The Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram has published an analysis of the conflicts within the Global Muslim Brotherhood resulting from the Saudi military intervention in Yemen. The article, titled “In The Eye Of The Storm”, begins:
April 2, 2015 Operation Decisive Storm against the Houthis in Yemen, the position of some pro-Muslim Brotherhood regimes towards the military campaign, and the participation of Qatar’s Prince Tamim bin Hamad in the recent Arab summit in Sharm El-Sheikh have combined to sow confusion in Muslim Brotherhood ranks. Politically, the group feels well and truly left out in the cold.
Yemeni Muslim Brothers support the military strikes against Houthis by GCC countries and Egypt. Yet the International Organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood (IOMB), which is dominated by the Egyptian mother organisation, is apprehensive about a military campaign being carried out by those who supported the overthrow of the Brotherhood in Cairo.
The Brotherhood in Yemen, which avoided clashing with the Houthis after the coup against President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi, now seems keen to side with the Yemeni masses so as not to repeat the same mistakes as Egypt’s Brotherhood.
The position of IOMB on Yemen is, say analysts, a little more complex. First, they seem to want to leave matters the Yemeni chapter of the organisation to handle developments how they see fit but at the same time reject the Houthi coup and insist political differences in Yemen can only be resolved through an exclusively Yemeni dialogue.
Many Muslim Brothers felt betrayed when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a longtime champion of the group, declared his support for Decisive Storm. Several young Brotherhood leaders, inclusing Ahmed Al-Zini and Anas Hassan, the creator of Rasd (Monitor) website, insulted Erdogan on their Facebook pages for supporting anti-Brotherhood Arab states in their war against the Houthis. The attacks on Erdogan ignited disputes among the Muslim Brotherhood’s younger members, some of whom defended Erdogan for giving refuge to Brotherhood leaders after Qatar expelled most of them.
Read the rest here.
The GMBDW reported last month on a statement of “regret” over the Saudi intervention issued by the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood as well as on the support for the intervention expressed by two major Saudi religious organisations both close to the Global Muslim Brotherhood. Around the same time, Israeli media reported that Hamas released a message of support for ousted the Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, considered to represent support for the Saudi-led military operation in Yemen. Since then the Yemeni Al-Islah Party, essentially the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen, has issued a statement solidly in support of the Saudi intervention and holding the Houthi rebels responsible. According to a report by the Islamist Middle East Monitor:
Yemen’s Islah Party, which is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, has declared its support for “Operation Decisive Storm” initiated by Saudi Arabia and its coalition parties in order to restore security and stability in the country. In a public statement, the party secretariat said that it holds the Houthis and their allies responsible for the crisis of their own making.
“The Islah Party has been following recent events and developments in our country,” said the secretariat. “They are the outcome of the stubbornness of the Houthis, their coup against dialogue and their use of force to impose their vision on the Yemeni people and its political forces.” It was, claimed the party, the Houthis’ “arrogance” which led them to rebel against legitimacy, impose house arrest on the legitimate, elected president, the prime minister and the cabinet members of the technocrat government that was agreed upon, and obstruct the work of official institutions. “They have invaded various regions and imposed their hegemony on them, and continue to attack the provinces of Lahj, Ta’izz, Al-Dali’, Abyan and Shabwah, killing the innocent and destroying public and private properties in the Province of Aden.”
Read the rest here.
Earlier in March, the GMBDW had reported that the Houthis had accused the Muslim Brotherhood of cooperating with Al Qaeda. Other GMBDW reporting on the conflict in Yemen has included:
- The GMBDW reported in September 2014 0n the takeover of the Yemeni capital Sana by Houthi militants
- In November 2014, we discussed an article that looked at the losses suffered by the Muslim Brotherhood as a result of the Houthi offensive
- In December 2014, we reported that the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen had signed an agreement with Shiite Houthi militants to end the conflict between them.
The Yemeni Congregation for Reform is also known as the Al-Islah Party in Yemen, identified by an Israeli research center as the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen.
For our profile on Al-Islah, go here.
For a report on the Houthis, go here.