XXXI Международный конгресс ИИСАА. 23–25 июня 2021 г. Т. 2

Россия и Восток. К 100-летию политических и культурных связей новейшего времени. Т. 2 253 Круглый стол: «Россия и Восток: современное состояние системы дуг нестабильности» As a result, the real positions of President Hadi inYemen are pretty weak. Though the Saudi coalition military support counterbalanced the Houthi military power, it is insufficient to restore the Government of Yemen control over Houthis’ and the Southern Transitional Council’s controlled areas. 5. External Actors. Since 2014, Yemen became the field of open competition between the major regional political blocks, who use their supporters in the country as their proxies: A. Shi’a Iran – Sunni Saudi Arabia competition. The Iranian financial and military support to the Houthis allowed them to withstand direct military attacks by the Saudi-allied forces. Though the Houthis’ resilience is mainly rooted in the internal factors, the Iranian help is of a paramount importance for the Houthis. B. Saudi Arabia – UAE competition. Though belonging to the same regional anti-“Muslim Brotherhood” block and a part of the anti-Houthi coalition, the two countries have different agenda. Saudi Arabia supports the Government of Yemen forces, while the UAE back the Southern Transitional Council, seemingly supporting the project of the restoration of indepen- dent South Yemen, which would be under strong UAE influence (likely, as a part of the ambitious project of reviving the 19 th century Omani thalassocratic Empire of which UAE were an essential part). Thus, the two countries have been increasingly engaging in confrontation, including the military one, through their proxies inYemen. 6. Conclusions. The internal conflict in Yemen continues in a great respect due to the direct involvement of the external powers that provided military and financial instruments for the parties to the conflict, enabling them to continue fighting indefinitely, though without achieving a decisive victory. This explain limited results of previous medi- ation efforts directed towards the Houthis and the Hadi’s Government: both parties to the conflict consider themselves strong enough to continue the confrontation. Given a stalemate in the Yemeni conflict, the only way to resolve the crisis remains the International community/ UN mediation. However, without direct and consistent engaging the external actors who back Yemeni parties to the conflict, and resolving their controversies, the mediation betweenYemeni stakeholders could not lead to any lasting results. Since Saudi Arabia is already well seasoned to engage in the peace talks (it failed to establish a pro-Saudi Hadi’s government in Yemen, and now evidently wants to quit the war; see SaudiArabia’s announcement on 22 March 2021, to end the conflict in Yemen), the main efforts of the international community may concentrate on bringing other two major external actors, viz. the UAE and the Islamic Republic of Iran, to the table of negotiations. Without their support the internal Yemeni stake-