Like a phoenix rising from its own ashes, the state of South Yemen appears to be returning to the Arab world. Southern secessionists have taken control of the south’s major port city and former capital, Aden, and seem posed to restore the southern republic that went out of business in 1990 with the collapse of its mentor, the Soviet Union. Today it has found a new mentor in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
There are now two rebellions against the internationally recognized government of Yemen led by President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, one by the Houthis in the north and a second in the south. Washington needs to develop a new strategy for the civil war in Yemen and the humanitarian disaster there that threatens millions with famine and disease.