Стр. 5 - V

Author : S. Serebrov
senior research associate, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Science, Candidate of Science
(Economics)
IN JUNE 2015, which marked the third month of the war in
Yemen, the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the
situation in this country as a "ticking time bomb" and called on
all parties involved to take prompt action as quickly as possible
to halt the killings, of which over 50 per cent were civilians. He
referred to the military intervention of the Saudi coalition in
Yemen. This regional conflict can hardly be called a civil war, be-
cause a multitude of foreign actors are involved in it, all of them
having interests of their own, which often contradict each other.
The United Nations and governments of many leading countries
have long condemned a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, which has negatively influenced
the image of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and its strategic partners on the international
arena.
The war has brought into sharp focus the fact that none of the goals officially declared by the
supporters of the international military intervention in Yemen can ever be achieved by the means
employed by the coalition forces. There is nobody left in the entire world who would not ac-
knowledge a need to transfer to political settlement of the conflict, including the official spokes-
men of the KSA itself. However, in defiance of common sense, this fact does not in any way
affect the military course which is leading from one catastrophe to another.
Many European and American policy-makers, as well as members of the European Parliament,
have already realized that the only way to normalize the situation in Yemen is to resume political
dialog.
Yemen's blockade has turned into a double-edged instrument designed to impact the political
situation in the country. The humanitarian disaster was supposed to provoke the outbursts of
popular discontent with the Yemeni alliance, which had refused to accept the conditions of
Riyadh, essentially boiling down to a demand to surrender, as was provided for by Resolution
2216 by the UN Security Council.
IN THE PAST 19 MONTHS, the Yemen crisis has become a large-scale humanitarian catastro-
phe and a genuine political disaster for the Yemeni people. Instead of the assistance promised
by the neighboring kingdom in solving the country's problems, it has lost in the first year of war
over 30% of its GDP; in 2016, the economic slump may amount to another 40%. Over 82% of
the Yemeni citizens are badly in need of humanitarian aid, while 7 to 14 million people starve,
suffer from a deficit of clean water and a lack of medical aid. Children, constituting around 50%
of the Yemeni population, have been affected worst of all.
The main reason underlying the crisis is not a civil war, but a foreign military intervention. The
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The Yemen Crisis: A Ticking Time Bomb?