The failed terrorist attack on an American aeroplane by a Nigerian man trained by al Qa’eda in Yemen has rapidly focused the world’s attention on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Apparently overnight, Yemen has been deemed al Qa’eda’s new headquarters – “a base for terrorist attacks far beyond the region”, in the words of Hillary Clinton.
Yemen’s problems, however, go well beyond the fact that it has become a refuge for a few hundred al Qa’eda fighters: the crumbling state poses a possible menace to the Gulf region – and it is in the Gulf rather than Washington that a durable solution must be forged.
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