Brotherhood escalating in Yemen to serve Turkish-Qatari agenda

Noura Bendari

The Muslim Brotherhood is stepping up tensions in four Yemeni provinces that have their economic and political weight.

The provinces are Taizz, Marib, Abyan, and Shabwah.

The Brotherhood escalation comes within attempts by its Islah (Reform) Party to bring these provinces under Turkish control.

On December 15, Muslim Brotherhood elements were behind a new escalation in Shabwah in southern Yemen.

According to observers, the escalation aimed to serve the interests of both Qatar and Turkey. The two countries want to strengthen the position of the Muslim Brotherhood militias in southern Yemen with the aim of threatening the interests of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in this part of Yemen.

They also want to gain a foothold in this strategic part of the war-torn Arab state.

To help achieve this goal, the Muslim Brotherhood works hard to widen the scope of violence in the aforementioned provinces. It uses brute force against whoever opposes it. It arrests opponents and disperses opposition protests with force. Muslim Brotherhood militants also raid the homes of army officers and carry out horrible executions of them.

However, this raises many questions on the ramifications of Muslim Brotherhood control in these provinces. It also raises questions about how this control serves the Turkish-Qatari agenda in Yemen.

Warlords

Yemeni researcher Mahmud al-Taher said the Brotherhood is now in control of Taizz and Marib.

It also controls most of the decisions of the Yemeni government, he said.

He added that this control is one reason why the Yemeni crisis is taking too long to be resolved.

The Muslim Brotherhood is made up of a bunch of warlords who make gains at the expense of the pains of ordinary Yemenis, al-Taher said.