of Yemen. They are starving to death. The spread of diseases. Worst of all, widespread of terrorism operated by the Saudi-led coalition, funded, armed and supported by them.

Speaker 6: Hodeidah is also— is experiencing severe malnutrition among children. It's also experiencing cholera and diphtheria, as well. But overall, every single part of Yemen is experiencing malnutrition, is experiencing famine. If you do look at the map in Yemen in terms of food insecurity, there isn't an area in the whole of Yemen that's not experiencing food insecurity.

Ahmed Moaiad: حقيقة أنه يعني لكي يكون هناك حل في اليمن يجب الضغط على السعودية عسكريا بأقصى طريقة ممكنة لأن السعودية كانت تعتبر نفسها مسيطرة على اليمن منذ خمسين عام لن تسمح لأي قوة جديدة أن تأخذ اليمن منها وخصوصا أن السعودية عندما كانت مسيطرة كانت تدفع رواتب لكل منذ خمسين عام فتكانت تعتبق اليمن حقيقة خلفية فبالتالي الضغط على السعودية عسكريا سيجعلها تنسحب هذا أولا ثانيا هناك الآن مفاوضات سياسية برعاية سلطنة عمان لكن هي محاطة بسرية شديدة ربما تنجح وربما لا الأمريكان أيضا داخلين على الخط نحن نتوقع أنه بسبب الضغط العسكري والقصف الذي تعرض له السعودية We can do a lot as people to alleviate the suffering of people in Yemen.

Speaker 6: People, especially in the U.K., in the U.S. and in Europe, we have the right to call on our representatives and ask that their governments, our governments, do not support the Saudi aggression on Yemen. They need to ensure that the blockade on Yemen is lifted. They cannot hold the Yemeni people hostage to the war. And it's very important, because these countries, we elect the officials, and we are their constituents. So it's very important for us to reach out to our representatives and our parliamentarians and tell them we're not interested. We do not want to be complacent in the war crimes that are committed by the Saudis in Yemen. And as long as these governments are supporting the Saudis, they are supporting war crimes. The second thing they are doing, they're also selling a lot of weapons to Yemen— to the Saudis, that are bombing Yemen and killing Yemeni and killing a lot of Yemeni children. We need to ensure that these countries also stop selling arms. Germany had already announced it stopped selling arms. Right. So we need to continue that. And it's up to us as constituents of these politicians to ensure that we do that. When negotiating peace, we need to ensure that everybody is included, that also whoever is mediating is impartial. It's very challenging when you have a mediator who already sides with one of the parties, especially siding the Saudi aggressors on Yemen. And I also trust that the Yemeni people, once these foreign interventions are out of the country, they will find a way to resolve their own conflict. Yemen has survived for thousands of years. This is not the first conflict that Yemeni have had. They have customs in place that will help them negotiate a peaceful solution to their problems.