What's Behind the Sectarian Tensions in Yemen?
Tensions between Yemen's two warring sects mean the country is still in danger of a civil war erupting.
Yemeni society is torn between two warring sects. Today, for every step Yemen takes toward democracy, it takes two steps back toward a sectarian conflict the cost of which it cannot afford.
Historical roots
On Thursday, Sept. 26, 1962, Mohammed al-Bader, the last of (North) Yemen’s Zaydi rulers, left Sanaa after his palace was bombarded by army officers who had revolted against the imamist regime and declared the first republican regime in the Arabian Peninsula. Both Saudi Arabia and Iran took a hostile stance toward the revolution but could not stop it.
After the so-called national reconciliation of 1970 between republicans and royalists in northern Yemen, an effort similar to today’s National Dialogue Conference, Saudi Arabia recognized the new regime as a fait accompli and then sought to spread Wahhabi fundamentalism in Yemen.
