Adding to the Controversy? Civil Society’s Evaluation of the National Conference Dialogue in Yemen

Abstract

This article assembles a picture of Yemen's 2013-14 National Dialogue Conference (NDC) by collecting perspectives from local civil society organizations (CSOs), which are contrasted to the views of international commentators. Despite all efforts by internal parties as well as the international community, the dialogue failed to avert war, which broke out shortly after. Through interviews with 50 CSOs, we reconstructed the reasons for failure, as well as paying attention to the observed strengths of the dialogue. Half of the consulted organizations were directly involved in the NDC, either as an invited participant or in a brokerage role. The other half concerns outside observers. We identify aspects on which the opinion of the CSOs converge, but also highlight striking divergences depending on insider/outsider status. In contrast to the view espoused in the international literature, the CSOs overall feel that, in spite of all its procedural and substantive flaws, the NDC was a significant junction in the long road towards peace and stability and laid important groundwork for future dialogues.

An Analysis of Yemen’s Geostrategic Significance and Saudi-Iranian Competition for Regional Hegemony

“…Easy access to Yemen suggests easy access to Saudi Arabia. Iran wanted to control an unstable state that bordered Saudi Arabia or, at the very least, create a new Hezbollah to fight Saudi Arabia on the Arabian Peninsula (Elayah et al 2017).…”

“…As a result, the Houthis have grown stronger and can now fire drones and ballistic missiles toward Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Yemen under the Houthis would resemble a flaming barrel near Saudi Arabia, which holds over two-thirds of the world’s oil resources (Elayah et al, 2017). An attack against Aramco company that hit the Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities in 2019 forced the KSA to stop half of its oil production to about 5.7 mb/d ( Al Jazeera , 2019).…”