Mohammed Abdul Malik
The dispute between Yemenis has intensified since UN envoy Martin Griffith announced the approval of retired Dutch general Patrick Cammert to lead an international monitoring mission in the city of Hodeidah.
The approval was based on a proposal by the United Nations during Sweden's consultations that the withdrawal of government and Houthi troops from the coastal city west of the country and placed under the control of a temporary entity, according to Reuters.
During his briefing to the UN Security Council on Friday, Griffith said the Dutchman Kamiret would arrive in Hodeidah within days to lead the international observer team, which is still under discussion.
It did not take long for the debate to shift to social networking platforms, and the issue became the most recent talk of Yemenis, many of whom expressed the dimensions of this step and warned of its consequences if implemented.
The head of the "dimensions" Abdul Salam Mohammed, the presence of international forces in Hodeidah, the terrible thing for the Yemenis on their future. According to him, these forces do not enter an area unless the militia turns into a state within a state, and the experience of Lebanon is clear.
A senior military expert in international disputes, such as General Patrick Hodeidah. Which means less than 13,000 peacekeepers with local security forces of at least 30,000. It is an appropriate number with an area of 17,000 square kilometers ... - Mohammed Jawas Al-Adani (@ gixfrL9uLHXQGcc) December 15, 2018 |
"Houthis are increasing the word of national sovereignty until we hate the word, and in the end they went to Sweden to bring us UN peace forces in Hodeidah," wrote Yemeni activist and writer Mustafa al-Jabzi in a tweet on Twitter.
The door opened
For his part, wrote Yemeni political analyst Yassin al-Tamimi on his Facebook page, "The door was opened to the intervention of many parties in the arena of inflamed Yemen, if the continuation of things as they are failures and setbacks unjustified."
"There is no way to stop Saudi-Iranian tampering with the deployment of international forces that keep peace between the Yemenis until a Yemeni government is formed capable of running the country properly," one of them wrote.
Others took the opportunity and said that the Monitoring Committee might be a prelude to the arrival of a truly international peacekeeping force. Ironically, some have begun publishing photographs of women's military forces involved in peacekeeping in a number of countries during previous periods.
Regarding the position of the two sides - the government and the Houthis - of this matter, a member of the delegation of Houthis in Sweden's consultations Abdul Malik al-Ajri said that the Dutch general will arrive in Yemen to lead the UN team in coordination with the joint committee of the parties, which was formed during the consultations (three members from each party).
Al-Ajri assured Al-Jazeera Net that there would be no military forces on the ground as is being discussed. "If the man comes with a gun, we will take it from him," he said.
On the other hand, a member of the Yemeni consultations in Sweden, Askar Zayel, a military attaché at the Yemeni embassy in Ankara, said they welcome this team, which will be sent by the United Nations.
In his speech, Zayel pointed out that this group will be composed of many countries, mostly military experts, whose tasks will be to monitor and supervise the withdrawal from the city and its port.
Causes of concerns
In order to refute this controversy, Al Jazeera Net spoke with Yemen's military expert Ali Al-Zahab, who explained that the entry of international control forces - even if not their role under the concept of coarse security - means reaching the war stage other than the previous one, without stopping the war in other areas.
He considered that the role of the United Nations beyond the stage of debate in the corridors of the Security Council to the stage of physical presence on the ground, whatever form and nature of this presence.
Ali al-Zahab pointed out that the call for the presence of these forces is in fact linked to the agreements signed between the parties to the conflict in Sweden, so the success of the negotiations for the mother polluter quickly paved its existence and sent.
The truth about the fears expressed by the Yemenis about this step is logical when it is thought about what might result from its long existence or failure in its mission, in the words of the military expert.
"In both cases there are many negative repercussions regardless of the positives of their presence in peace. The most prominent of these concerns is the improper practices of some members of these forces, especially since some of them are of different nationalities and cultures."
Their presence in a strict Muslim society in their customs and traditions raises many questions. In fact, they have virtually blocked any progress towards the city of Hodeidah and opened the path of confrontation in depth, which could also be caused by the failure of the forces to complicate the conflict and increase violence.
As a result, the Yemenis will face another UN option in the context of the concept of coarse security according to gold, but not through the alliance led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but it may be through multinational forces and under the pretext of peacekeeping.
Griffith confirms the dispatch of UN troops led by General Patrick Camert, who will be in a week in Yemen |
Gold believes that the justification for all this is political, wrapped in fears of deterioration of the humanitarian situation, and represents the failure of the coalition and the legitimate authority in the administration of liberated areas, and the violation of human rights is a good reason for those who protest it from the West and the Security Council itself.
Who is Camert?
General Patrick Kamiret was born in the Netherlands in 1950 and served for many years as part of the Royal Dutch Navy in peacekeeping operations.
He also served as a military adviser to the United Nations Peacekeeping Section. In 2002 he became a military adviser to former Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
After the attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad in 2003, he became responsible for implementing the recommendations of the Lakhdar Brahimi report to protect United Nations facilities and staff worldwide, and in 2006 he headed the largest UN peacekeeping operation in the Congo.
He was appointed by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as head of investigations into the events of Juba in 2016 and the performance of peacekeepers in southern Sudan.