A separatist group in southern Yemen said Wednesday (January 7, 2026) that it was urgently trying to contact a delegation that travelled to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, for talks on de-escalating tensions between rival forces on the ground.

Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council said a 50-member delegation arrived in Riyadh in the morning. One of its members posted a message on X, but then the delegation went silent, their phones switched off and their whereabouts unknown.

The announcement came after a Saudi-backed council — the Presidential Leadership Council, or PLC, which is fighting against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels — said that it had expelled the leader of the separatist movement from the council and charged him with treason after he reportedly declined to travel to Saudi Arabia for the talks.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia also launched new airstrikes against the southern Yemen separatists, who have recently received arms from UAE.

“We went to Riyadh to talk. What we received was bombing,” said Amr al-Bidh, an STC representative who briefed international media on Wednesday (January 7) afternoon. “This is unjustified and unfortunate.”

The Saudi foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to request for comments.

A coalition that has been unravelling

In recent years Saudi Arabia and the UAE and their allies on the ground in Yemen have all been part of a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis, who control the north in the country’s decade-long civil war.

The coalition’s professed goal has long been to restore the internationally recognised government, which was driven out of the north by the Houthis. But tensions between the factions and the two Gulf nations have grown, threatening to throw them into outright conflict and further tear apart the Arab world’s poorest country.

The Southern Transitional Council seeks the restoration of the pre-1990 southern state in Yemen — something that Saudi Arabia sees as a violation of its own national interest.

The crisis escalated in December, when separatists seized control of two southern governorates from Saudi-backed forces and took over the Presidential Palace in the south’s main city, Aden. Members of the internationally recognised government — which had been based in Aden — fled to the Saudi-capital Riyadh.

Saudi forces then carried out airstrikes on the port city of Mukalla, saying they were aiming at weapons and military equipment that had been delivered from UAE to the separatist group. Last week, the separatists announced a constitution for an independent nation in the south and demanded other factions in the war-torn country accept the move.

The separatist leader refused a Saudi summons

The Presidential Leadership Council, or PLC, headed by Rashad al-Alimi, accused the Southern Transitional Council head Aidarous al-Zubaidi in a Facebook statement of “damaging the republic’s military, political and economic standing,” as well as “forming an armed gang and committing the murder of officers and soldiers of the armed forces.”

Maj. Gen., Turki al-Malki, a spokesperson for a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, said Wednesday (January 7) that al-Zubaidi had been due to take a flight to Saudi Arabia with other council officials but did not join them.

“The legitimate government and the coalition received intelligence indicating that al-Zubaidi had moved a large force — including armoured vehicles, combat vehicles, heavy and light weapons, and ammunition,” al-Malki said. Al-Zubaidi, he said, “fled to an unknown location.”

Al-Bidh said al-Zubaidi, remained in Aden, the interim capital where the internationally recognised government is based, in order to carry out his duties, and because an environment conducive to dialogue doesn’t exist now. He said the message his group received from the Saudis was: “either you come or we’ll bomb you.”

Saudis launch new airstrikes

More than 15 Saudi airstrikes overnight hit the al-Dhale governorate, where al-Zubaidi’s village is located, targeting STC camps, according to STC leader Salah bin Laghir.

There were two civilians dead and 14 injured, according to al-Bidh.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that they saw armoured vehicles affiliated with the STC leaving Aden overnight heading to al-Dahle, as well as drones in the sky and flames rising as explosions shook neighbourhoods in al-Dahle and its surrounding areas.

The STC said it condemned “these unjustified airstrikes.”

The anti-Houthi leadership group, the PLC, formed in April 2022 after President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi of Yemen’s internationally recognised government stepped down.

Its members have often pursued competing agendas and relied on different foreign backers, leaving the council fragmented and unable to mount a unified campaign against the Houthis — even when the United States and Israel launched bombing campaigns targeting the rebels.

The war’s death toll keeps growing

On Sunday (January 4), Saudi-backed forces spread across Mukalla, retaking the capital of Hadramout governorate following days of Saudi airstrikes.

Saudi Arabia in recent weeks has bombed STC positions and struck what is said was a shipment of Emirati weapons. After Saudi pressure and an ultimatum from anti-Houthi forces to withdraw from Yemen, the UAE said Saturday (January 3) it had withdrawn its forces.

Yemen, on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula off East Africa, borders the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The war there has killed more than 1,50,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

Al-Bidh said Wednesday (January 7) that around 80 people affiliated with the STC were killed since the Council’s operations began in December, with most dying in Saudi bombings.

Published – January 08, 2026 12:35 am IST

Saudi-backed troops on Saturday (January 3, 2026) made advances in Yemen’s resource-rich Hadramawt province, military officials said, as confrontations between forces backed by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi deepened a rift between the two Gulf allies.

The Saudis and Emiratis have for years supported rival factions in Yemen’s fractious government. But a recent offensive by the UAE-backed secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC) to capture Hadramawt angered Riyadh and left the oil-rich regional powers on a collision course.

In a statement, the military of the Saudi-aligned government announced that “all military and civilian facilities” in Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province, had “been secured” by Riyadh-backed forces.

Earlier two government military officials told AFP they had taken control of Mukalla’s principal military base.

The Saudi-led coalition has launched repeated warnings and air strikes over the past week, including one on an alleged Emirati arms shipment to the STC.

On Friday (January 2, 2026), a strike on the Al-Khasha military camp in Hadramawt left 20 dead, according to the separatist group.

On Saturday (January 3, 2026), a military official with the STC told AFP Saudi warplanes had carried out “intense” air strikes on another of the group’s camps at Barshid, west of Mukalla.

The official said the strike had resulted in fatalities, without giving a number of those killed.

Footage aired by the Aden Independent Channel showed the moment one strike hit the STC forces, igniting a massive orange fireball and sending a plume of black smoke into the sky.

‘Retreat of forces’

According to an AFP journalist, gunfire could be heard in Mukalla early Saturday. While residents described a security breakdown there accompanied by looting, Saudi-backed forces appeared to advance with little resistance.

Hani Yousef, a Mukalla resident, said he “saw retreating forces using their military vehicles to transport motorbikes and household items, including refrigerators and washing machines”.

In the province’s city of Seiyun, 160 kilometres (100 miles) northwest of Mukalla, a government military official said pro-Saudi forces had taken control of the airport, targeted in Friday’s strikes, as well as administrative buildings.

“We are working to secure them,” the military official said.

The STC military official said, “There has been a retreat of our forces and we are resisting the attacking forces in Seiyun.”

“We carried out a complete withdrawal from the areas of Al-Khasha… as a result of pressure from Saudi air strikes on us,” he added.

Residents in Seiyun also said they heard gunfire and clashes.

Call for dialogue

Saudi Arabia on Saturday (January 3, 2026) called for dialogue between factions in southern Yemen.

In a statement posted to social media, the Saudi Foreign Ministry called for “a comprehensive conference in Riyadh to bring together all southern factions to discuss just solutions to the southern cause”.

Riyadh said the Yemeni government had issued the invitation for talks.

Also on Saturday, the UAE urged Yemenis to “halt escalation and resolve differences through dialogue”.

The STC is now pushing to declare independence and form a breakaway state, which would split the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest state in two.

On Friday the separatists announced the start of a two-year transitional period towards declaring an independent state and said the process would include dialogue and a referendum on independence.

STC president Aidaros Alzubidi said the transitional phase would include dialogue with Yemen’s north — controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels — and a referendum on independence.

But he warned that the group would declare independence “immediately” if there was no dialogue or if southern Yemen was attacked again.

The Saudi-backed coalition was formed in 2015 in an attempt to dislodge the Houthi rebels from Yemen’s north.

But after a brutal, decade-long civil war, the Houthis remain in place while the Saudi and Emirati-backed factions attack each other in the south.

Published – January 03, 2026 08:58 pm IST

Yemen’s UAE-backed separatists announced a two-year transition to independence Friday (January 2, 2026)despite reporting 20 deaths in airstrikes from a Saudi-led coalition trying to roll back their weeks-long offensive across the country’s south.

A separatist military official and medical sources reported 20 fighters dead in air raids on two military bases as the coalition also targeted an airport and other sites.

The bombardment and surprise independence bid follow weeks of tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over the separatist Southern Transitional Council’s (STC) land-grab.

Yemen, which was divided into North and South from 1967 to 1990, could again be split in two years if the STC’s independence plan comes to fruition. It would call the new country “South Arabia”.

STC president Aidaros Alzubidi said the transitional phase would include dialogue with Yemen’s north — controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels — and a referendum on independence.

But he warned the group would declare independence “immediately” if there was no dialogue or if southern Yemen was attacked again.

“The Council calls on the international community to sponsor dialogue between the concerned parties in the South and the North,” Alzubidi said in a televised address.

“This constitutional declaration shall be considered immediately and directly effective before that date (January 2, 2028) if the call is not heeded or if the people of the South, their land, or their forces are subjected to any military attacks,” he added.

STC forces took much of resource-rich Hadramawt, bordering Saudi Arabia, and neighbouring Mahra province on the Omani frontier, in a largely unopposed advance last month.

The Saudis and Emiratis have for years supported rival factions in Yemen’s fractured government territories. But the STC’s offensive angered Riyadh and left the oil-rich Gulf powers at loggerheads.

‘Existential’ war

Following repeated warnings and airstrikes on an alleged UAE weapons shipment this week, the Saudi-led coalition launched a wave of attacks on Friday.

Mohammed Abdulmalik, head of the STC in Wadi Hadramaut and Hadramaut Desert, said seven air strikes hit the Al-Khasha military camp.

Further strikes targeted other sites in the region and the airport and military base in Seiyun, STC military sources and eyewitnesses told AFP.

Reyad Khames, a resident of a village near Al-Khasha, said: “Saudi planes are chasing STC fighters. We don’t know what type of aircraft they are — we just see flashes and explosions hitting checkpoints, clearing the way for the (Saudi-backed) forces to advance.”

Friday’s deaths are the first from coalition fire since the STC’s campaign began.

The separatists’ military spokesman said it was in an “existential” war with Saudi-supported forces, characterising it as a fight against radical Islamism — a longtime preoccupation of the UAE.

The air raids came shortly after pro-Saudi forces launched a campaign to “peacefully” take control of military sites in Hadramawt.

“This operation is not a declaration of war, nor an attempt to escalate tensions,” Hadramawt governor Salem Al-Khanbashi, also leader of the province’s Saudi-backed forces, was quoted as saying by the Saba Net news agency.

Saudi sources confirmed the strikes were carried out by the Saudi-led coalition, which nominally includes the UAE and was formed in 2015 in a vain attempt to dislodge the Houthi rebels in Yemen’s north.

A source close to the Saudi military warned the strikes “will not stop until the Southern Transitional Council withdraws from the two governorates”.

Rival factions

The wealthy Gulf states formed the backbone of the military coalition aimed at ousting the Houthis, who forced the government from the capital Sanaa in 2014 and seized areas including most of Yemen’s population.

But after a brutal, decade-long civil war, the Houthis remain in place and the Saudis and Emiratis are backing different factions in the government-held territories.

Yemen’s Aden-based government comprises a fractious coalition of groups including the STC, united by their opposition to the Houthis.

The UAE, which withdrew most of its troops from Yemen in 2019, pledged to pull out the remainder after Tuesday’s coalition airstrikes on an alleged weapons shipment at Mukalla port, despite denying it contained arms.

On Friday, a UAE government official confirmed all troops had left, adding that Abu Dhabi “remains committed to dialogue, de-escalation, and internationally supported processes as the only sustainable path to peace”.

Published – January 03, 2026 05:09 am IST

Thiruvananthapuram:

Even as hectic diplomatic efforts are continuing to save Nimisha Priya, who is in jail in Yemen and sentenced to death, her husband was hoping for relief and his wife returning home. Tomy Thomas and their daughter expect that they will be able to prevail upon the family of Talal Abdo Mahdi to resolve the case by paying the blood money.

“Numerous people are working to resolve this issue and we all are hoping that we will be able to connect with the family of Mahdi who has to pardon Nimisha. Our daughter at times connects with her mother, but she is missing a mother’s attention and love,” said Thomas who returned home years ago from Yemen and was planning to go back when the case surfaced.

The urgency of the situation escalated after Yemen’s President Rashad al-Alimi approved Nimisha Priya’s death sentence earlier this month. Reports suggest the execution could occur within a month, leaving her family and supporters scrambling for a resolution.

Nimisha Priya, originally from Kollengode in Kerala’s Palakkad district, moved to Yemen in 2008 to support her daily wage-earning parents. After working in various hospitals, she opened her own clinic. However, in 2017, a dispute with her Yemeni business partner, Mahdi, reportedly took a tragic turn.

Family accounts claim Nimisha injected Mahdi with sedatives to retrieve her confiscated passport. Unfortunately, an overdose led to his death. Nimisha was arrested while attempting to leave the country and was convicted of murder in 2018.

In 2020, a trial court in Sanaa sentenced her to death. The verdict was upheld by Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023, but it left open the possibility of avoiding execution through the payment of blood money.

The case has drawn widespread attention and raised concerns over the fate of Indian nationals abroad as the family and supporters continue their efforts to save Nimisha Priya from the death penalty.

The mother of Nimisha Priya, Prema Kumari, 57, has been tirelessly campaigning to secure a waiver of the death penalty.

Earlier this year, she travelled to Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, to negotiate the payment of ‘diya (blood money)’ to the victim’s family. Her efforts have been supported by the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, a group of NRI social workers based in Yemen.

Prema Kumari, appearing on Malayalam television from Yemen, tearfully urged for urgent intervention.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi:

The mother of Nimisha Priya, a Kerala nurse sentenced to death in Yemen for the murder of a Yemeni national, has made an impassioned appeal for assistance to save her daughter’s life.

Nimisha’s mother, Prema Kumari, 57, has been tirelessly campaigning to secure a waiver of the death penalty.

Earlier this year, she traveled to Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, to negotiate the payment of diya (blood money) to the victim’s family. Her efforts have been supported by the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, a group of NRI social workers based in Yemen.

On Tuesday, Prema Kumari, appearing on Malayalam television from Yemen, tearfully urged for urgent intervention.

“I am deeply grateful to the Indian and Kerala governments, as well as the committee formed to save her, for all the support provided so far. But this is my final plea — please help us save her life. Time is running out,” she said, folding her hands as tears streamed down her face.

Earlier in the day, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal issued a statement acknowledging the case. “We are aware of the sentencing of Nimisha Priya in Yemen. The family is exploring relevant options, and the government is extending all possible help in the matter,” he said.

The urgency of the situation escalated after Yemen’s President Rashad al-Alimi approved Nimisha Priya’s death sentence earlier this month. Reports suggest the execution could occur within a month, leaving her family and supporters scrambling for a resolution.

Nimisha Priya, originally from Kollengode in Kerala’s Palakkad district, moved to Yemen in 2008 to support her daily wage-earning parents. After working in various hospitals, she opened her own clinic. However, in 2017, a dispute with her Yemeni business partner, Talal Abdo Mahdi, reportedly took a tragic turn.

Family accounts claim Nimisha injected Mahdi with sedatives to retrieve her confiscated passport. Unfortunately, an overdose led to his death. Nimisha was arrested while attempting to leave the country and was convicted of murder in 2018.

In 2020, a trial court in Sanaa sentenced her to death. The verdict was upheld by Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023, but it left open the possibility of avoiding execution through the payment of blood money.

The case has drawn widespread attention and raised concerns over the fate of Indian nationals abroad as the family and supporters continue their efforts to save Nimisha Priya from the death penalty.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Zurich:

The head of the World Health Organization said on Friday he was not sure he was going to survive an air strike on Yemen’s main airport carried out by Israel a day earlier during a series of attacks on the Iran-aligned Houthi movement.

Speaking after his ordeal at the Sanaa International Airport on Thursday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the explosions that rocked the building were so deafening that his ears were still ringing more than a day later.

Tedros said it quickly became apparent the airport was under attack, describing people “running in disarray” through the site after approximately four blasts, one of them “alarmingly” close to where he was sitting near the departure lounge.

“I was not sure actually I could survive because it was so close, a few meters from where we were,” he told Reuters. “A slight deviation could have resulted in a direct hit.”

Tedros said he and his colleagues were stuck at the airport for the next hour or so as what he thought were drones flew overhead, feeding concern they could open fire again. Among the debris, he and colleagues saw missile fragments, he said.

“There (was) no shelter at all. Nothing. So you’re just exposed, just waiting for anything to happen,” he said.

The Israeli strikes on Yemen came after Houthis repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said afterwards that Israel was “just getting started” with the Houthis.

The Houthi-controlled Saba News Agency said three people died in the strikes on the airport and three were killed in Hodeidah, with 40 others wounded in the attacks.

Speaking by telephone from Jordan, where he flew on Friday, helping to evacuate a U.N. colleague seriously injured at the airport for further medical treatment, Tedros said he had received no warning Israel could be about to strike the airport.

The injured man, who worked for the UN Humanitarian Air Service, was now “OK” and in a stable condition, he said.

Tedros traveled to Yemen over Christmas to try to negotiate the release of UN staff and others held there. He acknowledged that he and colleagues knew the trip was risky in light of high tension between Israel and the Houthis.

But such was the window of opportunity to work for the release of the UN personnel that they believed they had to take it, said Tedros, a former Ethiopian foreign minister.

He said talks with Yemeni authorities had gone well and that he saw a chance that the 16 UN staff as well as employees of diplomatic missions and NGO workers held there could be freed.

He declined to engage in recriminations over the attack but said his itinerary had been shared publicly and expressed surprise that civilian infrastructure should have been targeted.

“So a civilian airport should be protected, whether I am in it or not,” he said, before observing there was “nothing special” about what he had faced in Yemen. “One of my colleagues said we narrowly escaped death. I’m just one human being. So I feel for those who are facing the same thing every single day. But at least it allowed me to feel the way they feel.”

“I’m worried about our world, where it’s heading,” Tedros added, urging world leaders to work together to end global conflicts. “I have never … as far as I can remember, seen the world really being in such a very dangerous state.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

According to Houthi rebels, an air strike hit Yemen’s capital on Friday.

Sanaa:

Yemen’s Huthi rebels said Wednesday that they had fired a ballistic missile and two drones at Israel, days after an attack on Tel Aviv wounded 16 people.

Israel’s military said it intercepted the missile and that one drone “fell in an open area” after sirens sounded in the country’s south, near the Gaza Strip.

“The UAV (drone) force of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out two military operations” targeting Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv and the southern city of Ashkelon, a Huthi military statement said.

The missile was also aimed at the Tel Aviv area, the Huthis announced earlier. The Israelis said it was shot down before it entered Israeli territory.

A Huthi military statement said the attack was carried out “using a hypersonic ballistic missile, type Palestine 2”.

The Iran-backed Huthis have repeatedly launched missiles at Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians since the war in Gaza erupted more than a year ago.

Most have been intercepted, but on Saturday an attack that hit Tel Aviv wounded 16 people, prompting a warning from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We will act against the Huthis… with force, determination and sophistication,” he said in a video statement on Sunday.

In the missile attack on Wednesday, air raid sirens sounded over a wide swathe of central Israel as a precaution against falling debris.

“A missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory,” the military said in a statement.

No injuries were reported, according to Israel’s emergency medical services.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army said it had intercepted a projectile fired from Yemen.

In July, a Huthi drone attack on Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting retaliatory strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

The Huthis have also regularly targeted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, leading to retaliatory strikes by US and sometimes British forces.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Few could have foreseen Bashar al-Assad’s dramatic ouster as 2024 drew to a close. For years, Syria’s battle lines had been frozen under a fragile ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey in 2020. Yet, Assad’s downfall—after his family’s iron grip over Syria for over five decades—has shaken the region to its core. Lina Khatib of London-based think tank, Chatham House, writing in Foreign Policy, likened it to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, calling it “an earthquake in the regional order”.

The reasons for Assad’s collapse are as much about Syria as they are about its ophthalmologist ex-president’s patrons—Russia, bogged down in Ukraine, had neither the resources nor the resolve to back Assad, and Iran’s proxies across the region were severely weakened by Israeli air strikes. Sensing the moment, rebel forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group with roots in Al-Qaeda, mounted a ferocious offensive. Assad’s army, battered by years of corruption, desertions and low morale, folded in the face of the HTS’s blitz. Predictably, Western powers have swooped in to shape Syria’s political future and are now vying to influence the makeup of the next government.

From the relative calm of India or from the peaceful Western European capitals, it’s tempting to ask: why is the Arab world perpetually at war with itself? Why does it spawn so many extremist groups? Why has it been trapped in cycles of violence and instability for decades? To answer these questions, we must look beyond the modern era, all the way back to the 11th century. But for now, let’s stay within the last century to understand how history has shaped the region’s current turmoil.

The Lawrence Syndrome

Years ago, I watched Lawrence of Arabia, a sweeping tale of West Asia’s chaos around the years 1916-17. Hollywood, as we know, isn’t big on sequels. But looking at the current mess in the region, I would certainly say, no, shout, that it’s high time for a sequel to Lawrence of Arabia.

The iconic 1962 film serves as a powerful metaphor for the ongoing struggles in West Asia. The themes of betrayal, tribalism and Western manipulation in the film echo the realities of modern conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya. Set during World War I, the film offers a stark window into the forces that set the stage for the region’s instability. The movie depicts T.E. Lawrence, played by Peter O’Toole, as a British officer cobbling together a front consisting of diverse groups of Arab tribes to fight against the Ottoman Empire, which had governed much of the Arab world for centuries. The British officer on behalf of his government promised the Arabs full independence in return for their support.

However, as history shows, that promise was nothing more than deception. After the war, the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement, signed between Britain and France, carved the region into British and French colonial spheres of influence, betraying the Arabs and ignoring their aspirations for self-determination. This betrayal was not just a diplomatic slight—it planted the seeds of mistrust that continue to shape Arab-Western relations to this day.

The arbitrary borders drawn by colonial powers, with no regard for the region’s ethnic, tribal or religious complexities, created fragile states that were prone to fracture. Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen are glaring examples of this legacy: nations artificially built by outsiders, now disintegrating as factions fight for power in structures never designed to hold.

Fragile Tribal Alliances

Memorable but controversial views about the Arabs uttered in Lawrence of Arabia are believed by many in the West even today: “So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people—greedy, barbarous, and cruel, as you are.” In the film, Lawrence struggles to unite the disparate Arab tribes against the Ottomans. This reflects the tribalism and factionalism that continue to plague the region. In Libya, for instance, the fall of Muammar Gaddafi exposed deep tribal rivalries, leading to a prolonged civil war. Similarly, in Yemen, the conflict is partly driven by tribal and sectarian divisions, exacerbated by foreign intervention.

It’s All About Oil

“There is nothing in the desert, and no man needs nothing,” said Lawrence in the film. But things dramatically changed in the region with the discovery of vast oil reserves. From “nothing”, the region’s desert became resource-rich. Oil turned deserts into global battlegrounds, amplifying foreign intervention. Another Hollywood movie, Syriana, depicts how mega Western energy companies played kingmakers in the region. Greed led to corruption and manipulation. In our times, the US and its allies have often supported local leaders or factions in ways that serve their strategic interests, only to abandon them later. For instance, the US first supported Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War, but later overthrew him in 2003. In Syria, Western powers have backed various rebel groups, some of which later turned into destabilising forces.

Oil, the region’s most valuable resource, has been both a blessing and a curse. Oil drew intense interest from Western powers, who sought to control these resources to fuel their economies. The oil-rich Gulf states, while benefiting economically, became heavily reliant on Western security guarantees, leaving them vulnerable to foreign influence. The 1953 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-led coup in Iran, which overthrew Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh after he nationalised the oil industry, is a case in point. Similarly, the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, justified on dubious grounds, dismantled state institutions and unleashed a wave of sectarian violence that continues to plague the country.

Israel and Modern Wars

The Balfour Declaration of 1917, in which Britain supported the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, added to the tensions. This commitment conflicted with promises made to Arab leaders by the colonial powers, which had assured support for an independent Arab state in exchange for their rebellion against the Ottomans. The betrayal left deep scars, fuelling resentment that persists to this day. The establishment of Israel following the Holocaust and the UN partition plan displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, leading to the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Subsequent wars (1956, 1967, 1973), the Palestinian refugee crisis and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian tensions continue to define the region’s volatility. For many Arab nations, Israel became a symbol of Western-backed injustice and territorial loss.

The Death Of Pan-Arabism

Despite turmoil and crises, or perhaps because of them, Pan-Arabism emerged as a movement to unite the warring Arab world under a shared identity, overcoming tribal and sectarian divisions. Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser was the movement’s most towering figure. Unfortunately for ordinary Arab people, internal rivalries, ideological differences and external meddling stymied the movement.

The United States and its allies, wary of the socialist underpinnings of Pan-Arabism, actively worked to undermine it. For instance, the CIA was reportedly involved in orchestrating coups and supporting conservative monarchies to counter Nasser’s influence. By the 1970s, Pan-Arabism had largely faded, replaced by fragmented nationalisms and chaos.

Hope, Then Disillusionment

The 2011 Arab Spring uprisings briefly raised hopes for democratic change. However, the movements’ outcomes varied widely, with some states descending into chaos. In Syria, peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad devolved into a brutal civil war, drawing in regional and international players. The US, Russia, Iran, Turkey and others have all backed different factions, turning Syria into a proxy battlefield. Libya, too, saw its long-time leader Gaddafi overthrown with NATO’s help, only to descend into a protracted conflict among rival factions. Meanwhile, countries like Egypt saw a return to authoritarianism, dashing hopes for meaningful reform.

Echoes Of The Crusades

The Crusades, launched between the 11th and 13th centuries, were actually military campaigns by European Christian powers to reclaim Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim control. Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, commonly known in the West as Saladin, defeated the Christian army of crusaders at the Battle of Hattin in 1187, which led to the recapture of Jerusalem. Ironically, Saladin hailed from a Kurdish family (non-Arabs in West Asia) but became a hero of the Arabs after the victory. The first sultan of both Egypt and Syria is today hero-worshipped in Muslim societies, particularly in the Arab world, for inflicting a crushing defeat on the European forces. He remains a celebrated figure of resistance, unity, and Islamic valour. His victory symbolises an ability to push back against Western incursions—a legacy still invoked today in discussions of imperialism, foreign intervention and the need for regional unity. Today, Islamist movements and Arab nationalists have, at times, likened Western intervention in the Middle East—such as the US-led invasion of Iraq or European colonial rule—to a “new crusade”, a continuation of Western aggression under different banners.

West Asia is in chaos. Visiting Libya, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq is considered unsafe. It remains a patchwork of conflict zones, authoritarian regimes and fragile states. Over six million Syrians are refugees living in neighbouring countries, and over seven million are internally displaced. Yemen’s civil war, orchestrated by Saudi-Iran rivalry, has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. On top of the crises in Iraq and Syria, their people have to grapple with the threat of ISIS. Lebanon’s economy is in free fall, exacerbating social and political tensions. Even Israel’s economy has ground to a halt due to relentless wars in the last 14 months.

The US and its Western allies remain deeply involved in the region, whether through military presence, arms sales, supporting one extremist organisation or another, or through diplomatic manoeuvres. Unfortunately apart from Turkey, no other emerging power or BRICS nations are showing any interest in shaping the region’s future, even though they know they might be eventually affected by the ongoing crisis.

(Syed Zubair Ahmed is a London-based senior Indian journalist with three decades of experience with the Western media)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

File image is used for representational purpose.
| Photo Credit: AP

Yemen’s Houthis said on Friday (October 19, 2024) they targeted a ship, which they identified as Megalopolis, in the Arabian Sea with drones, without specifying a date.

Megalopolis, a Malta-flagged container ship, is currently en route to Oman’s Salalah port, according to LSEG data.

Yahya Saree, the military spokesperson of the Houthi militants, said in a televised statement that the vessel was targeted for violating the group’s ban on entering the ports of “occupied Palestine”.

Maritime agencies have not reported any incidents involving the named vessel.

Houthi fighters in Yemen have carried out nearly 100 attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea since November 2023 and say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s year-long war in Gaza. They have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers.

In their previous attack on shipping, they struck a Liberia-flagged tanker with missiles and drones last week.