A Plea for Life in Yemen

A video of a dying Yemeni boy's plea for life has spread like wildfire on social media, captivating viewers all around the world, and fueling the debate over a conflict in Yemen that has claimed thousands of lives, many of them children.

The graphic video -- which has been viewed more than 50,000 times on Facebook -- depicts the aftermath of a rebel attack in Taiz, a Yemeni city caught between two warring factions. BBC has the story:

"The video shows 6-year-old Fareed Shawky pleading in a soft voice to doctors. ‘Don't bury me,' he says as tears stream down his face.

"He had sustained injuries to his head and other parts of his body and was suffering from internal bleeding, after being struck with shrapnel after a missile attack by Houthi rebels. Parts of Yemen are also being bombed from the air by a Saudi-led coalition.

"The video, which viewers should be warned shows a number of distressing images, can be watched here. A few days after it was taken, Fareed Shawky died."

Be it coincidental or deliberate, the exiled government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi -- whose claim to power is supported by Saudi Arabia and a coalition of Arab regional powers -- has reportedly agreed to engage in peace talks with the Houthis, a rebel group based in northern Yemen with ties to Iran. The Houthis -- who adhere to a variant of Shia Islam known as Zaidism -- seized the capital city of Sana'a last year, and have been waging a battle for territory against a coalition of Arab governments since March of this year.

Whether or not these talks will lead to a cessation of violence in the country remains to be seen, however the need to end the bloody conflict could not be greater. In addition to the already mounting death toll, a growing hunger crisis imperils the lives of hundreds of thousands of Yemeni children just like Fareed Shawky.

"We are facing the potential of a huge humanitarian catastrophe ... The levels of malnutrition that are being reported for children are extremely critical," said UNICEF director Afshan Khan in an interview with Reuters.

Responsibility for the senseless death and destruction in Yemen is shared by all of the warring parties, but these same factions still have it within their power to end the bloodshed and heed the pleas of Yemen's suffering people.

Around the Region

A symbiotic strategy. The war in Yemen -- in addition to its terrible human toll -- is also providing an opening for al-Qaeda. Michelle Ghabrial has the report from Taiz:

"Yemen's most densely populated city has become a crucible of the war between the Houthis, troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and a coalition of the resistance, almost half of which are Sunni Salafists. The resistance in Taiz, close to the Red Sea's Mocha port, includes an al-Qaeda branch which is now practising integration' with other factions. By the summer the resistance had pushed the Houthi rebels from the centre of the city, only prompting Houthis to tighten the blockade.

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"Welcomed into the resistance against the Houthis is al-Qaeda. Nabil Wasil, the top Salafist commander of the resistance in Taiz, said that Salafists form around 40 per cent of the resistance and that they are the second largest after Yemen's Islamist Islah party. He said that the al-Qaeda faction has been battling Houthis alongside the rest of the resistance."

We break it, you own it. Memo readers might be familiar with the so-called Pottery Barn Rule, a metaphor often attributed to former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell during the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Vladimir Putin has his own spin on the rule, argues Thomas Pierret of the University of Edinburgh, and the Russian president is applying it in war-torn Syria:

"Above all, let us not forget that unlike Russia, NATO and EU members share a border with the purported ISIS caliphate, have long-standing allies among neighboring countries, speak of the Mediterranean as mare nostrum or ‘our sea,' and are a favorite destination for Syrian refugees. ‘We break it, you own it' is an apt summary of Vladimir Putin's view of the future respective roles of Moscow and its rivals in Syria. It is the West, more than Russia, that will eventually bear the brunt of his actions."

Turkey's Kurdish headache. The United States and Russia do appear to agree, however, on one thing in Syria, much to Ankara's chagrin: the Kurds. Al-Monitor's Semih Idiz explains:

"The possibility that the PKK could end up with U.S. or Russian munitions through the PYD is not Ankara's biggest worry. Turkey is much more concerned that Syrian Kurds will carve out a semi-independent or fully independent region for themselves in northern Syria along the Turkish border.

"Turkey fears such a region would gain international legitimacy as a Kurdish enclave over time, the way northern Iraq did after the two Gulf wars. Ankara believes that would encourage separatism among its own restive Kurds. Many analysts agree, however, that Turkey has a limited capacity to prevent this, especially since Washington and Moscow ultimately seem to be on the same page about Syrian Kurds."

It was reported last week by Bloomberg View that U.S. weapons intended for Syrian Arabs fighting the Islamic State group had actually wound up in the hands of Kurdish forces with ties to both Washington and Moscow.

Egypt's Hep C crisis. And finally, Ahram Online's Deya Abaza takes a look at Egypt's Hepatitis C scourge, and the steps the country needs to take to eradicate it:

"Egypt has the world's highest prevalence of HCV, a blood-borne virus that in most cases causes chronic liver disease, leading to fatal liver failure and cancer. Seven percent of the adult population has a chronic infection, according to the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) figures.

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"With new, more effective treatments and renewed political will, Egypt is on track to control a nation-wide endemic, but it will need to spend unprecedented billions at a time when its economy is only starting to recover from years of turmoil."

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