Saudi Oman team to talk to Houthis to end Yemen war

Subject : International Relations

Section: Places in news

Concept :

A Saudi Omani delegation is planning to travel to Yemen’s capital Sanaa next week to hash out a permanent ceasefire deal with Houthi officials and end the country’s eight year old conflict.
It is also a sign that regional rifts are easing after rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to restore relations last month after years of hostility and backing opposite sides in Middle Eastern conflicts, including Yemen.

Yemen Conflict:

Since 2014, Yemen has been facing a multi-sided conflict involving local, regional, and international actors.
The Houthis, who ruled a kingdom there for nearly 1,000 years, used widespread anger against President Hadi’s decision to postpone long-awaited elections and his stalled negotiations over a new constitution.
They marched from their stronghold of Saada province to the capital Sanaa and surrounded the presidential palace, placing Hadi under house arrest.

Saudi Arabia’s Intervention:

A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen in March 2015, at Hadi’s request, after the Houthis continued to sweep the south and threatened to conquer the last government stronghold of Aden, prompting one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises ever.

Houthis

Yemen is located at the junction of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, its coastline commanding the strategic strait of Bab al-Mandab.
The country has been wracked by civil war for more than seven years now, and the Houthis control the western part of the country, including the capital Sana’a.
The Houthis are a large clan belonging to the Zaidi Shia sect, with roots in Yemen’s north western Saada province. Zaidis make up around 35 per cent of Yemen’s population.
The Zaid is ruled over Yemen for over a thousand years until 1962, when they were overthrown and a civil war followed, which lasted until 1970.
The Houthi clan began to revive the Zaidi tradition from the 1980s, resisting the increasing influence of the Salafists, who were funded by the state.
In 2004, the Houthis began an insurgent movement against the Yemeni government, naming themselves after the political, military, and religious leader Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, who was assassinated by Yemeni security forces in September of that year.
Several years of conflict between the Houthis and Yemen’s Sunni majority government followed.

Zaydis

Zaydis are the oldest branch of the Shia.
The Zaydis are named after Zayd Bin Ali, the great grandson of Imam Ali, Prophet Mohammed’s cousin and son-in-law who Shias, Sunnis and Zaydis revere.
Zayd Bin Ali had led a revolt against the Ummayad Caliphate in the eighth century. He was killed, but his martyrdom led to the rise of the Zaydi sect. While the Zaydis are seen part of the Shia branch of Islam, both in terms of theology and practice, they are different from the ‘Twelver’ Shias of Iran, Iraq and Lebanon.
For centuries, the Zaydis were a powerful sect within Yemen.
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, the Zaydis would establish a monarchy (the Mutawakkilite Kingdom) in the country. But their dominance would come to an end in 1962 when the Egypt-backed republicans overthrew the monarchy.