Muslim Brotherhood split on Saudi strikes in Yemen
Sunni parties in Egypt support Saudi Arabia's airstrikes on Yemen, while the Muslim Brotherhood’s reaction remains ambiguous.
Saudi Arabia launched Operation Decisive Storm against the Houthis in Yemen as Saudi Arabia feared that the Houthis would gain control of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, threatening shipping in Egypt and the Gulf — while in Egypt, religious currents reacted to the Egyptian air force's controversial participation in the military operation.
The Muslim Brotherhood released a statement condemning the Houthis’ removal of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and called on all parties to use dialogue to end the crisis. Amr Darag and Yahya Hamad, two Brotherhood leaders, clearly expressed their support for Operation Decisive Storm on Twitter. However, they condemned Egypt’s participation under the leadership of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, saying that Sisi, like the Houthis, came to power through a coup. Furthermore, a number of Brotherhood supporters in Egypt demonstrated March 27 against the military operation, describing it as “a blow of shame.”
Rassd, a pro-Brotherhood news site, published a March 27 statement from the international Muslim Brotherhood condemning the former Yemeni regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh, who's allied with the Houthis in Hadi's overthrow. The statement condemned what it called “regional support for coups,” which Rassd claimed was a reference to “the Gulf regimes’ support for the July 3 coup in Egypt, and Iran’s support for the Houthi coup."
Amid the Brotherhood’s rejection of the participation of Egyptian forces in Operation Decisive Storm, both the Islah Party (the Brotherhood’s political arm in Yemen) and Yemeni Brotherhood activist Tawakkol Karman expressed their support for the operation. They thanked all of the Arab forces participating in the operations and did not criticize the Gulf or Egyptian forces, which Karman specifically praised on Twitter.
