Best case is a return to previous government, the worst case is the country splits into two parts that support terrorist groups and will shelter them.

How in the world is a return to the previous government that JUST GOT OVERTHROWN a best case scenario?

The previous government was helping the US keep down the terrorists. There is no confirmation that they killed anyone important, just missing.

Yemen was another country that the US was destabilising, so this doesn't surprise me

Best case the people get a safe secure government in as many seperate states as they need. Without international intervention.

It sounds like the rebels are relatively legit - as in you can negotiate with them and take them at their word. Some kind of chain of command being followed, but i've still read very little; nevertheless, sounds like another arabian peninsula sectarian conflict. With the same tensions across the region flaring up.

Randomizer, do you actually think that the previous Yemeni government was the best thing for the country? Are you blind?

None of them past or current were the best thing for Yemen, but it was better for the US than what is likely going to take over.

The Mid East for centuries has been the 1%ers ruling over the rest. Having a government whose first goal was to remove the previous one and then attack the West isn't going to make it better for anyone not in the new government. Name a country in that region that has had a violent overthrowing of the old regime that has improved with the new one? Most of them are still having internal warfare.

Yeah, organized rebellions don't fix things overnight. Name one that has.

Iran was in 1979 and it's still clamping down on internal dissent. The ruling theocrats can veto any candidate it feels might provide too much change in its so called democratic government. With the drop in oil prices it can no longer subsidize basic goods to gain public support and fund terrorist groups in other countries.

Iraq is more unstable since Bush removed Saddam. That country will probably split apart with the Kurds splitting off the north and the rest divided between the Sunnis and Iran backed Shiites.

Egypt is the most democratic of the new governments and its had two revolts to remove elected governments.

The Houthis have basically controlled the capital for months. While this is a newsworthy development, the situation on the ground hasn't really changed much.

With the information I have, I hope the Houthis get their way and split Yemen back up between North and South (the current President wants to divide the country into a federation of a half dozen parts). In a best case scenario, developments will see the socialist Southern separatists return to power and extremism will gradually die in Yemen.

Worst case scenario in my opinion would be GCC military intervention. Like Ethiopian intervention in Somalia back in 2006, such an intervention would be ultimately fail and only radicalize vast swaths of moderate Islamists.

Randomizer: Stop parading your ignorance.
1. The Houthis have no interest in attacking the West.
2. With all its serious flaws, there are few countries in the Middle East more democratic than Iran.
3. The most democratic of the 'new' Arab governments is Tunisia by a long shot. The current Egyptian government's 'judiciary' handed out hundreds of death sentances a few months ago in a case involving only one death and continues to hand out mass death sentances with impunity.

Wait, can we seriously say that Yemen has had a functioning government since 2011? A government that doesn't control most of the country isn't really a functioning government.

But JECE makes a lot of good points. Though, I don't think that a GCC intervention will end up like Somalia in 2006. The AU has done a much better job this time around in Somalia, so there's hope that those styles of interventions can work.

Also, Iran is Persian not Arab, Morocco to Iraq have a lot of similarities; Perisa is heavily Americanized by comparison (Largely by the Shas' Rule from the 50s to the '79 revolution) The people hate their government, like most democracies at this stage; and often seem to do the opposite of what they are told (so it was hate iraq for years after the Iran-Iraq war, and now it is love Iraq, cause they would love nothing more than establishing a greater Iran - protecting all the Shi'a Muslims in the geographic area around them...

Arab governements and Pan-arab organisations are a wholely different kettle of fish. You can't fairly lump the two together.

goldfinger0303: Somalia actually crushed the ICU militarily. The AU (AMISOM) has not been able to militarily crush al-Shabaab. What Somali intervention did do, however, was radicalize former members of the moderately Islamist ICU. Since Ethiopia did not have enough troops or willpower to effectively occupy Southern Somalia, radicalized Islamists (which have no qualms about massacring civilians in a shopping mall) were able to gain control of much of the country. I fear that a similar situation would occur in Somalia should the GCC intervene.

More developments in the story:
The Yemeni President and Prime Minister resigned rather than accept further Houthi demands.
Regions of the South are declaring that they will not follow orders from, Sana'a the capital of Yemen and the former North Yemen. How much southern separatists are in control isn't clear to me.