The geography and ruling Imams of North Yemen kept the country isolated from foreign influence before 1962. The country's relations with Saudi Arabia were defined by the Taif Agreement of 1934, which delineated the northernmost part of the border between the two kingdoms and set the framework for commercial and other intercourse. The Taif Agreement has been renewed periodically in 20-year increments, and its validity was reaffirmed in 1995. Relations with the British colonial authorities in Aden and the south were usually tense.
The Soviet and Chinese Aid Missions established in 1958 and 1959 were the first important non-Muslim presence in North Yemen. Following the September 1962 revolution, the Yemen Arab Republic became closely allied with and heavily dependent upon Egypt. Saudi Arabia aided the royalists in their attempt to defeat the Republicans and did not recognize the Yemen Arab Republic until 1970. At the same time, Saudi Arabia maintained direct contact with Yemeni tribes, which sometimes strained its official relations with the Yemeni Government. Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis found employment in Saudi Arabia during the late 1970s and 1980s.
In February 1989, North Yemen joined Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt in forming the Arab Cooperation Council (ACC), an organization created partly in response to the founding of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and intended to foster closer economic cooperation and integration among its members. After unification, the Republic of Yemen was accepted as a member of the ACC in place of its YAR predecessor. In the wake of the Persian Gulf crisis, the ACC has remained inactive. Yemen is not a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
British authorities left southern Yemen in November 1967 in the wake of an intense rebellion. The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, the successor to British rule, had diplomatic relations with many states, but its major links were with the Soviet Union and other communist countries. Relations between it and the conservative Arab states of the Arabian Peninsula were strained. There were military clashes with Saudi Arabia in 1969 and 1973, and the PDRY provided active support for the Dhofar rebellion against the Sultanate of Oman. The PDRY was the only Arab state to vote against admitting new Arab states from the Persian Gulf area to the United Nations and the Arab League. The PDRY provided sanctuary and material support to various insurgent groups around the Middle East.[citation needed]
Yemen is a member of the United Nations, the Arab League, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and also participates in the nonaligned movement. The Republic of Yemen accepted responsibility for all treaties and debts of its predecessors, the YAR and the PDRY. Yemen has acceded to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
The Persian Gulf crisis dramatically affected Yemen's foreign relations. A long-time ally of Saddam Hussein, Yemen's President, Ali Abdullah Saleh was quick to back Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.[20] As a member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for 1990 and 1991, Yemen continued to abstain on a number of UNSC resolutions concerning Iraq and Kuwait[10] and voted against the "use of force resolution." Western and Persian Gulf Arab states reacted by curtailing or canceling aid programs and diplomatic contacts. At least 850,000 Yemenis were expelled from Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia has begun construction of a separation barrier between its territory and Yemen to prevent the unauthorized movement of people and goods into and out of the kingdom.
Subsequent to the liberation of Kuwait, Yemen continued to maintain high-level contacts with Iraq. This hampered its efforts to rejoin the Arab mainstream and to mend fences with its immediate neighbors. In 1993, Yemen launched an unsuccessful diplomatic offensive to restore relations with its Persian Gulf neighbors. Some of its aggrieved neighbors actively aided the south during the 1994 civil war. Since the end of that conflict, tangible progress has been made on the diplomatic front in restoring normal relations with Yemen's neighbors. The Omani-Yemeni border has been officially demarcated. In the summer of 2000, Yemen and Saudi Arabia signed an International Border Treaty settling a 50 year old dispute over the location of the border between the two countries. Yemen settled its dispute with Eritrea over the Hanish Islands in 1998.
After the departure from the Persian Gulf Arab states, as many as 15,000 Yemenis migrated to the U.S. Many Yemenis can be found in the south of Dearborn, Michigan. In the early 1990s, Yemenis went in search of manufacturing jobs. They continue to work in the U.S. and routinely send money back to their families.
Kidnapping of foreign tourists by tribes has been an ongoing problem throughout the modern period.[21] In many instances, the kidnappers attempted to use hostage taking to gain leverage in negotiations with the government. One victim of kidnapping was former German Secretary of State Jürgen Chrobog, a man who himself had conducted negotiations with kidnappers while in office.[22] In June 2009, a group of nine foreign tourists were kidnapped near the city of Saada. Seven were killed and two children survived.[21]
Yemen has historically enjoyed good relations with Somalia, its neighbour to the south and fellow Arab League member. Ethnic Somalis for the most part blend in well with Yemeni society, as they share centuries of close religious, commercial and social ties. Following the outbreak of the civil war in Somalia, Yemen unconditionally opened its borders to Somali asylum seekers. The World Refugee Survey 2008, published by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, estimates that 110,600 Somali refugees lived in Yemen in 2007,[23] which is a fraction of the estimated 700,000-strong Somali nationals already living and working in Yemen.[24] There are also many Somalis who have received Yemeni citizenship due to marriage with Yemenis as well as through service to the nation over the years. Somalia has also over the centuries seen successive waves of immigration from Yemen, with Hadhrami settlers being instrumental in helping to consolidate the Muslim community in the coastal Bari region in particular.[25] During the colonial period, disgruntled Yemenis from the Hadhrami wars additionally sought and received asylum in various Somali towns.[26]
Yemen also maintains good relations with Djibouti, its other predominantly Somali neighbour to the west across the Red Sea. With a rapidly expanding economy, a stable government, huge investments from fellow Persian Gulf Arab states, and a strategic maritime location in the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden, Djibouti stands as an important ally. While Djibouti is largely inhabited by Somalis, it is separate from the Somali Republic and holds its own seat in the United Nations, and the League of Arab States. On February 22, 2008, the BBC reported that a company owned by Tarek bin Laden was planning to build a bridge across the Bab el Mandeb, linking Yemen with Djibouti.[27][28]
Since 2004, a civil war is being fought in Northern Yemen between Yemeni forces and Shiite Houthi rebels. In 2009, it spilled over into the neighbouring border region of Saudi Arabia. This conflict is increasingly becoming a danger to regional stability according to news reports by CNN[29] and the BBC[30] as various countries are said to be involved, e.g. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.[31] The United Nations[32] and UNDP Yemen report about a growing problem of civilians fleeing from the region. Yemen is said to have more than 60 million guns.[33] The 2009 South Yemen insurgency has further destabilized the country.
Some news reports have suggested that, on orders from President Barack Obama, US warplanes fired cruise missiles at what officials in Washington claimed were Al Qaeda training camps in the provinces of Sana’a and Abyan on December 17, 2009.[34] Other reports suggest that the airstrikes were carried out by Yemeni Mig-29 aircraft, probably helped by US intelligence,[35] or that cruise missiles were launched from warships offshore.[36] Officials in Yemen said that the attacks claimed the lives of more than 60 civilians, 28 of them children. Another airstrike was carried out on December 24.[37]
Despite these tensions between the US and Yemen, as well as increasing worries about terrorism in Yemen, President Obama has stated that he has no plans to introduce US military forces into the country, a sentiment that was echoed by US General David Petraeus. However, the terrorism worries seemed justified as a foiled terrorist plot was apparently conceived in Yemen. Instead of military intervention, the US government intends to increase military aid to $140 million in 2010.[39]
Geopolitical significance of Yemen (primarily its straits and oil fields) keeps this country in the sphere of the U.S. strategic interests. Control over the Aden port - the "gate to Asia" - brings huge benefits to the Americans and opens the infinite possibilities for maneuver in front of them. However, Americans are not the only nation to be interested in Yemen. China is struggling to improve its influence in Sri Lanka and Burma to form the new transport paths in the Persian Gulf, Africa and Middle East area as naval paths of the Indian Ocean are believed to be the “aortas of the Chinese economic organism”.
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