The future of western security is being fought out in the mountains and hills surrounding the south-western Yemeni city of Taiz, the country’s former prime minster has said. Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, now an adviser to Yemen’s president, said it would be catastrophic if the city fell to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, since control of the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait in the Red Sea and the road to Aden – the site of the UN-recognised government – would be lost. Appealing for more western help, Saeed said he had no doubt that the Houthis intended to seize control of all of Yemen, and claimed their goal was “to help Iran to expand the chaos”.
Saeed admitted the lack of coordination among government-backed troops, competition between Gulf states and a slowness to appreciate the implications of Yemen acquiring long-range drone technology had contributed to the pressure facing his government, and its chief backer Saudi Arabia. Saeed called on the west to think through the implications of allowing the Houthis to take control of Yemen, arguing the country would never be secure with Houthis on the land. Saeed is not only an adviser to the Yemeni president, Rashad al-Alimi, he was prime minister between 2018 and 2024 and a former negotiator with the Houthis.
He said: “The battle around Taiz is not just a battle for Taiz, but a broader battle that involves the whole of the western world, and one of the most important maritime straits. The Houthis know controlling Taiz is controlling the straits and it’s the highlands before the straits and the coastal city of Mocha and the Gulf of Aden. If Taiz is lost, access to the strait will be lost.
The rest of the country will come later. The Houthi plan is to control the whole of Yemen.” Taiz has become the new frontline in the war between the Houthis and Yemeni government forces after the Houthis launched a military campaign last month to take Yemen’s Red Sea coast, ending four years of relative calm in Yemen after a UN-brokered ceasefire froze the frontlines in 2022. He said existing intelligence showed the Houthis were already seeking to control parts of the south, including the former Soviet camp at al-Sabiha, in the Lahij governorate, and eventually Aden.
Saeed said: “In a matter of days there will be a full siege and they will try to enter the city. They will show some flexibility until they are ready to control. It will be much worse than the siege of 2015.
It will be catastrophic.” He described Taiz as a modern democratic city untied to tribal culture, and predicted the Houthis would try to impose their Zaydi education, financial and tax systems very quickly, but the citizens would continue to resist. We needed more communication between the National Shield Forces, National Resistance Forces and the Giants Brigades. It’s been a wake-up call inside the government and the army because not enough happened between the truce of 2022 and the restart of the fighting this year to reorganise the troops.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
