国际英语新闻:News Analysis: Will detente in Qatar crisis be game changer for Yemen's years-long conflict

ADEN, Yemen, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- With announced "fruitful" diplomatic efforts to end the years-long Gulf crisis involving Qatar, Saudi Arabia and three other Arab countries, some Yemeni political observers believe this will have a positive impact on the situation in war-torn Yemen, while others played down its significance.

On Friday, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah released a statement hailing the "fruitful" talks held recently on the Qatar crisis.

"Fruitful discussions took place recently, in which all parties affirmed their keenness on Gulf and Arab solidarity and stability," he said.

Saudi Arabia is leading a military alliance that included, at the beginning of its operations in March 2015, all Gulf countries with the exception of Oman, and some other Arab countries against the armed Houthi rebel group in Yemen.

In June of 2017, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed their diplomatic and commercial relations with Qatar, which cast a shadow over the situation in Yemen.

In a press statement issued on Saturday, Yemen's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it "highly appreciated the efforts made by Kuwait and the U.S. for the sake of the reconciliation success and the achievement of security, stability and unity of the Gulf and Arab countries in the light of the difficult circumstances the region is going through."

Nabil al-Bukiri, director of the Arab Forum for Studies and Development, told Xinhua that Yemen's issue was largely affected by the Gulf crisis during the past years.

After Qatar withdrew from the Gulf alliance because of the Gulf crisis, it used its prominent media outlets to further fuel the conflict instead of seeking for solutions, al-Bukiri explained.

The Gulf crisis also created "divisions among the Yemeni political parties and badly complicated the efforts of Arab coalition to help the government to restore state facilities from the militia's grip," he said.

"Ending the Gulf rift will be in the best interests of Yemen because this Arab division wasted many efforts and largely benefited Iran and its militias in the region," al-Bukiri concluded.

Yasser Yafei, an Aden-based political analyst, agreed that the Gulf reconciliation will have a positive impact on the situation in war-ravaged Yemen.

"The Gulf crisis had a great impact on the situation, especially in southern Yemen, as Qatar sought to deliberately abort the coalition's success in the liberated areas, and began to support Islamist groups on the ground," he said.

Currently, Yemen's southern provinces are under tension between the internationally-recognized government and the Aden-based Southern Transitional Council (STC) that seized Aden and other major southern cities last year.

The Gulf reconciliation "will increase the pressures on the Houthi militia and Iranian supporters," Yafei noted.

However, Abdullah Daubalah, a Yemeni political analyst, dismissed the Gulf reconciliation as no key game changer for the situation in Yemen.

"No fundamental changes will occur in the Saudi-Qatari political relations and no changes will happen to the policies of the two countries regarding Yemen," he said.

"It is too early to talk about policy changes for Saudi Arabia and Qatar regarding their stances from the Yemeni crisis," Daubalah added.

The Iran-allied Houthi rebels launched a large military campaign and seized Yemen's capital Sanaa in late 2014, forcing the internationally-recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to flee to the southern port city of Aden.

Subsequently, the pro-Houthi forces backed by armored vehicles attacked Aden and shelled Hadi's Republican Palace, forcing him to escape to neighboring Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-led coalition intervened militarily and began pounding the Houthi-controlled Sanaa in March 2015, in response to an official request from Hadi to protect Yemen and roll back Iran's influence.