Yemen's contradictions

The Yemen crisis has brought along various contradictions which are more than difficult to grasp and muddle through.

Let?s start with the first one: We have been living with the reality of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for a long time. It took years for the regional powers and international community to take action. Moreover, even after a coalition was finally formed at the end of last summer, airstrikes started only months later.

In Yemen, on the contrary, everything is taking shape at the speed of light. The ?Sunni coalition? initiated and led by Saudi Arabia was immediately joined by 10 Sunni countries of the region. The United States declared its logistical and intelligence support right away. And today the Arab League is voting on a resolution on the foundation of a joint ?Arab army? at its summit in Egypt.

This all reveals the fact that the sectarian war in the region is being given much more importance than the war against ISIL. And this in itself points at another contradiction: At the moment there are two wars going on in the region. On the one hand, the anti-ISIL struggle is in progress. On the other hand, a sectarian war is taking place. The longstanding and ever increasing Shiite-Sunni tension, mainly caused by the proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, has finally taken the shape of a hot war in Yemen.

This has brought along another contradiction: We found ourselves faced with a bunch of coalitions. On the one hand there is the anti-ISIL coalition composed of about 60 countries. On the other hand, some of the very same countries are forming a coalition addressing the very same region.

Yet what is even more contradictory is that these coalitions are in contradiction with each other. In...