Yemen: From Revolution to Civil War

CONFLICTED

Message Heard

Religion & Spirituality, History

4.7 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2023

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Arab Spring of 2011 may have brought with it hope for a new dawn in Yemen, one of democracy and liberal reforms outside the rule of strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh. But the years that followed saw this quickly undone. The GCC Initiative brokered by Gulf States quickly broke down due to an intense culture of mistrust between all the parties within it. And with the insurgent Houthis growing ever more confident in the north, their malign influence ensured that this move for democracy was doomed to failure. In this penultimate episode of our Yemen series, and indeed season 4 of Conflicted, we look at Yemen’s road from revolution to civil war. It’s something that our returning guest, Yemeni political activist Baraa Shaiban, witnessed first hand as a member of the GCC initiative. He tells us about the role he played in trying to keep the peace as his country fell into conflict, and how the delicate art of Yemeni politics - dancing on the heads of snakes - was one which soon became too difficult for all involved. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back, dear listeners. You are tuned in to another episode of Conflicted with me, Thomas Small.
0:07.0	And me Aimandin. And me, Bara Shevann.
0:11.0	Yes, that's right. We are back again with our wonderful guest, the Yemeni political activist
0:16.8	Barat-She-Ban, as we continue our long march through the tumultuous history of Yemen.
0:23.0	And for the next two episodes with a bit of a difference.
0:26.0	You might not have realized, dear listeners,
0:28.0	but normally through the magic of audio production,
0:31.0	we record conflicted remotely from different parts of the globe, me in the UK, and
0:35.8	Aaman in, I'm not saying, but today we have a rare treat. Aaman is in London and we are all here together in the studio. Isn't it great
0:46.2	Aeman to be in the same room together for the first time in months?
0:49.5	Absolutely. So if you do any mistakes I can always throw something at you like in a
0:53.7	Oh Lord. And Barat lovely to see you in person. It's been a very long time.
0:58.6	Indeed, indeed. I mean I'm glad to see actually both of you. We're now entering the final stretch with two episodes left to go of this epic series.
1:07.0	We're now on the cusp of Yemen's civil war.
1:10.0	The Arab Spring has brought a new hope for Barat and those like him yearning for democracy in Yemen.
1:18.0	But will they be able to found a new constitution outside the reach of Ali Abdullah Sala and the insurgent huthies or will it all be doomed to failure?
1:27.0	Let's find out. Right, the theme of today's story really is that in Yemen following the Arab Spring nobody
1:46.0	trusted anybody.
1:48.3	It was a time of great mistrust and a politics of mistrust animated not only Yemen, but the regional geopolitical actors as well.
1:59.0	Barra, first tell us, put yourself back in, you know, late 2011, early 2012, after the Arab Spring, how
2:07.4	optimistic were you feeling, you know, at the time?
2:11.0	So I remember at the time there were two conflicting feelings at the same time.
	...

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