The Saudi’s Man in Yemen’s Sa’dah: Hadi Tarshan Abdullah Tarshan al-Waeli
The Saudi’s Man in Yemen’s Sa’dah: Hadi Tarshan Abdullah Tarshan al-Waeli
Despite the United Nations-backed peace talks to end the war in Yemen—which recently concluded in Stockholm, Sweden—the Saudi-led international coalition continues to conduct a campaign to capture the northwest Yemeni governorate of Sa’dah, on the Yemeni-Saudi border, from the Ansar Allah (Partisans of God, a.k.a. Houthis) movement (al-Arabiyya [Dubai], December 16; al-Jazeera [Doha], December 7; Sky News Arabia [Abu Dhabi], December 3). These combat operations are primarily being conducted by the coalition through the support of local Yemeni militias that are loyal to the Saudi-backed government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. Overseeing these coalition-backed combat operations is Major General Sheikh Hadi Tarshan Abdullah Tarshan al-Waeli, who since August 2016 is the Hadi-appointed governor of Sa’dah governorate and the official chief of the local Yemeni military forces that are backed by the Saudi-led coalition in the campaign to capture Sa’dah governorate from the Houthis (Okaz [Riyadh], November 10; YouTube, August 1; Mareb Press, August 22, 2016).
Tarshan, 50, is a native of the al-Safra’ district of Sa’dah governorate, which is located in the central part of the governorate and lies on the approach to the governorate’s major eponymous city of Sa’dah, the traditional stronghold of the Houthi movement (Hunaradaa [Sa’dah], August 22, 2016). He is also a prominent member of a sheikhly lineage within the Waela tribe, a large tribe that is located in different areas of Yemen, and in southwest Saudi Arabia, but is particularly concentrated and powerful in Sa’dah governorate (al-Jazirah [Riyadh], March 3, 2017). The Waela are a multi-sectarian tribe (Zaydi Shia, Ismaili Shia, and Sunni), and Tarshan is from a Sunni branch of the tribe which is closely associated with the Yemen’s powerful Salafist movement (al-Raeed [Sana’a], March 14, 2014; Akhbar al-Yom [Sana’a], February 4, 2013; al-Jazeera [Doha], January 12, 2012).
The Waela tribe, as a whole, has had a difficult relationship with the Houthi movement, and there have been periodic clashes between Waela tribesmen and Houthi fighters over the last decade (al-Bayan [Dubai], October 18, 2016; al-Watan [Riyadh], December 15, 2010; Mareb Press, January 21, 2006). In his role as the military commander of the local Yemeni partner forces of the Saudi-led coalition, Tarshan has put particular emphasis on recruiting, training, and mobilizing fighters from the Waela tribe to participate in operations against the Houthis (al-Sahwa Yemen [Sa’dah], March 14, 2017; al-Jazirah [Riyadh], March 3, 2017) Tarhshan represents the Waela as the spokesman of the “Forum of the Sons of Sa’dah Governorate,” and as the secretary-general of the “Bloc of Elders of Sa’dah Governorate,” both of which are Saudi-led coalition backed efforts to create social and political space to contest the Houthi movement’s rule over Sa’dah (Hunaradaa [Sa’dah], August 22, 2016).
Significantly, although he has been given a high military rank by Hadi’s government and the Saudi-led coalition, Tarshan does not have a military background. Instead, he has risen to prominence through politics, as over the course of his career he has served in different roles in the Yemeni government, starting his career in Yemen’s Ministry of Education (Hunaradaa [Sa’dah], August 22, 2016). Prior to his appointment as governor of Sa’dah governorate by Hadi in August, Tarshan served as Hadi’s Assistant Secretary for Political Affairs (Hunaradaa [Sa’dah], August 22, 2016). This was a position that allowed him to serve as the interface between the Saudi-led coalition and local Yemeni forces in central and northern Yemen that supported the Hadi government. It put him on Saudi Arabia’s radar as a local leader in Sa’dah that could be empowered by the coalition.
Tarshan became an important figure in the Sa’dah governorate branch of the Islah Party, which is the Yemen affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood, and which is a political movement that in Yemen receives thes patronage of Saudi Arabia. He continues to be connected to the movement by serving as the head of its Social Department (Mareb Press, August 22, 2016; al-Raeed [Sana’a], March 14, 2014; Akhbar al-Yom [Sana’a], February 4, 2013).
In the tumultuous period after Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh left office in early 2012 and prior to the Houthi takeover of Sana’a in October 2014, Tarshan was a member of the National Dialogue effort to create a post-Saleh Yemeni constitution and government. He contributed to the subsequent international efforts to support the National Dialogue (YouTube, February 12; Hunaradaa [Sa’dah], August 22, 2016). It was during this time period that Tarshan emerged as a vocal critic of the Houthi movement, due to the Houthi dominance over Sa’dah governorate, its antagonistic role in the National Dialogue process, and its conflict with the Waela (YouTube, February 12; Yemen Press [Sana’a] January 15, 2014; YouTube, November 4, 2013; Akhbar al-Yom [Sana’a], February 4, 2013). Tarshan was appointed the governor of Sa’dah governorate by Hadi in August 2016, and shortly thereafter he began making significant public appearances in both Arab media and in coalition-controlled areas of Sa’dah governorate (YouTube, June 25; YouTube, May 31; YouTube, April 29; YouTube, January 13). He is featured particularly prominently in his day-to-day capacity as a military chief and his role overseeing the war effort in Sa’dah governorate (YouTube, January 18, 2018; Facebook, December 27, 2017; Yemen Voice [Sa’dah], November 11, 2017; YouTube, January 25, 2017).
Tarshan’s history in the Yemeni civil war represents an interesting example of the challenges facing Saudi Arabia’s effort to build an alternate power structure to the Houthis in northern Yemen. Tarshan’s influence within the Waela tribe—which Saudi Arabia has enhanced by fully backing him—is important because the Waela provide a locally powerful socio-political force in Sa’dah that can be activated to serve as Tarshan’s enforcers. The Waela’s contentious relationship with the Houthis, which has featured significant bouts of conflict between the tribe and the Houthi movement, also provides him, and Saudi Arabia, with a pool of tribal gunmen who have a vested interest in repressing Houthi activities in Sa’dah. Ultimately, Tarshan’s role in the Saudi-backed coalition effort in Sa’dah governorate is not so much as a military commander as it is to present a ready-made “son of Sa’dah” who is willing and able to step in and lead a local security and governance structure in the wake of the Houthis.
