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Even after a deal was reached to create a new government, fighting raged
between the rebels and Sunni militants. Audie Cornish talks to Iona Craig,
who is reporting from Sanaa for The Times of London.
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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
When President Obama laid out his strategy last week on how to take on ISIS
he used Somalia and Yemen as examples of places where U.S. counterterrorism
efforts have been successful. But now Yemen may be on the brink of an
all-out sectarian war involving the government, al-Qaida militants and a
regional rebel group that has just swept into the capital, Sana'a. While a
peace deal has been signed, there are few signs that it's being honored.
Iona Craig is a freelance journalist with the Times of London. She's one of
the few Western journalists reporting from Yemen and she's on the line now.
Iona Craig, welcome to the program.
IONA CRAIG: Hi there.
CORNISH: So these rebels swept through the capital; a peace deal is signed.
But I take it that that hasn't exactly settled things?
CRAIG: Not really, no. And I think it's almost wrong to call it a peace deal
in many ways. They signed an agreement which involves the government being
dissolved and a new prime minister, but there is an annex to that deal
that's as far as the international community is concerned has been signed by
the Houthis because it was past the deal. But as they see it, they didn't
sign it - and that is about the cease-fire, about their militias withdrawing
from the surrounding provinces around Sana'a, which they have been fighting
for and can now control. So we have a "peace deal," quote, unquote, because
really this at the moment in Sana'a things are calm - after five days of
fighting - but they have also been going almost house to house in many
respects or hunting down anyway their adversaries in the last 24 hours.
CORNISH: And you talk about this rebel group, the Houthis, give us more
background. Who are they?
CRAIG: They're traditionally a Zaydi-Shia movement from northern Yemen. They
were formed in 2004. They have fought the government six times up until 2010
when the last peace deal was signed. But in the last year there has been
many conflict matters - been mainly the Houthis fighting SABA (ph), the
tribesmen and militias loyal to Islah, Yemen's equivalent to the Muslim
brotherhood.
CORNISH: Iona Craig, Yemen is of course home to a powerful branch of
al-Qaida as well. What effect could this have on the U.S. drone or
intelligence operations against AQAP, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula?
CRAIG: Well, actually the Houthis haven't stormed the National Security
Bureau, which is the intelligence agency that is most relied upon by America
for those kind of counterterrorism operations. But actually I think the
bigger concern is a backlash from al-Qaida, because this is a Shia group and
they are great rivals of al-Qaida. They have been threatened and attacked by
al-Qaida increasingly over the last six months, and this is really worrying.
This is a kind of trend that could really continue here in Yemen is when you
get this backlash from al-Qaida and you have these two sides fighting a
sectarian conflict.
CORNISH: Meanwhile, with this being a Shia rebel group what's been the
reaction in the region?
CRAIG: The Houthis, you know, obviously had planned all of this well in
advance. So within moments of literally taking hold of the capital they then
were in the Presidential Palace signing this deal. And the international
community has backed that deal. It was brokered by the United Nations
Special Envoy here, and even Saudi Arabia has said they support this deal.
But really people don't have much more alternative other than to try and
support this deal, even if it may not be worth the paper it's written on.
Because the Houthis are the most powerful fighting group in Yemen, and there
aren't too many people that can stand up against them right now. So yeah the
international community and even the region are just hoping that this deal
is going to work and be implemented.
CORNISH: Iona Craig reporting for the Times of London from Sana'a, the
capital of Yemen. Thanks so much for speaking with us.