Muslim Brotherhood sabotages peace in Yemen

Yemen’s principal Islamist political party, known as al Islah, or the Yemeni Congregation for Reform, was founded in 1990. It was closely associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. As of early 2021, it remained an important political player in the country.

Muslim Brotherhood adopted a strategy that consisted of taking control of the state institutions and structure, something they have achieved to a certain extent, but what they were not able to do was to defeat the Houthis.

Despite having control over the army, the terrorist group preferred to focus on setting in motion a process that consisted of placing their own in the most important positions in order to complete their takeover of the state and its natural resources, especially in the east of the country.

In the end, the relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Presidential Leadership Council became complicated, and al-Islah shifted to a position characterised by confrontation and resistance to the decisions of the country's presidency.

The Reform Party (Islah) carried out an unprecedented attack on the Presidential Command Council, at the same time calling on like-minded activists to confront the Council, after concluding that any reform process the Presidential Council would like to undertake in the army may undermine its control over it.

As a result, what is happening now has further complicated the situation in Yemen and made the challenges facing the Presidential Leadership Council more complex as it is now in open warfare with the Muslim Brotherhood. 

The latter in turn are waging a media campaign to discredit the council and its chairman, Rashad Al-Alimi. Some observers point out that the Muslim Brotherhood are truly terrified of him and are obsessed that he is not a version of Kais Saied, who has managed to defeat the same organization in another Arab country, Tunisia.

Throughout these years, Yemen was held hostage to the ambitions of the Muslim Brotherhood on the one hand and the ambitions of the Houthis on the other. Meanwhile, the country had reached the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, according to the UN itself.