Yemen and the Middle East Conference - The Challenge of Failing States and Transnational Terrorism

The preparatory debate of the Middle East Conference is dominated by major regional actors. Politically and geographically, Yemen represents the regional periphery and is not the focus of significant non-proliferation concerns. Sana’a has ratifi ed all three legal documents against nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. However, it is not altogether clear whether Yemen has consistently lived up to all its commitments. The regime of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh stood accused of having used nerve gas against protesters demanding his ouster. In addition, Yemen possesses a number of aircraft and missiles which might be used as delivery vehicles for weapons of mass destruction. The mandate for the Middle East Conference requires their abolishment as well – a task that could be made more diffi cult by the current instability. Moreover, Yemen’s status as a failing state at a geostrategically sensitive location poses profound challenges to regional and global security. Should Yemen become a failed state, human trafficking as well as weapons and drug smuggling could increase. The potential access of terrorist groups to chemical weapons or the means of producing them could seriously undermine regional and global security. The ongoing tensions in the country’s North also raise the specter of Yemen being drawn into the wider competition over regional influence between Riyadh and Tehran. With Iran’s traditional vehicles of power projection engulfed in the fall-out of the ‘Arab Spring’, Yemen’s instability offers Tehran an alternative route for pressuring Riyadh and its Western allies. Thus, addressing Yemen’s domestic crisis is of concern for the success of the Middle East Conference