That's what's first up this Thursday, April 2nd. The United Nations says Yemen is on the brink of falling apart. The Houthis, a Yemeni rebel group, took over the government earlier this year. Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition of nearby countries in airstrikes against the Houthis. Some of them have been killed. Some civilians have been killed. The Houthi rebel leader refuses to surrender and the country's become a focus of international concern. What happens here and who winds up in charge of Yemen after the violence settles could shape the religious and political future of the Middle East.

 

Yemen is home to about 26 million people. It doesn't have many natural resources, so accordingly, it is one of the poorest Arab states. So why are so many other nations interested in the rebels there, who have attacked the government? And why has a coalition of other Arab nations put together a military force to fight those rebels?

 

Three big reasons.

 

First of all, this is a religious conflict. The rebels are Shiites. The government they pushed out there was Sunni. Many of the nations out here have mixes of Sunnis and Shiites in them. Anyway that this conflict plays out has a chance of affecting the overall mix and influence of those religions here. It's all Islam, but there's still a power struggle going on.

 

Secondly, this is a proxy war between two very big powers, Saudi Arabia, just to the north of Yemen there, and Iran over here. Again, Iran is Shiite, Saudi Arabia is Sunni. However this plays out in Yemen, will have an impact on who is seen as the victor here and what sort of influence they continue to have in that region.

 

And lastly, this conflict has put the United States in a very peculiar position at a sensitive time. Remember, Saudi Arabia is a long-time partner of the United States, and an ally. But if the U.S. backs them too much, they could upset these delicate talks going on with Iran over its nuclear program.

 

On top of all of that, Yemen has long been home to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and all of this is happening at a time when the United States and other Western powers want allies there against al-Qaeda, against ISIS and against other terrorist groups.

 

All of that has made Yemen not merely a flashpoint now, but a global focal point.