Maria Pantelis — Arabia, the Gulf, and the GCC Blog

Yemen’s powerful families still cast shadows

Source: The Washington Post (Read full story)

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A year after former president Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down in a deal brokered by the United States and Yemen’s Arab neighbors, the country’s three most influential families continue to cast a large shadow over the political transition. Unlike leaders of other nations altered by the Arab Spring revolutions, Yemen’s elites were neither jailed nor exiled, and they have remained inside the country, free to operate as they will. The continuity has helped prevent Yemen from descending into a Syria-like civil war or erupting into the violent political turmoil seen in Egypt and Tunisia. But the elites’ lingering influence has also impeded Yemen’s progress, say activists, analysts and Western diplomats.

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The US and the Gulf States: Uncertain Partners in a Changing Region

Source: Atlantic Council (Read full story)

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The United States and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) share vital interests. In addition to core mutual defense needs, the Gulf is a major market for US exporters and remains an important source of petroleum. Yet the shared political, security, and commercial interests of the Gulf states and the United States have not translated into the deep mutual trust that form the basis of long-term alliances. Such trust is undercut by a US perspective dominated by ill-informed views of the Gulf states, often failing to distinguish one from another, worrying primarily about the export of Islamic extremism and terrorism from the Gulf region, and critical of non-representative governance structures and treatment of women and minorities within their borders.

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