Yemen conflict

Topic: Yemen conflict

Iraqi boy riding past a burning oil-field following an IS attack in Qayyarah near Mosul (photo: Getty Images/C. Court)

Arab identity crisis

What is left of the Arabs?

Despite war and mass murder, the Arabs were never as numerous as they are today. But they were also never as unsure about who they are. Does an Arab identity survive? What about Arab culture? These are the questions being asked today. In view of the political and social downward spiral, all of this is now at stake, says Stefan Buchen in his essayMore

Political discourse in the Arab world: Defaming democracy Political transformation in the Arab world: Forget the people Critical reflections on the Arab revolutions: Profiteers from authoritarian decay

Handprints as a symbol of protest against Saudi airstrikes in Yemen (photo: Reuters)

Saudi military involvement in Yemen

Chronically insecure

Saudi Arabia began its military offensive against its neighbour to the south in 2015, ostensibly to reinstate Yemen′s deposed president. Instead the war has driven the poorest country in the region to the brink of famine. By Maysam BehraveshMore

Saudi-Iranian rivalry: And the winner is...Sunni-Shia tension: Islam versus Islam Saudi intervention in Yemen: Stoking the fires

Pro-Trump demonstrators in favour of the immigration ban (photo: Reuters/Ringo Chiu)

US Middle East foreign policy

West versus the rest

Trump′s policy attempts to apply a tourniquet to the perceived ′Muslim problem′ that has been manufactured and now exacerbated by the West′s wayward dealings in the Middle East. An analysis by Mishana HosseiniounMore

Middle East policy under Donald Trump: Return of the dictators US foreign policy under Trump: Peace in our time?Military force and drone warfare: Post-truth victims

German Minister of Defence Ursula von der Leyen visiting Saudi Deputy Prince Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud in Riyadh (photo: dpa/Rainer Jensen)

Non-fiction: Sebastian Sons′ ″Auf Sand gebaut″

Saudi Arabia – a difficult ally

Saudi Arabia is an important, but controversial partner of western countries. Sebastian Sons, an expert on the country with the DGAP (Germany's Council on Foreign Relations), assesses the country’s mindset, its political problems and how western governments should engage its leaders. By Sabine BalkMore

Re-assessing Western involvement in the Middle East: Far from Utopian Germany's Middle East policy: Is Germany changing tack?Oil and development in the Middle East: A two-edged sword Muslim Brotherhood texts: Once valued, now proscribed

Yemen′s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh (photo: picture-alliance/dpa)

Ali Abdullah Saleh and the conflict in Yemen

The lure of power

During the Arab Spring President Saleh faced widespread armed protests and was forced to leave office. Thanks to some unscrupulous wheeling and dealing, however, Saleh may yet pull off his bid to return to power. By Neville TellerMore

Saudi intervention in Yemen: Stoking the fires The destruction of Yemen's cultural heritage: Treasures of humanity under threat Political rule before and after the ″Arabellion″: Internal colonialism and counter-revolution

Yemen′s former minister for human rights, Hooria Mashhour (photo: AFP/Getty Images)

Interview with Hooria Mashhour

On the rebels′ blacklist

Fearing for her life in her home country, a former minister from Yemen applied to Germany for asylum. Now she′s working for the integration of refugees. Interview by Ali AlmakhlafiMore

After the upheaval in the Arab world: Escalating wars The Yemen conflict: The threat of a regional conflagration Media reports on the Yemen conflict: A skewed view of Yemen's plight

US President Barack Obama at the Gulf Co-operation Summit in Riyadh on 21.04.2016 (photo: Reuters/K. Lamarque)

Saudi-US relations

Chilly diplomacy

Relations between the US and its long-term ally Saudi Arabia are at an historically low ebb. President Barack Obama′s recent visit to Saudi Arabia did little to improve the situation. Bernard Haykel, professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, provides an analysisMore

Saudi intervention in Yemen: Stoking the fires Sunni-Shia tension: Islam versus Islam Iran-Saudi conflict: The Middle East′s Cold War

Saudi troops on their way to fight Houthi rebels in Yemen

Saudi Arabia and Iran

Defeat Islamic State - or become it

The dawn of 2016 has brought a new round of doomsday predictions that Saudi Arabia’s ruling Al Saud family cannot sustain its autocratic grip on power. The kingdom, pessimists argue, is caught in a perfect storm with economic problems, social challenges and foreign policy crises all converging at the same time. By James M. Dorsey More

Iran-Saudi conflict: The Middle East′s Cold War Saudi Arabia: Janadriyah Festival of Culture: A population ruled by fear ″Islamic State″: lessons learnt: What chance a Muslim reformation?Saudi intervention in Yemen: Stoking the fires

World map showing the Middle East (source: Deutsche Welle)

Iran-Saudi conflict

The Middle East′s Cold War

The breach in diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia is a dangerous watershed in an already unstable, war-torn region. The rupture has its roots in a strategic rivalry that stretches across the Middle East, says Bernard Haykel, Middle East expert at Princeton UniversityMore

Interview with Rami G. Khouri: Fragmentation of the Arab world Iran and Saudi Arabia: The impending storm Iran and Saudi Arabia: A plea for Islamic tolerance Qantara dossier: Sunni-Shiite tension

French and Arabic versions of the novel ″Hurma″ by the Yemeni author Ali al-Muqri

Interview with the Yemeni author Ali al-Muqri

″Sex is the origin of all life″

The novels of Yemeni author Ali al-Muqri are well-known to Arab readers and a few have already been translated into other languages. Al-Muqri often deals with subjects like sex, war and religion. His novel ″Hurma″ (French: ″Femme interdite″) won him the French prize for Arabic literature. Interview by Amida SholanMore

Interview with the Yemeni director Sara Ishaq: "Yemen is like a garden that was full of weeds"Media reports on the Yemen conflict: A skewed view of Yemen's plight Qantara dossier: Arabic literature

Protests in Tehran over the execution of the Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr in Saudi Arabia (photo: picture-alliance/AP Photo/V. Salemi)

Iran and Saudi Arabia:

The impending storm

The rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia is not confessional in nature. Both lay claim to regional supremacy and also to the leading role in the Islamic world – maximalist positions that naturally provoke confrontation. An essay by Ali Fathollah-Nejad, political scientist with the German Council on Foreign RelationsMore

Video clip: Saudi execution sparks riots in Iran Saudi Arabia and Iran after the death of King Abdullah: No prospect of rapprochement The Yemen conflict: The threat of a regional conflagration

Activists from Reporters without Borders demonstrating on the Champs Elysee in Paris in July 2012 against the oppression and torture of journalists in Iran (photo: EPA/IAN LANGSDON)

Media portrayals and geopolitics in the Near and Middle East

Who shapes our image of the world?

In this commentary, Charlotte Wiedemann considers how press freedom and the media are tethered to Western geopolitics
More

Interview with journalist Chris Woods on drone warfare: "It's not risk-free war, it's displaced war" Drone war in Afghanistan and Pakistan: Living in the shadow of the "angels of death"Qantara.de dossier: Yemen conflict Media in Egypt: Fall into line or switch off

Houthi rebels in the Yemeni capital Sanaa (photo: Reuters/K. Abdullah)

After the upheaval in the Arab world

Escalating wars

The violence unleashed in Arab countries in the last four years may turn out to be just a first taste of what is to come. Escalating brutality and the actions of governments have put Arab citizens under immense pressure. Without a change of course, the outcome could easily be further conflict and a new wave of uprisings – this time not peaceful. By Maha YahyaMore

The Assad regime and the civil war in Syria: Clash of barbarisms Civil war in Libya: A stateless society Battles in Yemen: Opening Pandora's Box in Yemen Qantara.de dossier: Arab Spring

Bombardment of the Qahira fortress in Taiz (photo: AP)

The destruction of Yemen's cultural heritage

Treasures of humanity under threat

Ongoing airstrikes and the military conflict with the Houthi rebels bring the threat of further destruction of important historical buildings and cultural monuments in Yemen. By Amida Sholan
More

The crisis in Yemen: History can help us to understand Battles in Yemen: Opening Pandora's Box in Yemen Ait-Ben-Haddou: The battle to save a pearl of Morocco's heritage Palmyra: an oasis of cultural history

A building in Faj Attan, near Sanaa, destroyed in a Saudi airstrike (photo: Reuters/M. Al Sayaghi)

The Yemen conflict

The threat of a regional conflagration

It is not clear what Saudi Arabia hopes to achieve with the war in Yemen. In any case, the ongoing airstrikes are not going to solve any problems. On the contrary: many new ones are emerging, such as the strengthening of the al-Qaida network or a dangerous confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia. By Ali Sadrzadeh
More

Military intervention in the Islamic world: What good is an Arab military alliance?Media reports on the Yemen conflict: A skewed view of Yemen's plight The crisis in Yemen: History can help us to understand

A Saudi soldier on the Yemeni border (photo: imago/Xinhua)

Military intervention in the Islamic world

What good is an Arab military alliance?

If new Arab military alliances want to avoid the mistakes of past interventions, their members will have to re-assess their approach and address the structural deficits that led to previous failures. By Omar AshourMore

The crisis in Yemen: History can help us to understand Saudi Arabia and the conflict in Yemen: Saudi actions backfire Media reports on the Yemen conflict: A skewed view of Yemen's plight Yemeni refugees in Cairo: An unwelcome exile