The Washington Post - 05.09.2019

A6 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 , 2019

The World

POLAND

Officials face scrutiny

over Israeli spyware

The Polish g overnment came
under p ressure Wednesday to
clarify whether it has purchased
sophisticated a nd potentially
illegal p hone surveillance
technology t hat has been used t o
stifle dissent i n other c ountries.
Opposition l awmakers asked
Prime Minister Mateusz
Morawiecki w hether the Polish
special services had bought
Pegasus, t he spyware produced b y
NSO G roup, an Israeli c ompany.
The firm’s s oftware allows for the
monitoring of devices and t heir
content, including t he remote
activation of cameras and
microphones w ithout users’
knowledge.
Morawiecki r eplied that
“everything that needs t o be will
be clarified in d ue t ime” but

didn’t directly answer the

question, t he news agency PAP

reported.

The parliamentary d iscussion

follows a n investigative r eport by

the p rivate broadcaster TVN that

indicated that the country’s anti-

corruption b ureau might have

bought the system.

Lawmakers expressed

concerns t hat the technology

could be used a gainst

independent j ournalists or

opposition p oliticians.

The company said i ts products

were developed only t o help

governments a nd law

enforcement a gencies fight

terrorism and crime.

Human r ights campaigners say

authoritarian r egimes have used

Pegasus to spy on c itizens.

The Polish g overnment is

accused by critics o f eroding

democratic standards, which t he

authorities d eny.

— Associated Press

SYRIA

U.S., allied Kurd force

patrol northeast border

U.S. troops and an allied Syrian

Kurdish militia conducted a joint

patrol Wednesday in a town on the

border with Turkey, a Kurdish

news agency and a Syria war

monitor reported. The move

appeared to be part of an

agreement to set up a safe zone

along Syria’s northeast border.

Turkey s ees Syrian Kurdish

fighters, who make up the

majority of the U.S.-backed Syrian

Democratic Forces battling the

Islamic State militant group, a s

terrorists aligned with a Kurdish

insurgency within Turkey.

Turkey h as been pressing for a

safe zone to ensure security on its

border running east of the

Euphrates River toward the Iraqi

border. Turkey w ants to control —

in coordination with the United

States — a 19-to-25-mile-deep zone

within Syria.

The patrol occurred near the

town of Ras al-Ayn and consisted

of U.S. troops and members of the

Ras al-Ayn Military Council,

according to the Britain-based

Syrian Observatory for Human

Rights and the Kurdish ANHA

news agency. T he Ras al-Ayn

Military Council is purportedly a

local force separate from the SDF.

The patrol came a week after

the SDF announced that it had

begun withdrawing its fighters

from Ras al-Ayn and another

border town. The withdrawals

were part of the deal for a safe

zone in northeast Syria involving

the United States and Turkey.

Turkey w ants the region along

its border to be clear of Syrian

Kurdish forces and has threatened

an operation against Syrian

Kurdish forces if such a zone is not

established.

— Associated Press

PHILIPPINES

Convicts’ release spurs

public outrage, firing

The Philippine president on

Wednesday fired the top prison

official amid a public outcry over

the release o f hundreds o f

prisoners, including convicted

drug traffickers and rapists, under

a law rewarding good behavior

with shorter jail terms.

President Rodrigo Duterte said

at a news conference that

Undersecretary Nicanor Faeldon

of the Bureau of Corrections

would immediately resign for

disobeying his order to halt the

releases of convicted prisoners

under the 2014 l aw. Officials are

demanding a review of the law.

Prison officials will be

investigated by a special anti-

corruption prosecutor over the

inmate release, Duterte said.

Duterte ordered at l east 1,

prisoners freed since the law took

effect to surrender in 15 days,

either for a re-computation of

their jail time or for investigations

to determine whether they paid

their way to freedom in corrupt

deals with prison officials.

— Associated Press

Saudi, UAE diplomats in

Pakistan to discuss Kashmir:

Saudi Arabia and t he United Arab

Emirates sent their top d iplomats

to Pakistan t o help Islamabad

defuse tensions with India over

the d isputed K ashmir region,

which have w orsened s ince New

Delhi stripped t he Indian-

administered p ortion of K ashmir

of its limited autonomy on A ug. 5.

Gulf Arab countries have k ept

mostly silent on the i ssue. The

two diplomats held talks with

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran

Khan and Foreign Minister Shah

Mahmood Qureshi.

— F rom news services

DIGEST

BY SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN

cairo — For the past five years,
a civil war has raged in Yemen
between the internationally
recognized government and
northern rebels with no sign
of imminent resolution. Now,
the conflict’s landscape has
become more complicated:
Intense clashes have broken out
in southern Yemen within the
forces aligned with the govern-
ment.
The latest violence — increas-
ingly being known as the civil
war within Yemen’s civil war —
pits southern separatist militias
against other forces aligned with
the government of President
Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Ten-
sions surfaced more than a year
ago between the allies, but in
August they boiled over into the
worst fighting so far between
them.
Both sides are aligned with a
regional coalition of Sunni Mus-
lim countries, led by Saudi Ara-
bia and the United Arab Emir-
ates, that joined the war against
the n orthern Shiite rebels k nown
as Houthis in March 2015. The
coalition’s ostensible goal is to
restore Hadi’s government and
prevent the Shiite theocracy of
Iran from gaining regional influ-
ence through its alliance w ith the
Houthis.
The war in the Middle East’s
poorest country has caused pov-
erty and illnesses to spiral.
Yemen faces what the United
Nations has described as the
world’s worst humanitarian
crisis.
In e arly A ugust, c lashes e rupt-
ed in the strategic southern city
of Aden between the southern
separatists, backed by the UAE,
and forces loyal to Hadi, which
are backed by Saudi Arabia. The
trigger was a missile attack on a
military parade that killed doz-
ens of separatist fighters. It was
partly blamed on Islah, an Islam-
ist party aligned with the Yemeni
government.
The separatists seized control
of Aden, the seat of the exiled
Yemeni government, deepening
the rift between Saudi- and UAE-
backed factions. In recent weeks,
despite calls for a cease-fire, the
fighting has expanded to other
southern provinces. Saudi Ara-
bia and the UAE have carried out
airstrikes in support of their
Yemeni proxies.
On Aug. 28, Yemeni govern-
ment forces entered Aden and
claimed to have retaken the city.
But the next day, separatist forc-
es said they had taken it back.
The heavy fighting has caused a
new wave of civilian casualties in
the city, humanitarian groups
said.
The fighting in southern Yem-
en could reverberate beyond that
region in at least a half-dozen
ways:

Yemen could fracture

The tensions in the south have
roots in decades of friction be-
tween the north and south. Yem-
en was once two countries —
North Yemen and South Yemen
— until u nification in 1 990. Many
southerners have remained sus-
picious of the northerners, who
have ruled the country for dec-
ades, a ccusing them of politically
and economically marginalizing
them.
The separatists want to split
Yemen’s south from its north
again. Even if that doesn’t hap-
pen, analysts say that after more
than four years of conflict and
mistrust, Yemen is unlikely to
emerge with a strong central
government. Already, different
centers of power have formed in
the country. Some analysts say a
federalist system where the
co untry i s carved up into a utono-
mous regions loosely aligned
with the center is the best

anyone can hope for.

Regional powers divided

Even as Saudi Arabia and the

UAE are aligned against the

Houthis and Iran, they have

differing visions for Yemen’s

future. The UAE and the

separatists are wary of Hadi’s

alliance with Islah, whose mem-

bers include Ali Mohsen al-Ah-

mar, Hadi’s vice president. The

UAE leadership views Islah as a

threat because of its links to the

Muslim Brotherhood, a regional

Islamist movement that the Emi-

ratis and their allies see as radi-

cals. The Saudis, however, view

Islah as playing an essential role

in Yemen’s war and future poli-

tics.

While the Saudis view their

role in Yemen as a deterrent to

Iran’s ambitions, the Emiratis

have an additional goal: gaining

influence in the southern Ara-

bian Peninsula and the Horn of

Africa, which lie next to lucrative

and strategic shipping lanes in

the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.

Analysts say Aden, with its port

near the Red Sea, is a valuable

economic prize for the UAE.

To assert control, the UAE has

backed influential southern poli-

ticians and has armed and fi-

nanced southern separatists,

tribesmen and other militias,

including one southern com-

mander who is on the U. S. sanc-

tions list because of alleged links

to al-Qaeda and the Islamic

State.

In June, other cracks emerged

in the Saudi-led coalition. The

UAE said it was pulling its

ground forces from southern

Yemen, a move some analysts

interpret as a signal that the

Emiratis no longer agreed with

the S audis’ hard-line approach t o

Iran.

The recent clashes have fur-

ther frayed the unity of the

coalition. Saudi planes have

bombed separatist positions, and

UAE fighter jets have bombed

Yemeni government forces. The

question on many minds: Will

the divisions in Yemen harm the

relationship between Saudi Ara-

bia and the UAE in other region-

al matters?

Opening for al-Qaeda, ISIS

The south has long been a

haven for al-Qaeda’s Yemeni af-

filiate, al-Qaeda in the Arabian

Peninsula, or AQAP. Considered

by U. S. officials to b e the terrorist

network’s most dangerous

branch, AQAP has targeted the

West several times, including an

attempted bombing of an Ameri-

can passenger jet landing in

Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

In 2000, al-Qaeda bombed the

USS Cole in Aden harbor, killing

17 U.S. sailors. A campaign o f U.S.

airstrikes helped weaken AQAP,

but i t remains a powerful force in

the south. An Islamic State affili-

ate has also emerged in recent

years.

In August, both groups saw

opportunity in the violence and

chaos shattering Aden. Accord-

ing to Elisabeth Kendall, a Yem-

en scholar at Oxford University,

AQAP staged nine attacks on the

UAE-backed separatist forces.

The Islamic State launched at

least two attacks in Aden, the

first time the group has struck

the city in more than a year.

“A QAP and ISIS are already tak-

ing advantage of the increasing

security vacuum in Yemen’s

south,” Kendall said.

Threat to global shipping

Aden lies strategically near

the mouth of the Red Sea and

along shipping lanes from the

Strait of Hormuz, near Iran.

These are some of the world’s

most vital commercial routes,

being used daily by oil tankers

from Europe and Asia.

Disruptions from clashes, air-

strikes or bombings — or if

militants assert control of the

south — could curtail oil supply

and raise global fuel prices. All

sides, including the Houthi reb-

els, have the capability of attack-

ing ships at sea. Such attacks

have occurred during the war.

Disruption of aid

Aden is a key port of entry for

humanitarian aid and commer-

cial goods, not only for the south

but also for many areas in the

north. According to the United

Nations, about 80 percent of the

population — 2 4 million people

— requires some form of human-

itarian or protection assistance,

including 14.3 million who are in

dire need. The clashes in Aden

have disrupted the work of doz-

ens of aid groups.

“Since August 28, Aden air-

port has been temporarily

closed, and flights suspended,”

Save the Children’s acting coun-

try director in Yemen, Jason Lee,

said in a statement. “Moreover,

the port of Aden is vital for the

import and distribution of basic

supplies and services across

Yemen, and insecurity threatens

its operation. It is highly con-

cerning that vital lifelines, both

by air a nd sea, are at risk of being

cut off.”

Need for a broad peace deal

Efforts to end Yemen’s conflict

are particularly focused on the

western port city of Hodeida. A

fragile U.N.-brokered cease-fire

is still in place. U.N. officials and

aid workers hope that if the

peace lasts in Hodeida, it could

have a ripple effect across the

country. But the tensions in the

south could torpedo efforts in

Hodeida as the coalition’s allies

battle each other, allowing the

Houthi rebels opportunities to

seize territory. The southern ani-

mosities also s how that t he griev-

ances fueling Yemen’s internal

conflicts may not be addressed

by bringing peace to one city.

“This hampers the peace proc-

ess by opening up the Pandora’s

box of north-south confronta-

tion,” said Oxford’s Kendall, re-

ferring to the clashes in the

south. “The international com-

munity has been scurrying be-

hind the Hodeida cease-fire

agreement in the hope that other

brewing conflicts can be tackled

once that is implemented. The

recent clashes s how that a broad-

er, more inclusive, and hence

more complex, approach is

needed.”

sudarsan.raghavan

@washpost.com

Why the crisis in Ye men’s south matters

Heavy fighting between supposed allies has engulfed the strategic southern port of Aden

PHOTOS BY WAIL AL-QUBATY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A tanker burns after southern separatists and Yemeni government forces clashed Friday near Aden. The factions are said to be fighting a civil war within Yemen’s civil war.

A separatist fighter inspects vehicles belonging to Yemeni government forces after a United Arab

Emirates airstrike near Aden. The factions are part of the coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels.