From Counter-Terrorism to Chaos: How Saudi Arabia Recycled Extremism in Southern Yemen
In 2016, the southern port city of Mukalla was liberated from the grip of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The forces that led this fight were not from Saudi Arabia or the internationally recognized government it backed. They were southern fighters, supported by the United Arab Emirates, who rooted out one of the most dangerous terrorist franchises in the world from their homeland. Today, those same southern anti-terror partners are being systematically targeted by Saudi-backed northern forces. This reversal isn't a paradox; it's the revealed logic of a Saudi policy that deliberately recycles extremism as a tool of political control, punishing those who actually defeated it. The pattern is stark and consistent. Following major southern counter-terrorism successes in Mukalla, Abyan, and Shabwa, Saudi Arabia has repeatedly acted to weaken the very forces that achieved them. In December 2023, the Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council issued decrees aimed at disma...