The United Arab Emirates, a member of the Saudi coalition against Yemen, wants to create a new state that will allow it to control the Yemen region of Aden. At the time we are writing this article in French (16 Feb 2018), the strategic port of Aden is being exploited by the company Dubai Ports World.

The plan to divide Yemen into a Yemenite faction supported by Saudi Arabia and a Yemenite faction which would be pro-Iranian, could lead to re-establishing peace. However, it would also cement the failure of Yemen’s President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Today President Hadi is a refugee in Saudi Arabia. It would also challenge the plan conceived by Israel and Saudi to exploit the energy resources in the desert of Rub al-Khali and the authority of the Crown Prince Mohamed Ben Salman.

To support the division of Yemen, the United Arab Emirates is actually crossing over to Saudi Arabia’s camp in the confrontation between Riyadh and Teheran that is today unfolding in Yemen.

The new state of Yemen would be created on the territory of what was formerly South Yemen – the pro-Soviet People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (1967-1990), subsequently converted into the Democratic Republic of Yemen before the reunification of Yemen.

For its part, Saudi Arabia would re-establish the former Arab Republic of Yemen – also known as North Yemen (1962-1990) before the reunification.

However, alliances dating back to the Cold War, have been rocked at the foundations not for political reasons but for tribal ones. In recent years a number of former Marxists have joined Al-Qaeda while those who before supported the West have shifted to Iran’s side.