Why the UAE is right to stay the course in Yemen

The outrage against decency show us why it is imperative that we press on unflinchingly.

Columns of smoke rise from the Al-Qasr Hotel. Stringer / EPA

Yesterday’s murderous attacks in Aden show the complicated process of restoring the internationally recognised administration to its rightful place at the heart of Yemen’s governance. Claimed by ISIL, the bombings nevertheless show how destabilising has been the environment in Yemen since the Houthi rebels overran the country.

This outrage against decency also show us why it is imperative that we press on unflinchingly.

Details are still emerging, but we know that many soldiers were killed and injured, among them at least four Emirati casualties. Today, there will be many families across the country, and in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, mourning loved ones.

This cowardly attack, in fact, underscores the importance of the coalition’s intervention in Yemen: it is precisely to end the possibility of such acts of terror in the future that UAE troops joined the Saudi-led coalition’s fight to restore order, peace and stability.

And there have already been advances and progress towards the re-establishment of effective civil society. Piece by piece of territory, mile by mile of terrain, the Houthis are being driven out, Yemen is being rebuilt and order is spreading. An aid effort, spearheaded by the Emirates Red Crescent, is bringing humanitarian assistance to those Yemenis who need it.

But the resolution of conflicts is not a linear process. Even as we fight the Houthis, we find ISIL seeking to cause mischief and misery too. Along with victory in battle, we must also steel ourselves against setbacks, some of them achingly painful.

In particular, the attack on an aid station shows the utter lack of care or concern of militants for ordinary Yemenis – sisters and mothers; brothers and fathers; children – who are compelled to pay a mighty price for militants’ and radicals’ twisted ambitions. This is not right. It is simply not right.

By contrast, the UAE’s role in Yemen – in providing food and water where it is needed, rebuilding schools to teach the young, hospitals to aid the sick and helping construct pillars on which a healthy economy can eventually stand – shows what virtues can be constructed out of an ambition to help.

There can be no mistaking which trajectory yields hope, and which leads to further misery for a beleaguered population. And hope requires those on the side of good to stay the course, even if sometimes the heart aches mightily.