Politics despite the war: Yemeni political elites in Cairo

It draws on more than 25 interviews conducted with Yemeni MPs, members of the IRG parliament presidency, members of the STC assembly, former members of the IRG, presidential advisors and members of Tareq Saleh’s National Resistance forces, as well as leaders of Yemeni political parties based in Sana’a, Aden and Marib, and direct observations of these political actors in the arenas of peacebuilding. [...] Political pressure and the perception of growing insecurity in Yemen also prompted these elites, particularly the most well-off, to travel in the early stages of the conflict, both before the Houthis’ formal takeover in January 2015, and soon after President Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s departure to Riyadh in March. [...] Since the outset of the conflict, Egypt has been home to supporters and representatives of all major political organizations: the General People’s Congress (GPC), the Islah party, the Yemeni Socialist Party, the Nasserist Unionist People’s Organization, the Southern Transitional Council (STC), the recently formed Political Bureau of the National Resistance forces led by Tareq Saleh and to a lesser. [...] By doing so, he contributed to keeping the GPC alive as a party, despite the suspension of its formal activities abroad.[29] At a distance from both Yemen and the political center of the IRG in Riyadh, he embraced the role of a party leader, defended his position within the GPC and remained a key interlocutor and intermediary for foreign diplomats and peacebuilders. [...] The remodeling of the Yemeni political elite, in terms of social composition and recruitment dynamics, needs to be further investigated, as it is shaping new forms of governance and principles of legitimacy in Yemen, and provides a rare insight into how states and regimes are made and unmade in wartime.