In the middle of next month- April delegates from the Houthis of Yemen and representative from the Arab alliance led by Saudi Arabia are to meet in Kuwait for peace talks to end the conflict which started a year ago. The choice of Kuwait as a venue for these talks is not random but rather carefully studied and well-calculated. Kuwait had a successful track-record in bringing about warring factions in Yemen before. In 1979 the then two Yemenis North and Southern Yemen signed a peace agreement to end a long and agonizing war between the two parties. The accord was orchestrated by the then experienced Kuwait foreign minister the now sitting Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah. Unfortunately for the Yemeni people that accord did not halt bloody and costly conflicts in the poorest Arab country. In 1986 in fighting broke out amongst “comrades” of the Yemen Socialist Party in Southern Yemen resulted in assassination of many prominent leaders of party and cadres including its father-founder Abdulfattah Ismail and the defense minister Ali Antar. The president of the South Yemen Ali Nasser Mohammad fled the country and Ali Salem Al Baydh controlled power. In 1990 a treaty of unity of the two Yemen was signed and Ali Abdullah Saleh became president with Al Baydh as his deputy. In 1994 a civil war broke out between the two sides of Yemen as the South opted for secession and Al Baydh fled the country into exile. In 2004 Houthis engaged in war against Ali Abdullah Saleh and arduous and bloody war with the government’s troops of Ali Abdallah Saleh repeatedly broke out. In one of these wars Hussein the brother of the current Houthi’s leader Abdulmalik was Killed. Ironically the two warring factions of 2004 are now allies in the ongoing war against the legitimate government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.

A year after Operation Storm of Resolve the following conclusions suggest themselves: First; the strategic objective of the operation had been achieved. Iran’s interference in Yemen had been curtailed and the creation of a puppet state in the Arabian Peninsula following orders from Tehran had been buried once and for all. Second the legitimate government of Yemen had been reinstated and returned to the country albeit not to the capital Sana’a yet. Third an Arab coalition was created with an Arab resolve led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Islamic alliance followed suit as a result of the Arab Coalition. Raad Al Shamal (North Thunder) was an unprecedented military manoeuvres in the region which span over last February and mid march of this year in the North of Saudi Arabia. Around 150000 soldiers and several military forces of tanks artillery infantry air defense system and naval forces from twenty Islamic countries took part in a huge exercise as a manifestation of a new power formation and resolve in the region.

Talks in Kuwait come mid-April should be decisive in bringing about an end to the conflict in Yemen in light of the UN resolution 2216. Consequently we in the Arabian Gulf must realize that Yemen had become our problem and that we must not leave it prey to civil wars conflicts poverty and Iran.

A Gulf “Marshal” plan is much needed for Yemen for the sake of the people of Yemen and equally important for the well-being and security of the Gulf countries. One hope is that lessons from the war in Yemen have been learned and that the ongoing conflict will be the last in war torn Yemen.