Link to Article: https://www.arabnews.com/node/2207196/saudi-arabia
Summary: Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Saudi recognized government signed an agreement to lend Yemen one billion dollars to revive its collapsed economy and bring economic reform. The reform plan goes towards developing public resources and repairing critical power and water infrastructure destroyed in Yemen’s civil war, while the financial and banking plans tackle bolstering services for small and medium businesses and developing a supervision system regarding transactions. The program’s main goal is to get Yemen back into the global economy and attract foreign investment to foster economic prosperity for Yemen. Saudi Arabia has provided 3 billion dollars in the past decade and has made up 30% of the total donations made to Yemen compared to other countries.
Analysis: Saudi Arabia has used its helping of Yemen economically as a front to hide the vast amounts of intervention it has done in the country, while also subtly growing its influence over Yemen in its private sector. Saudi Arabia has done countless military campaigns bombing Houthi-held territory in Yemen, such as in Yemen’s capital of Sana’a, as they seek to help its government win its civil war. Yemen as a state was always unstable, as from the late 1960s until the early 1990s it had been split into two different states. Yemen itself was ruled by the Shi’a, while southern Yemen was ruled by the Sunni. The two had united as they realized they could economically compete against other Middle Eastern states together, however, distrust between the two sects only two decades later led to civil war. Yemen now serves as a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia for religious dominance in the region, while also being the home of a large amount of untapped oil. Saudi Arabia’s investments in Yemen’s private sector is likely due to wanting to be a large stakeholder in its oil industry in the event Yemen’s government re-establishes full control of the country.
Connection to Class: Saudi Arabia is a state that seeks to rise to a regional power in the bipolar system shared between Turkey and Iran in the Middle East. Yemen and Saudi Arabia practice Sunnism, which offers a common identity between the two states, while the “Shi’a” opposition in Yemen’s civil war is supported by Iran. Providing economic aid establishes prestige as Saudi Arabia can seemingly aid Sunni states and nations, while also allowing Yemen and similar states in the future to “reciprocate” through direct relations or Saudi businesses owning a majority of their private sectors and establishing economic Saudi dominance and dependence.