This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Yemeni Government Admits It Has Lost Control Of Nation Amid "Attempted Coup"
In what Yemen's information minister described as an "attempted coup" Shia Houthi rebels (backed by Hizbollah and Iran) have surrounded the Yemeni Presidential Palace putting them, as The Telegraph reports, in direct confrontation with al-Qaeda and the Yemen government. Amid hopes of a compromise deal or cease-fire in the conflict that has been under way since September when the Houthis swept into Sana'a, the latest reports are the nation has gone from bad to worse...
- YEMENI PM SAID SURROUNDED BY HOUTHI MILITIAS: CNN
- YEMEN INFORMATION MINISTER SAYS GOVERNMENT HAS LOST CONTROL OVER COUNTRY -- CNN
Oil prices, interestingly, fell on the increasing tensions today - as we pre-suppose the market is pricing in a successful coup - and the ensuing pump-fest of supply (at any price - just give us revenues) will trump Yelemni tribes threats to cut off supply if the President is harmed.
*YEMEN HOUTHI REBELS SEIZE STATE NEWS AGENCY, TV STATION: AP
Yemen official says Houthi rebels seize state news agency, TV station in 'step toward coup'
- *YEMENI MINISTER SAYS SHI'ITE MILITANTS ATTEMPTED COUP: ARABIYA
*YEMENI TRIBES TO CUT OIL SUPPLY IF PRESIDENT HARMED: JAZEERA
Tribes in Marib say will cut supplies if Shiite rebels harmed President Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi, Al Jazeera reports without saying where it obtained the information.
Then this...
- *YEMEN CEASEFIRE IN CAPITAL TAKES EFFECT, AFP REPORTS
Which didn't last long...
- *YEMENI PM SAID SURROUNDED BY HOUTHI MILITIAS: CNN
- *YEMEN PM'S CONVOY COMES UNDER FIRE FROM HOUTHI FIGHTERS: AFP
- *EXPLOSION HEARD NEAR PRESIDENTIAL COMPOUND IN YEMEN: ARABIYA
#Yemen ??? ????? ????? ??? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ?????? ???? #????? photos next to the presidential palace pic.twitter.com/J99iTelBSz
— Hamzah alkamaly (@hamzaalkamaly) January 19, 2015
Clashes in Yemen capital killed at least nine: ministry - http://t.co/ucQlBbKsFc #Pakistan pic.twitter.com/flfffTzOJQ
— Live News Pakistan (@livenewspakcom) January 19, 2015
FOTO: #Yemen, scontri vicino al palazzo presidenziale http://t.co/nQnYzIRL5v pic.twitter.com/JnnqwVjCKW
— La Stampa (@la_stampa) January 19, 2015
#????? : ??? 142 ????? ??????? ?? ????? ?????? ???? ??? ??? ?????? : http://t.co/fpiBRvYdHT pic.twitter.com/Q3r7mLVmu5
— ??? ??? #????? (@yepress) January 17, 2015
* * *
And then as CNN confirms,
JUST IN: Yemeni Info Minister @NadiaSakkaf tells me government control in Yemen is "almost non-existent". Intv airs 8pm CET // 2pm ET
— Christiane Amanpour (@camanpour) January 19, 2015
BREAKING: Yemeni Info Min. @NadiaSakkaf tells me Yemeni PM is surrounded by Houthi militias, they're stationed on rooftops around his home
— Christiane Amanpour (@camanpour) January 19, 2015
#Yemen PM "Currently he is at his place but he is surrounded by Houthi militia " Info minister tells @camanpour ..
— Barbara Starr (@barbarastarrcnn) January 19, 2015
#????? ???????? ??????? ??????? ????? ?? ????? ??????? ?????? #Yemen #Houthis with army tanks in sanaa now pic.twitter.com/pATzb8mw1G
— Hamzah alkamaly (@hamzaalkamaly) January 19, 2015
As Bloomberg reports,
Yemen’s Houthi gunmen have laid siege to the residence of Prime Minister Khaled Bahah, Information Minister Nadia Sakkaf said, in the latest escalation between the Shiite group and authorities backed by Sunni Gulf Arab states.
The fighters have taken positions on buildings surrounding the palace in Sana’a, Sakkaf said on Twitter. Earlier, clashes broke out between Houthi fighters and presidential guards outside the compound of President Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi, prompting his intervention to broker a ceasefire. Eight people were killed in the fighting, Sakkaf said.
...
Tensions rose in Sana’a after Houthi fighters kidnapped Ahmed Bin Mubarak, the president’s chief of staff, on Jan. 17. Sakkaf said Hadi and the Shiite group were holding talks to agree on Bin Mubarak’s release. She didn’t elaborate.
* * *
In case you are confused, here is a quick glance at the Middle East relationships mosaic...
Click here for The Slate's full interactive chart.
As The Telegraph explains... Who are the Houthi rebels?
While the West was transfixed by jihadi beheadings of hostages in Syria last autumn, another history-shaking episode in the breakdown of the Arab world was playing out 1,500 miles away.
Western leaders hardly seemed to notice. But a once obscure Shia Muslim rebel movement known as the Houthis swept from the north into Yemen’s picture-postcard capital Sana’a, barging aside the US- and UK-backed army, and seized effective control.
Any thought that this was a random event in a country whose politics and feuds have always had the capacity to baffle its own people, let alone outsiders, was set aside with a single statement.
An Iranian politician close to that country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, could not contain himself. Ali Reza Zakani, an MP, boasted that Sana’a was now the fourth Arab capital in Iranian hands – after Beirut (through Hizbollah), Damascus (through President Assad) and Baghdad (through Iraq’s democratically elected Shia-led government).
The extent to which Iran physically armed the Houthis is disputed, though a ship carrying weapons apparently from Iran was seized in Yemeni waters two years ago.
However, the Houthis have close ties to Hizbollah, and the fact remains that Shia militias or armies now control parts of both Saudi Arabia’s southern border, with Yemen, and northern border, with Iraq.
That is a stunning blow for Saudi Arabia, a hardline Sunni absolute monarchy which regards Iran, a Shia theocracy, as its mortal enemy for historic and political as well as religious reasons.
Who are the competing factions?
The government: still the government, in theory, through the ceasefire negotiated with the Houthis after they took Sana’a. Pro-western and with some electoral legitimacy after Mr Hadi won an election in 2012. Admittedly, he was unopposed – but he had the support of both the parliamentary majority and opposition.
Houthis: the Houthis’ adherents are Zaydi Muslims, followers of the Shia religious school historically seen as closest to Sunnis, which made it easier for a Zaydi caliph to rule much of present-day Yemen for many centuries until the 1962 revolution. However, the sect has come to be dominated by a clan that owes allegiance to a now dead rebel leader, Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, who declared war on the government in 2004. The Houthis' Shiism has led them to a pro-Iran, anti-Western position – its adherents carry flags saying, “Death to America, Death to Israel”.
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula: the settlement that brought Mr Hadi to power was also supposed to provide Yemen with a common front to take on al-Qaeda’s jihadist insurgency, backed by American air-power. Unfortunately, military success on the ground was countered by more attacks by AQAP on sectarian rivals like the Houthis, giving the latter a further pretext to oppose the government.
Al-Islah: a Sunni Islamist political movement which is Yemen’s version of the Muslim Brotherhood, it is the main constitutional opposition to the government. Its leaders have been targeted for reprisals by the Houthis, as the two represent the rival sects of political Islam.
Al-Hirak: just to complicate matters further, southern Yemen – centred on the part of the country once run by the British Empire and then by the Soviets – has a strong secessionist movement. Socially more liberal, even non-secessionist southern sheikhs occasionally surprise visitors by lapsing into fond memories of both British and Soviet colonialism.
Former President Ali Abdullah al-Saleh and General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar: the eminences grises of Yemeni politics, these two distant cousins ran the country for decades, Mr Saleh as president and Gen Mohsen as effective security chief.
The two men fell out in 2011 as Mr Saleh refused to quit in the face of an “Arab Spring” uprising. In a strange twist, Mr Saleh, who fought the Houthis for years, is now said to be in such a sulk at having been forced from office that he is backing them with those parts of the army apparatus controlled by his many relatives, partly out of revenge against Gen Mohsen, who has retained power over a rival army faction.
* * *
»
- 12742 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Rock the Casbah. Rock the Casbah!
I see The Tribe had elections held today in Yemen
At least they count the votes quick? ;)
Just like Afghanistan, when U.S./Israel/SA create & fund a mercenary militia for short term goals, expect blowback.
ISIS (U.S/Israeli/SA created militia) = Blowback
Soon enough the Yemeni tribe will discover that the Houthi fighters taste like Walleye. It is then that the Marib will join in battle, bringing kettles & goat milk.
Yea, I tell you the kitchens of Yemen will nourish the true believers and pass the Shia interlopers through their colons and onto the burning sand, in piles.
Amerika, Send rifles!
and cooking oil.
you shouldn't smoke all that, alone. When you tweak out there might be a problem with your coherence and general agreeableness.
What a shit-hole.
Looks like the Saudi's will have to start work on South Wall now too.
Who's who in the zoo?
Surprise surprise. Another nation the west is meddling in bites the dust. Release the drones in 3 2 1....
"We" have been droning Yemen for years now, supposedly only against this alleged Al-Qaeda faction.
Next stop, Bahrain...
Wow, I didn't see where anything could have made the picture more convoluted and confusing.
I was wrong. Can you tell which team is which by their headgear?
This is nothing. We can send 10,000 American "heroes" to kill those fuckers one by one. We will deliver hard, painful and fast freedoms to those sand monkeys. America, Fuck yeah!
More "American Sniper" hero's.
[wife on cell phone] "Baby, can you hear me?"
[hero sniper dude ~ talking on cellphone while 'sniping'] "Gotta go sweetheart, I love you"
rat-a-tat-tat, boom, crash.
JFC how moronic are 'folks' exactly? I know, let's fucking ask Sienna Miller what she thinks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2OzDfYgHAI
Actually it looks to me like the tribe is slowly but surely losing control of the situation. The "full-spectrum dominance" is just getting totally out of hand. Look at the map, we have NEVER had a situation like this before with islamists basically creating their own STATES and that is happening all at the same time: ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Boko Haram in Nigeria, Taliban has never gone away in Afghanistan, Yemen has always been a problem that is just becoming a huge one, and there are many other smaller areas that can blow up any time, and all that on top of rising extremist tendencies across the muslim world that threatens stability all across the board. USA and NATO will soon be stretched thin taking all of this on at the same time waging financial war against Russia, Iran, etc..
we couped some folks
If there’s one reason for oil to go to 120 bucks, this is it...
I wonder how they’ll keep it down now
WP, depleted U, something that makes Epi-pens fashionable?
Fine, more hellfires.
real oil price ~40. All above are the futures contracts
Maybe the geograpic American minded people should llok atthis map:
http://goo.gl/maps/G9RJp
And look to the countrynext to it and wonder... is it possible theycould cross the border and raise hell?
Yemen sucks for oil output. Needs sky-high prices to just break even.
Location however...
GULF OF ADEN!!
THE MOST STRATEGIC SHIPPING ROUTE ON THE PLANET!!!!!!
THEY CAN BLOCK 80% OF THE SAUDI’S OIL TRANSPORTS!!!
WHAT IS THE IMPACT? -- Nearly 20,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden each year, heading to and from the Suez Canal. -- Millions of tons of crude oil, petroleum products, gas and dry commodities such as grains, iron ore and coal, as well as containerized goods from Hi-Fis to toys are ferried through the Gulf of Aden and Suez Canal every month. -- Major operators of the world's merchant fleet -- carrying 90 percent of the world's traded goods by volume -- have considered bypassing the Gulf of Aden and Suez Canal altogether. -- Industry experts say the alternative trade route, round South Africa's Cape of Good Hope, would add three weeks or more to a typical journey, pushing up the cost of goods. * WHERE IS THE GULF OF ADEN? -- The Gulf of Aden is located in the Middle East with Yemen to the north, Somalia to the south and the Arabian Sea to the east. It is connected to the Red Sea by the Bab el Mandab strait. Somalia has been stuck in civil conflict since 1991. * WHAT PASSES THROUGH? -- Exports from the Gulf and Asia to the West must pass through Bab el-Mandab before entering the Suez Canal. -- Seven percent of world oil consumption passed through the Gulf of Aden in 2007, according to Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit. -- Around 30 percent of Europe's oil goes through the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea. -- Liquefied natural gas exports from Qatar and Algeria pass through the Gulf of Aden en route to consumers in the West and in Asia. The largest class of gas carrier transiting the area carries enough gas to heat 4.5 million British homes. -- The Gulf of Aden and Suez Canal are the main trade routes for dry commodities and containerized cargo -- manufactured goods -- between Asia, Europe and the Americas. -- The Suez Canal is the third major source of income for Egypt. * REGIONAL SECURITY: -- The IMB said last week there had been 25 attacks on vessels off Somalia's east coast resulting in seven hijackings this year -- all of them since March 1. That compared with 6 attacks in the same period in 2008 including one hijacking in the Indian Ocean. -- There were there were 293 incidents of piracy against ships worldwide in 2008 -- 11 percent up on the previous year, the IMB said. Attacks off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden increased nearly 200 percent. -- The attacks have brought the anti-terror Combined Task Force 150 into action. The multinational unit, part of Washington's Operation Enduring Freedom, is based in Djibouti and has come to the aid of many ships attacked by pirates. -- Last August, it announced a string of waypoints marking a Maritime Security Patrol Area or safe corridor, which warships will patrol while coalition aircraft fly overhead. -- While there is no formal agreement between the coalition and other navies, they have been communicating with each other and sharing information on patrolling the area. Sources: Reuters/EIA www.eia.gov/BIMCO, Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit, GlobalSecurity/Ministry of Defense/International Maritime Bureau.
Who care of supply of oil? You still don't get that supply doesn't matter in casino-markets
Just wait and see when the launch of the iPhone 7 with a screen that’s 2 pixels larger than the 6 will be delayed because shipping isn’t comming through...
They fly them all.
I believe that most of the oil workers (beyond western contractors) are Shiia. Maybe the Houthi and these guys should get together and have a party - with fireworks perhaps.
You must've went long at $75+ huh? Still beating that drum...and apparently you need $120 oil.
Good luck S.D.
Not really, I’ve bought offshore dril rigs that went down over 80% and they’re now stable at where I bought them.
So this is exactly what I need :)
Second is that they’re all under contract untill 2016 and as the frackers are closed down, they’ll just go on untill 2016 where the oilprice will have recovered. And as they’re way oversold there’s a profit in them never the less. And if oil goes back to 80$, the devidends will bring me 40%.
So it’s worth the risk :)
How are the worker drones dealing with all your purse-tightening?
And how long will it be before you can't make their payroll?
Just curious.
June, but today we made orders to end this month already in the green so I’m optimistic :)
"how long will it be before you can't make their payroll? "
"June, but today we made orders to end this month already in the green so I’m optimistic :)"
Somehow I'm not buying that you are the Playa you are making yourself out to be.
Real Playas don't stay on top by tipping their hand as to when their payrolls will cease to be met.
Too bad I'm so suspicious of you now, I enjoy some of your posts...
Oh, I have no problem about saying that. All my staff is also informed.
And I’m not "a palaya" I’m a worker who is quite honest and open in my communication.
By saying nothing and acting like everything is normal untill you need to fire everyone is just plain stupid and not being a "playas"
Facts, clear communication and no bullshit. And it’s not like I run such a big company. We’re a small team.
Good luck, SD. Rough waters.
fuck, double post. :(
We springed (sprung?) some (Arab?) folks.
There is a govt. in that shithole?
who knew.
"...in that shithole?"
You're from Vegas, right, Dave?
Vice News did a piece on Yemen around 2:00 minutes in they get to a Houthi area. I can't vouch for Vice but it gave me a perspective on what was going on that I wouldn't get from most mainstream media. Houthi are Shi ites and allied with Syria and Hezbollah.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ggen-595Ng
Saudi Arabia and The U.S. are not on the same page. Not anymore. We are no longer protecting them militarily, and their foreign gold holdings were stolen.
I agree that they are not on the same page, but US stuck together with the Sunnis as long as there was a dependency on oil. Which shale oil/gas should diminish, but right now doesn't seem to be obvious. US still protects the Saudis militarily and at the moment US won't accept any disruptions in the supply of oil.
Yemen is not to be trusted.
Anyone remember the ship from DNK that was loaded with hidden SCUD's bound for Yemen?
Defensive weapons my ass.
What really bothered me is the US captain that stopped the ship didn't scuttle the cargo and the ship.
All news is bad news for the oil price now, just like all news was good news for stawks until 2014.
Once upon a time, there was a video game named Call of Duty. the game started in a fictional country in the same area as Yemen on the map. Rebels took over the country and executed "President al-Assad" on live internet feed.
Wife, daughter and writer of controversial FEMA camp movie ‘Gray State’ dead in ‘murder-suicide’
ISIS pouting in the corner. "Why does everyone hate me?"
The Nobel Prize Winner has bombed seven Muslim countries - Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. And they have all become failed states.
His spending over $5 billion destabilizing Ukraine is also paying off - it is a failed state.
Eternal war for an eternal peace.
We created some failed states.
Remember what Gen. Wesley Clark said — seven countries in five years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw
Pretty damned accurate.
@Just Observing
I agree with the concept, although I don't think it matters who is in office. McCain would have done the same. Romney would have done the same. Clinton would have done the same. The western elite are insane, and their insanity has inflamed the normal insanity of the world to dangerous levels. International relations is always dangerous, but there is a spectrum. The current situation is at the "batshit" level of that spectrum. Obama is batshit, but so are any of his "acceptable" replacements. Until the entirety of the current "acceptable" power structure (that includes educational, media, banking and corporate leadership in addition to the obvious political group - including the behind-the-scenes puppet masters) faces revolution, I am not optimistic for real change. And if that revolution does occur, then I am still not optimistic that it's going to be skittles and rainbows... seems there's a lot of pain coming, one way or the other.
/deep pessimism
In DickCheneystan it doesn't matter who gets the presidential limo, the deep state calls all the shots in an inverted democracy.
When the office is corrupt, it makes little difference who occupies it.
The Slate chart claims the relationship between Al Qaeda and Iran/Hezbollah is 'complicated'.
The h*ll it is.
Al Qaeda are wahhabist extremists (Sunni) and Iran/Hezbollah are Shiite. Al Qaeda regard Shias as more evil than the Great and Small Satans.
Agree they are mortal enemies
Hezboolah is not the crazies
Listen/watch speech of Nasrallah for wisdom MSM won't let you see..
Most of the chart should be "its complicated" and then tell if the relation is more or less friendly, with as you say a few obvious friends and enemies.
Load of washington post bullshit anyway, did a quick look into who slate are when I was considering trying to adjust the chart to reflect reality somewhat and got the owning family back to Eugene Isaac Meyer -"He served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1930 to 1933. He also served as the first President of the World Bank Group." and though fuck it
A system with numerous windsocks and farting trumpets would be easier to decipher.
Yemen? WTF? Whose side are we on this time - is this good or bad?
It's good for Iran and bad for Saudi
Yemen produces no significant amount of oil but since the Houthi are Shia, they might refuse to allow Saudi ships through the strait which would make it much more difficult to ship oil to the US and Europe. The majority of their oil is exported from the gulf but there is a port on the Red Sea, Yanbu. However, 6mmbbl/day goes out of Ras Tanbura in the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia is being hemmed in. Sooner or later they are going to change their tune on the oil price game and cut exports.
Hey, great for Canada if Saudi oil gets bottled up by Yemen! Are the Canadians behind this :-)
Saudis are gonna need another great wall soon on the south border.
In the meantime, I'd better stock up on halvah for the lean times to come.
Another circle squared round. Who remembers USS Cole ?
I'm sure those Houthi Shia guys aren't going to link up with the Shias who live in the Saudi oil fields areas, Bahrain are they. Surely not.
Since all we should care about is the Israeli side of things, due to the fact that their interests control our media, they are the regional proxies, instigator and agitator, one needs only watch a film called Lawrence of Arabia. It's free on Amazon Prime right now, no promotion, just nice to have it out there.
The sordid history of this latest epoch can be summed up as thus: "The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts."
Yemeni interests made claim for the Charlie attacks. It rolls onward.
So does that mean we are friends with Iran again?
Christiane Amanpour is the biggest fraud, bitch . Oh! she holds dual citizenship . So pro-semitic .
She's a leftist; not pro-Semitic. Iranian/English heritage and went to Catholic schools. Overrated, surely.
Well, here is the info on James Rubin, her husband. Apparently you are both partially right....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rubin
We got the message, you don't need to rube it in.
I feel a little gypped by your acquiescence.
Anti-semitic then ?
Definitely anti-Coloradan, I don't know about the rest of you stripes.
Saudi Arabia would be the ultimate prize and with Yemen on the border it provides another route in. But I don't expect the Iranians to attack the Saudis directly from Iran. They'll just fund other groups to do that work.
The hardest part about Saudi Arabia is the prospect of ruling it. Better to try and destabilize it, loot its antiquities and make a civil war happen. Like Iraq 2.2
Okay, so is Obama a shiite or sunni? I'm still confused.
So "we" are now working vaguely with Tehran and shiite Baghdad against the sunni Islamic State, droning Al-Qaeda in Yemen, supporting Al Qaeda types in Syria against the Iranian ally Assad in Damascus....I have no idea what "our" current policy in Libya is, we tried to install the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (sunni)....now I figure we have to drone just about everybody in Yemen...
Shiite is a true believer.
Sunni is a convenient believer, like the merchant-class, jeweler or artisan.
When you distill it to this, is it really so hard?
(Obama'd be a Sunni: a lawyer and a usurer.)
No, not hard if I could distill it to that. However, I'd hardly call the Islamic State a group of convenient believers. However, Obama is as you describe.
Okay, you get into a shadow class called the merchant warrior. In the US they might've been called "hessians." The Japanese called them Ronin and others glorified them even more.
ISIL is beset on all sides by mercenaries, order-takers, fillers of prescriptions.
If your son dies of an overdose of Ativan do you blame the doctor or the pharmacist? Or worse, yourself?
OMG!!!! No government!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Been suggesting that for a long time.
Yeah Man!
Who believes anything coming from CNN? They are the most fake.
And I was just thinking of moving to Yemen.
Anyone know anything about the timeshare market in Eritrea?
Shots were fired, rocket grenades were launched, explosions and cries of "Allah Akbar!" were heard. And a good time was had by all.
That's what happens when you are against people's will by setting up your puppets in governments. You can only last a while because people will rise up to claim their rights just like American people.
George Soros and Langley LLC strikes again!
Last coincidence you will ever see from the Anglo-American contingent!...
No Really?!!!... Honest!!!!
America hasn't destabilized a country in months now. At least i assume it was their idea, or money, or arms, or something behind this. When was the last time a real honest coup took place?
Well the one in Gambia for a starters but America spoiled it...I wonder what arm's deal Jammeh had just signed in the US to make it happen...
If a country suddenly gets unstable, has any connection with the production or distribution of oil, and shows up all over the corporate media, I think US is the 'go to'.
Could be just me, though.
According to Hillary and Barack it is the result of a video
The little nice chart should be updated to include Qatar and the Emirates... pretty relevant actors when it comes to financing the various ISIS, Al Qaeda and so on.