Yemen government near collapse

Business Insider:

Over 120 peoplewere reportedly killedduring fighting in a Middle Eastern capital on Friday, but it wasn’t Baghdad or Damascus. With a Shi’ite rebel movement marching on Sa’ana, Yemen now seems like it’s primed to be the next country in the region to stare down the prospect of violent collapse.

Yemen has always been one of the region’s most problematic states. Home to over 25 million people, it’s one of the poorest countries in the Arab League and has one of the world’s highest number of firearms per capita. It’s home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, widely believed to be the jihadist organisation’s most dangerous franchise. The country’s riven with complex regional, tribal, and sectarian dynamics that push back against any formal centralized authority — particularly in the three years since long-serving dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced from power during the Arab Spring.

But Yemen’s slow-burning crisis might have just entered its acute phase. Houthi rebels, members of a Shi’ite insurgency that fought six wars with the predominantly Sunni government between 2004 and 2010, are now marching on Sa’ana, Yemen’s ancient capital city.

The Houthis’ rebellion began as a local phenomenon, an uprising among a religious minority on the country’s distant geographical and social fringes, and aimed more at protecting local and traditional authority than at overthrowing the government in Sa’ana.

But within Yemen’s vacuum — a potential powder keg that involves a major Al Qaeda affiliate and a populous and strategically located country that sits along a major oil corridor — the Houthis built themselves into a force with several tens of thousands of fightersreportedly at the ready. After Saleh’s resignation, the group continued fighting the government, and actually pushed its front-line closer to the capital.
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This is part of a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia.  As the situation continues to spin out of control I would not expect any stability anytime soon.  I don't think the Saudis will accept an Iran enclave on their southern flank.