The UCLA Center for Middle East Development hosted the event, "Impact of the Hamas/Israel War and Recent Regional Dynamics on Yemen’s Peace Efforts" on April 17, 2024.

 The ongoing war between Hamas and Israel has escalated the humanitarian crisis and political instability in the Middle East, especially in Yemen, where a civil war has been raging since 2014. The conflict has drawn in regional and international actors, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States, with competing interests and agendas. The war has also affected the prospects of peace and dialogue among the Yemeni parties, as well as the role of the United Nations and other mediators. How can the international community help end the violence and support a political solution in Yemen? What are the challenges and opportunities for dialogue and reconciliation among the Yemeni factions and the regional powers? How can the humanitarian situation be improved, and the human rights of the Yemeni people be protected?

MEET THE PANELISTS

Mr. Abdulghani Al-Iryani is a senior researcher at Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies and a political and development consultant. He has done research on constitutional reform, anti-corruption, governance, government capacity, state building, and conflict management and resolution, as well as social and economic development.

Ms. Maysaa Shujaa Aldeen holds a Master’s from the American University in Cairo in Zaydism in Yemen. She has written several papers about Yemen. Her works include, “Religious Schools in Yemeni,” published in Carnegie, and “Yemeni Diaspora,” published in Arab Reform Initiative. She has added several policy papers, such as “Presidential Councils,” published by Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies. Additionally, Shujaa Aldeen has published analytical essays in many media outlets, like Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, and AGSWIS.

Ms. Nawal Al-Maghafi is an award winning BBC senior correspondent who has been reporting on the Middle East since 2012. Over the past six years, she has been one of the few journalists conducting firsthand reporting of the ongoing conflict in Yemen. Ms. Al-Maghafi's investigation into a 2015 attack on a Yemeni funeral, the deadliest of the conflict so far, provided key evidence in the case against weapons sales to Saudi Arabia by the US and UK. Her most recent documentary, “Iraq’s Secret Sex Trade” which was nominated for two Emmy’s, investigates Shia clerics at some of Iraq’s holiest shrines. Ms. Al-Maghafi reveals the exploitation of vulnerable girls and young women, tricked into ‘pleasure marriage’, a practice in which clerics make money from helping men who want sex with very young girls.

MEET THE MODERATOR

Mr. Abdulwahab Alkebsi is the managing director for programs at the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), a non-profit affiliate of the US Chamber of Commerce and one of four core institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy. Mr. Alkebsi oversees almost 200 programs in 80 countries and supervises offices and staff in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Tunisia, Sudan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Columbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine, and at CIPE’s head office in Washington, DC. Mr. Alkebsi oversees democracy and market-reform initiatives that combat corruption, strengthen entrepreneurship skills and ecosystems, empower women, organize the informal sector and strengthen property rights, enable access to information, and improve corporate and democratic governance.