Dr Rahmeh is now muddying the #Yemen waters and trying to turn it into a sectarian war which it is not - it is a historic anti-colonialist/imperialist war fought by Yemenis not by "Shia" or "Sunni" as Rahmeh likes to paint everything as in her reductionist analysis. The following quotes were taken from an interview with a Yemeni mother in 2015: "I can categorically state, there is no sectarian conflict in Yemen.  They have been trying to ignite a sectarian war in Yemen but Yemen is one country where we have had Shafi Sunnis and Zaydi Shias praying in the same mosques for hundreds of years.  We are a society that is known to intermarry between these two sects. In reality they instigated this territorial war when they wanted to split Yemen into a 6 federal state system.  We are tired of having their agenda imposed upon us and being forced to implement it. I have lived in Yemen for the last 21 years and I never knew that my next door neighbour was a Shafi Sunni or a Zaydi Shia.  It was not part of our culture, we never asked.  We peacefully coexisted. This balkanisation agenda was the start of the entire problem.  Their division was all wrong.  They left some areas totally isolated. The Ansarullah movement and the Southern Separatist movement were both in favour of a confederal state system where Yemen would be divided into north and south existing within a federal state.  Most of us were ok with that. President Hadi [although I hate to call him our President] was pushing the Saudi agenda of the 6 state system.  Another thing that a lot of people don’t realise, is that when they divided the 6 state system they purposefully isolated one state called Azal.  Azal incorporated many of the Zaydi strongholds, Sadaa, Amran, Sanaa and Dhamar.  Azal was left without any resources or any access to the sea.  It was blatant imprisonment and suppression of what we would term the “traditional powers” in that area.  It was a deliberate attempt to weaken their influence in Yemen. So Hadi’s plan would have divided Yemen into smaller sectarian states while the Ansarullah plan was more like going back to the boundaries before unity where the south would have greater autonomy over its own internal affairs." Let me give you an example.  The al-Jauf area has both Sunni and Shia populations and so does Marib and elsewhere.  The Zaydi Shias and Shafi Sunnis are both very moderate sects.  Yemeni people have no affiliation to the Wahabi sect of Saudi Arabia. Wahabism is alien to Yemen. We do see certain areas in the South, like Hadramaut, which has been in the media lately, parts of which are totally under control of Al Qaeda.  The funny thing is, the bombs are falling on the very people that are fighting these extremists.  Not a single bomb has been dropped on the extremist strongholds.  Even though they know that AQ is in total control of al-Mukalla in Hadramaut and the seaport in that area.  That has to be a huge question mark over their true agenda in the region. The bombing has only achieved one thing and that is to further strengthen these extremist groups in Yemen.  I know that in Ansarullah controlled-areas we have the local popular committees that are in charge of security and they have been working round the clock to ensure that the extremist elements are kept at bay.  On the battleground their progress has been immensely impeded thanks to the airstrikes that serve as cover for the advancing extremists." Read the whole interview here and please don't pay attention to those who want to make the war a sectarian one. beeley.substack.com/p/yemen-…

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to push NATO back to its 1997 borders and will demand that the alliance withdraw its troops from Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland during negotiations on Ukraine, The Telegraph reports. Putin, of course, is a moderate. We demand the total disbanding and destruction of NATO. We demand that ALL US TROOPS AND FORCES QUIT BRITAIN. We demand that Britain QUITs NATO. We demand the withdrawal of all British troops from aggressive military operations abroad, and the return of overseas bases and territories to their rightful owners and inhabitants. We demand the expulsion of all Israeli forces from Britain. All export of weapons from Britain to the US, Saudi, Jordan, Israel and the gulf monarchies must stop… Of course we cannot win such demands without asserting the rights and control of the British working people, and smashing UK Labour as a political force in Britain. Join the antifascist international antifascistinternational.uk