Saudi Arabia’s King Salman wasn’t at this week’s Camp David summit with other leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, but that didn’t stop President Barack Obama from promising to “streamline and expedite” the delivery of weapons to the kingdom — even those being used in Yemen.
Sana’a resident Hisham al-Omeisy live-tweeted the television address of the rebel leader whose forces have taken control of Yemen’s capital. He says Western media are overreacting, and that for many Yemenis the Houthi takeover is more business as usual than a big event.
A protest in Sana’a led by a northern Yemeni tribe, the Houthis, became a military assault on the capital over the weekend. Now a UN-brokered peace deal will allow the Houthis into power and end the fighting, but the situation remains complex with sectarian and tribal disputes still simmering.
The Houthi insurgency may be low on the radar of American worries in Yemen, the but the Shiite group is now in the streets of the capital and fighting government forces. And that battle could hand an opportunity to the group Western nations are focused on: al-Qaeda.