Qatar Blockade Cuts Into Saudi-Yemen Alliance

Many Yemeni Ministers Are Ideologically Aligned With Qatar

Jason Ditz 

Posted onJuly 20, 2017CategoriesNewsTagsQatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen

The split between Saudi Arabia and Qatar is an incredibly divisive ideological battle, but one you won’t see fought in the other blockading countries like Bahrain and the UAE. That’s because showing sympathy to Qatar has become a literal criminal offensive in those countries.

That’s less true in Yemen, and the Saudi blockade of Qatar is proving an extremely problematic issue within the Hadi government that the Saudis are trying to prop up. Ideologically, they are nowhere near on the same page as the Saudis are on this issue.

Indeed, one of the main Saudi grievances is Qatar not having banned the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates, a sore spot for fellow blockader Egypt, whose junta ousted a Muslim 

Brotherhood-dominated elected government. 

That’s a problem in Yemen, however, where a large chunk of the government is also Muslim Brotherhood aligned.

This naturally makes a lot of them ideologically aligned with Qatar on this split, and more importantly very worried about what happens if this Saudi War to install them as Yemen’s sole government ever successfully ends, potentially setting the stage for another Saudi blockade because of their political affiliations.

Saudi Arabia already has myriad problems in Yemen, and this is just one more, reflective of the reality that President Hadi never had broad political support and mostly had to rely on piecemeal support from the real political factions. Reinstalling him as the feckless ruler of Yemen ultimately means the return of whatever allies of convenience he’s managed to retain throughout the war, and with Saudi Arabia’s growing aggression, those alliances may seem less convenient for many.

http://news.antiwar.com/2017/07/20/qatar-blockade-cuts-into-saudi-yemen-alliance/