Mehdhar Alawi (South24)

The international community is currently facing a critical challenge, which is to consider Yemen as a Yemeni region and not as a Yemeni state. If this challenge is succeeded, it will lead to a sustainable peace in this part of the Middle East. When the leaders at that time took the Yemeni region 30 years ago into an integrative unit without going through an actual democratic process, then what is known as the Republic of Yemen formed. This formation lost the state identity after the Northern invasion to South in 1994. But after that, the international community continued to consider this part of the Middle East as a Yemeni state, and this is now the obstacle to comprehensive peace in the Yemeni region.

The UN Security Council concluded a statement SC/14671 on 20 Oct 2021 by noting that in order to achieve stability in South Yemen, the Riyadh Agreement must be implemented and government services to be enabled. This is in fact a description of the existence of the least complex opportunity to achieve peace and stability in South Yemen compared to the more complex opportunity in North Yemen. This is what should be built upon to save what can be saved as fast as possible.

The statement condemned the Houthi cross-border attacks targeting Saudi Arabia, attacks targeting civilian facilities, drone attacks, accidents off the Yemeni coast, the threat to maritime security, the Houthi escalation in Marib, the recruitment and use of children, and sexual violence in the conflict, all of that is a description of the scale of conflict in North Yemen.

While it talked about achieving stability in South Yemen only through the implementation of the - Riyadh agreement - signed two years ago between the STC the political body that the Southern people came out for mandate it in 2017 to restore the state of South Arabia (South Yemen) which is considered the most organise entity, in harmony with its regional surroundings and the world and carries a modern national vision that isn't expansionist or cross border, which concluded an agreement with President Hadi to form a government known as the parity government between North and South to facilitate services and maintain security.

The United Kingdom for its part, has also expressed its confidence through its Foreign Minister HE Liz Truss that "there is a real opportunity to de-escalate tensions in South Yemen and the implementation of the Riyadh Agreement". (Statement to Asharq Al-Awsat 21 Oct 2021)

The most urgent question that the international community must rely on to overcome the obstacle is since when have the people of South Yemen enjoying the great opportunity for peace and stability and how many lives could the international community have protected by paying attention to this difference. When the term of South Yemen is mentioned in any international forum, it should be considered as a country that was independent, sovereign and seated in the United Nations only 30 years ago. The people of this country began to struggle and reject what the leaders decided at that time, three years after the unity decision, meaning that the period of the people’s rejection of this unity is 27 years.

The facts indicate the awareness of the international community about achieving peace in this part of the region where the opportunity is the greatest and closest and there is no necessity to continue link its fate to North Yemen where Houthi and other groups continue their battles against the two people to impose the seizure on the two countries’ resources and greed for oil wells in South which is distinguished by its huge oil wealth. If the international community is able to win the currently facing challenge, then will be able to destroy what the Houthis and “terrorists” seek to reach in South Yemen.

Some countries in the international community believe that the solution to the issue of the return of the state of South Yemen can be through discussion in the halls of the Yemeni parliament. This is what Southern people felt in the statement of HE Richard Oppenheim the UK ambassador to Yemen, when he says to "Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper" on 22 Oct, 2021 that Southerners should discuss their political agenda later, explaining that there are demands in Scotland for secession and they are working with the government now.

In a regen as Yemen that lives the reality of war and loses the administrative political and stable system of democracy - the issue of the return of an independent state - will not be discussed one day in its parliament hall. Therefore, the international community should overcome the currently facing challenge and put the issue on the right track.

It is also known that most of the third world countries which have experiencing stability, the highest that can be discussed in Parliament are issues related to the public service only and it did not reach the stage of discussing the issue of an independence for a part, this means that postponing the move towards resolving the issue of the return of the state of South Yemen is the distance from the comprehensive peace that Yemenis aspire to in North and South.

The return of the state of South Yemen is a real and new space to shape a secure and stable future for Yemeni region and all the around regions.

During the past thirty years, after controlling on the Southern wealth - not only by the former ruling party, but also by those who stand behind it from the forces of evil and corruption - a series of interests and orientations were formed linking hidden joints in the Yemeni region that formed what is known as the deep state, which will not end except by curbing its ambitions and hopes through the return of the independence of the state of South Yemen and the formation of a national system that is not expansionist - and preserves the interests of the people, the region and the world.

If the international community is able to win the challenge considering Yemen is a Yemeni region and not a Yemeni state and works to push towards restoring the independent administrative system for South Yemen through a democratic process supervised by the United Nations, they will also be able to help the peoples in North and South to end this corruption and achieve peace.

Mehdhar Alawi

Activist in international politics and diplomatic methods to achieve peace

Photo: Former Southern president, Ali Salem Al-Bidh, during a summit at the United Nations Headquarters (archive - Alamry)