The Relationship Between South Yemen and GCC States, Study

Aden (South24)

A recent study called for the necessity of strengthening the relationship of South Yemen with the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), in order to create a regional balance that accommodates the requirements of the current situation of the conflict of regional interests and the network of global interests in the region, leading to the building of two states in Yemen.

"This is imposed by any vacuum that may be left by the withdrawal of the United States of America from the region and dictated by other forces that may affect the future security and stability of the region," said the study issued by the South24 Center for News and Studies, by academic researcher, Dr. Fadel Al-Rubaie, Professor of Sociology at the University of Aden.

Historical Connection

The study aimed to reveal the factors of cultural and historical interdependence between South Yemen and the neighboring Gulf states, and to explain the course of the previous political relations between the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (formerly) and the GCC states, and to extrapolate the future of relations between South and the GCC in light of the reality of international transformations and the ongoing war in Yemen and its results.

According to the study, South, along with neighboring Gulf states, constitutes an integrated geographical unit in which migration and trade have historically been active, as Southerners migrated to the countries of the Gulf regions and these migrations have continued to the present time, especially with the emergence of oil wealth in these countries.

Recommendations 

In light of the old and emerging relations between South and the GCC, the study came out with a number of recommendations:

1. Looking into the relationship between South Yemen and the neighboring countries requires the awareness of the dimensions of such a relationship from civilized, religious and political perspectives. Thus, this could show the importance of the Gulf States’ position towards the Southern society which is open to life renovation on the one hand while maintaining the islamic Arabic principles on the other hand. This requires an understanding, from the neighboring states, of the reality of South Yemen and the legitimacy of its political and civilized entitlement to restore the building of its independent and stable state that integrates with the neighboring Gulf states, and not be left to any external influences, as happened with it after the exit of British colonialism.

2. Restoring the establishment of the national independent state in South in such an important and vital location would constitute a trend towards the general stability not only in South or Yemen but in the whole region. The existence of a stable system would help to secure the borders of the neighboring states from the security aspects, as well as creating cooperation spaces in the security and economic fields, in addition to opening investment horizons and attracting tourism. 

3. Ignoring the Southerners’ demands and sacrifice would have its negative consequences such as the increase of space for hostility and opposition to the Gulf policies towards their issue. The Southern right is based upon historical, civilized and political entitlement to guarantee finding out safe solutions and rebuilding each of the two states in North and South. This leads to paths that would solve the Yemeni-Yemeni crisis on the one hand, and the Southern Yemeni crisis on the other hand with a perspective of achieving the strategic interests for the regional states in general. Just by that, the regional states’ policy would accomplish the elements related to the goals for which they entered the war to treat the roots of the Yemeni crisis. 

4. We recommend the neighboring Gulf States to reread the developments and the courses produced by the historical relationships track between South and the Gulf states, along with what has been emanating from the current war, its causes, the scene of its operations and its fate. Additionally, there is a need for arranging the relationship priorities toward creating regional balance which absorbs the requirements of the current situation from the regional interest’s conflicts on one hand, and the network of the world interests. This includes the importance of making political parallelism and power balance along with restoring the building of the Southern state, as well as a Northern state. Both of them would integrate with the neighboring Gulf States in the face of any possible future political changes in light of the regional and international conflict in the region.