Editor's note: Bobby Naderi is a journalist, current affairs commentator, documentary filmmaker and member of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
Now is the time to survey the wreck of the world with an air of concern. The United Arab Emirates is withdrawing its troops from war-torn Yemen in coordination with key ally Saudi Arabia. This has to mark the beginning of the end for the pointless war in the Arab world's poorest country.
The UAE, a leading member of the Western-backed Saudi coalition battling the well-situated Houthi Ansarullah movement, is wisely reducing its military presence after almost five years of a disastrous campaign, and has withdrawn troops from some areas.
Other coalition members should follow suit to help Yemen reconstruct its soul, spirit and strength. These and other steps, including an immediate end to the arms sales and diplomatic support, would do much to alleviate the plight of so many fleeing the horrors and atrocities of the conflict.
Here, true compassion does not sit on the laps of a protracted war; it dives with an approach to reconstruction and destroying Yemen's source of misery: stalemate, both the smart thing to do as well as the right thing to do under international law and the Charter of United Nations.
Moreover, terrorist groups are easier to present in countries that suffer from conflict and insecurity. So ending the war has the added benefit of potentially weakening their ability to destabilize the country and the region.
To this end, the United States Senate has passed the SJ Res 7 which calls for the end of U.S. military involvement in the Yemen war, noting that no such involvement was ever authorized by Congress.
The war has triggered a humanitarian catastrophe of biblical proportions, and the vote – like the UAE troop drawdown – could and should facilitate international efforts to save Yemen.
Yemeni people show models of a drone and a missile as they participate in a protest against the U.S-led conference held in Bahrain and against the "Century Deal" in Sana'a, Yemen, June 28, 2019. /VCG Photo
It should put pressure on all warring parties to change course, negotiate an end to the conflict, and allow international civil society to end the humanitarian catastrophe.
However, the postwar cleaning-up process is way harder than triggering a war. The World Bank estimates that Yemen's reconstruction needs are around 30 billion U.S. dollars.
The World Bank has been conducting this work in cooperation with other multilateral organizations including major donor nations like the U.S., UK and China.
To this end, the Saudi offer of reconstruction aid is also welcome news. Riyadh and allies are willing to help rebuild Yemen. For this to happen, they need to end the conflict.
If they fund reconstruction, they shouldn't politicize aid or disrupt and centralize the supply of humanitarian assistance, and/or indulge in debt-trap diplomacy and post-war order.
The only way out of the current stalemate is also a renewed call for political negotiations, redemption, and recovery, playing on the fact that even the Houthi Ansarullah and pro-Saudi factions want peace.
For that call to be effective, the U.S. must back the ongoing ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into the country, give up on hosting one-sided political talks, and help the UN in its reconstruction and development efforts in Yemen.
In this man-made crisis, a political process to end the fighting and the humanitarian catastrophe that the world does witness today is a must. Unless there is outside pressure of a substantial kind on all warring factions, civilians will continue to suffer.
While airstrikes and bombings are the primary cause of civilian deaths, many more have died from the impact of the blockade, drought, disease, starvation and preventable deaths.
Displaced Yemenis from areas near the border with Saudi Arabia carry World Food Programme (WFP) food aid in the northern district of Abs in the country's Hajjah province, July 8, 2019. /VCG Photo
In the grand scheme of things, those who turned Yemen into a failed state are now required under international law to take responsibility for its reconstruction and peace efforts.
They must help the UN to improve humanitarian and commercial access into the country, including the full functioning of all ports and airports. They must help the UN to repair public service infrastructure such as schools, water provision and hospitals, which have been damaged.
No doubt the UAE troop withdrawal creates an opportunity to end the war and a chance for the UN to make peace a reality. This is unsurprising.
The world community can facilitate further withdrawal and force the remaining warring parties to drop their objections and reverse any policy that might prolong the counterproductive conflict that time forgot.
The bottom line is this: All warring factions must end their hostilities to be at peace with themselves and their neighbors. Keeping several thousand troops in Yemen over the long-term is a bad idea.
Out of the salvage of their yesterdays, the people of Yemen have lost their patience and are longing for peace and for repairing the losses of the war.
The blunt reality is that on this specific question, the UAE is doing the right thing. Irrespective of the political theater in Riyadh and elsewhere, there is no national-security interest in Yemen for outside players, to begin with.
Everything else – forcing Iran to leave, playing peacekeeper between the warring factions, restoring ousted President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi to power, and pressuring Houthis to negotiate their own surrender – are all distractions and counterproductive.
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