SANAA // Yemen is “collapsing before our eyes” and the international community cannot stand by and watch, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon warned on Thursday.
The country has slipped further into chaos as the Houthis, an Iranian-backed Shiite militia from the north, consolidate their grip on power after seizing the capital in September and sidelining the central government.
The fighters have been advancing into southern territories, confronting Sunni tribesmen and the local branch of Al Qaeda.
“We must do everything possible to help Yemen step back from the brink and get the political process back on track,” Mr Ban told the UN Security Council.
His comments came as Al Qaeda-affiliated fighters seized an army base in southern Yemen and held soldiers prisoner on Thursday. The United States, Britain, and France on Wednesday closed their embassies in Sanaa because of security concerns.
UN special envoy for Yemen Jamal Benomar told the council by video link from Sanaa that Yemen was at a crossroads.
“Either the country will descend into civil war and disintegration, or the country will find a way to put the transition back on track,” Mr Benomar said.
The envoy has been leading UN efforts to broker a deal that would push the Houthis to step back from their power grab and restore some measure of stability in the country.
He warned that if no political settlement is secured in the coming days the Yemeni currency may collapse.
“Serious concerns exist that the government may be unable to pay salaries in the next two to three months,” he said.
Concern that Yemen is sliding towards a greater conflict has increased in recent weeks, with Saudi Arabia arming loyal tribesmen across its southern border and Egypt readying a military unit to intervene if needed.
In January, the rebels put president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi and his cabinet ministers under house arrest, leading to their resignations. The Houthis, who are followers of the Shiite Zaydi sect in Sunni-majority Yemen, then dissolved parliament, and declared they were taking over the government.
The militia said on Thursday that the closures of the Western diplomatic missions were “unjustified” and promised to return US embassy vehicles it had seized.
The turmoil in Yemen is now has resonating far outside the country’s borders.
As Houthi fighters advanced, Yemeni officials said Saudi Arabia, a staunch US ally, was sending arms and funds to tribesmen in Yemen’s Marib province to bolster them against the rebels.
Saudi Arabia has in recent months repeatedly stated its concern over the Houthis’ power grab.
Marib is an exclusively Sunni, energy-rich region on the border with Saudi Arabia where tribes have long been close to the Saudis. It is also home to a sizeable number of Al Qaeda militants.
Marib’s tribal leaders, like many others in Yemen, have been on the receiving end of Saudi largesse for decades, and some of them hold Saudi Arabian citizenship.
“Marib is the heart of Sunni tribal power,” said Majid Al Modhaj, a Yemeni analyst. “Fighting there will take the Houthis away from their comfort zone in mountainous areas and into plain and flat desert land they are not used to.”
Egypt has set up a special rapid deployment force that could intervene if the Houthis threaten shipping lanes in the Red Sea, according to Egyptian security officials. The force, they said, is drawn from the 3rd Army, which has been running security and intelligence operations in the Red Sea from its headquarters in Suez.
The Egyptians and Saudis were coordinating a joint military response to deal with any eventuality in Yemen, including the disruption of shipping, the officials said.
“Yemen is like the moon to Egypt, but it is important because of Cairo’s close ties with Saudi Arabia, to whom Yemen is a priority issue,” said Michael W Hanna, a Middle East expert from the New York-based Century Foundation.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia have forged close military ties since Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi took office in June, with frequent joint war games, including naval exercises in the Red Sea. Thousands of Egyptian special forces are embedded with their Saudi counterparts on the kingdom’s border with Iraq as a precaution against ISIL militants, according to the officials.
The region’s two most powerful Sunni nations, Saudi Arabia and Egypt view the rise of the Houthis with alarm, seeing it as a new geopolitical triumph for Iran after the country consolidated its influence in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
The Houthis deny links to Iran, and it has been difficult to determine with any accuracy Tehran’s role in the latest events.
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani made it clear on Wednesday that Iran looks approvingly at events in Yemen.
“The power that assisted the people of Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen against terrorist groups was the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Mr Rouhani told a large crowd in Tehran.
The chief of staff of Iran’s military, Gen Hassan Firouzabadi, said Sanaa was now “one of the safest places in the region” after the Houthi takeover.
*Associated Press and Reuters