Alwaght- The Yemeni field developments are growing more complicated and dangerous day by day while the Saudi-led Arab coalition’s military aggression is nearing its second anniversary. In addition to the daily bombardment of the Yemeni cities by the Arab coalition’s fighter jets, the power gain of some terrorist groups inside Yemen is entrenching the violence across the crisis-hit country. The al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as the most active and dangerous affiliate of the global Al-Qaeda terror network, is one of the most powerful terrorist groups in Yemen.
Although initiated its activities from Saudi Arabia, the AQAP has its foundation roots at the time of Soviet force's presence in Afghanistan. This was the time that under some US plans a militant group was organized in Afghanistan with a radical ideology and under the cover of confronting the Soviet Red Army in the country. To reinforce the militant group’s powers, in addition to the local Afghan and Pakistani youths, some Yemeni fighters were brought to Afghanistan to join the newly-established anti-Soviet militant force.
After Soviet forces' withdrawal, the militant organization kept living on, gradually laying the foundations of its “Afghan Arab” militant factions. That is why today a big number of the Taliban militants, including the group’s former leader Osama bin Laden, are originally Yemeni. Al-Qaeda's presence at the present time in Yemen is continuation of the American policy in the West Asia region. Rise of the group in Yemen provides the US with an excuse to justify the US-led Western military deployment to this region.
Meanwhile, the Yemeni political factions' decline to agree on a national unity government that will bring them under a united Yemen, the unilateral policies of the resigned president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, and the war waged by the Riyadh-led Arab coalition even worsened the political and security status of Yemen. This, in turn, allowed al-Qaeda to flex muscles amid tumultuous Yemen conditions.
At the time being, the terrorist group is active in a series of provinces, with the southern provinces like Hadhramaut, Abyan, and Shabwah secured as its strongholds. These provinces are oil-rich, with access to the Arabian Sea, features that make them of great strategic significance for the US and Saudi Arabia.
Over the course of past two years, Ansarullah movement, the army, and the public defense committees have been in control of these provinces. They prevented any influential activity of al-Qaeda there. But an agreement between Ansarullah and the Southern Movement led to handing control of them to the latter. This deal gave the scope for AQAP to boost its presence in the chaos-struck country. So after three years of its removal from south, the terrorist group once again declared existence in Abyan, seizing control of Zinjibar, the province’s capital, as well as Ja’ar, another city there.
More strategic Yemeni regions including Mukallah, a major seaport and capital city of Hadhramaut province, and Al-Dhaba oilfield which accounts for the country’s key oil reserves have also fallen to Al-Qaeda.
On the other side, a Yemen’s intelligence official has told of the new US plan to officially deploy ground forces to Yemen’s south. He added that Saudi Arabia sends arms to Al-Qaeda in Abyan to destabilize this part of the country and pave the way for legitimate US troop deployment.
As was above mentioned, three provinces of Hadhramaut, Shabwah, and Abyan occupy a major place in the American and Saudi regional strategy due to their long coasts along the Arabian Sea.
The Saudis have always been concerned about Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz which is an entrance to the Persian Gulf. So they want to build an oil pipeline that crosses the Yemeni territories in a bid to access the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. This means a less risky access to the Asian energy markets.
The plan suggests that an oil pipeline must reach the Gulf of Aden after passing through Hadhramaut coastal province. If Saudi Arabia manages to fully control the province or help its allies in the country capture it, it will be able to materialize significant parts of the pipeline project. This plan well explains the easiness of al-Qaeda’s power gain in Hadhramaut in past few months.
Al-Qaeda’s activities in these three provinces provide the US with a great opportunity for further intervention in Yemen. Like before, Washington now can dispatch its naval fleets to the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea under the excuse of campaign to strike AQAP militants. At the same, a permanent military base in this vicinity can better safeguard the Israeli regime’s security and simultaneously impact operation capabilities of the Iranian naval groups that have been carrying out regular patrols across the region since past few years.
It is simply for these reasons that the Arab and Western media decline to offer coverage of al-Qaeda actions or speak about the war effects on the terrorist group’s expansion of its base in Yemen.
