Yemenis, men and women everywhere,
Peace be upon you. 
Peace be upon Greater Yemen. 
Peace be upon Yemen itself—wounded yet enduring— a land that carries the patience of centuries and the will that does not bend.
Peace be upon every free Yemeni who will neither barter away the homeland nor accept its fragmentation or subjugation.
Peace be upon February and those who remain steadfast in its cause, firm in their convictions and unwavering in their principles.
On this fifteenth anniversary of the February 11, 2011 Revolution, I greet you   
not from pride alone, but from the solemn responsibility owed to the present and the future. 
That peaceful February Revolution was no transient episode, but a founding moment that laid bare the essence of Yemen’s struggle: between the project of a modern state, anchored in equal citizenship, justice, and the rule of law, and the projects of tyranny, coup, and guardianship, which seek to deny Yemen its freedom and prevent it from standing as a sovereign, independent nation.
Fifteen years have passed since that peaceful uprising, and more than a decade since the militia coup, the war, and the imposed tutelage. Yet February remains: a moral compass, a political standard, a roadmap out of the tunnel of despair, towards peace, justice, and the restoration of the state.
In the Revolution of February 11—youthful in spirit, popular in breadth, and peaceful in purpose—the people of Yemen rose as one, guided by the courage of their youth and the resolve of their women, having grown weary of a state consumed by corruption, tyranny, failure, and dependency.
They envisioned a nation founded on justice, freedom, dignity, partnership, development, and the rule of law. They marched with demands as clear as dawn: a state of institutions, not individuals; a state of law, not weapons.
They chose the path of peace, believing that legitimacy is born from the will of the people, never from coercion or oppression.
The February Revolution was was never a contest for power, but a struggle over the very meaning of the state itself.
It was not about replacing one ruler with another, nor exchanging the state for militias,
nor trading the republic for tutelage.
It was about reclaiming the state, and returning it to its rightful owners: the people.
The revolution erupted after the Yemeni state under Ali Abdullah Saleh reached a profound impasse and institutional collapse. 
The state had been hijacked and reduced to a personal fiefdom dominated by one individual, his family, and tribal loyalties, where allegiance replaced governance by institutions.
Public wealth was systematically plundered, corruption became entrenched, the economy deteriorated, and poverty and unemployment surged. 
Despite Yemen’s considerable resources and potential, it was classified internationally as a fragile and failing state—an outcome of a regime that converted national institutions into networks serving the ruler and his inner circle rather than the Yemeni people.
Ali Abdullah Saleh ruled by the logic of manufactured crises, by the cold calculus of “divide and rule.” Division, conflict, and war were not accidents, but deliberate instruments for clinging to power.
Violence was no anomaly in his reign— it was the very marrow of his regime. For more than three decades, he led Yemen through unending wars, igniting conflicts, conjuring enemies, and employing terror as a weapon— to silence dissent within, and to blackmail forces without.
Thus justice eroded, and the state itself was hollowed into an entity governed not by law, but by fear.
Despite every attempt at peaceful reform, the doors to change were sealed shut. The deadlock reached its peak when the constitution itself was bent toward extending his rule, followed by a scheme to bequeath power to his son, and to transform the nation’s security and military institutions into the private estate of one man and his family.
This, in a country that had once rejected hereditary imamate rule, and built its identity upon republicanism and democracy. Thus, the betrayal was not only political, but a violation of the very spirit of Yemen’s republic.
Here, the causes of the explosion gathered like storm clouds, and Yemenis lost faith in a state that no longer spoke for them, no longer guarded their dignity, no longer offered them a life of decency.
At that moment, revolution ceased to be a political choice, a matter that could be delayed or bargained. It became instead a historical necessity— the inevitable cry of a people who refused to surrender their future to silence and decay.
The failed, corrupt, and despotic rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh created every condition, every reason, for revolution. Thus, the peaceful February 11th Revolution rose as a profound project of national salvation.
It embodied the moral and political will of the Yemeni people: to reclaim governance as a trust of the people, not an inheritance of the ruler; to rescue the Yemeni state from erosion and collapse— security, political, economic, and social alike; and to rebuild it as a unified, democratic, independent republic.
A republic of institutions, not individuals; of equal citizenship, justice, development, partnership, and good governance. A state worthy of the sacrifices of its people, and of the future awaiting its generations yet to come.
During the peaceful revolution, Yemenis faced a stark choice: violence—the easier path in a country awash with an estimated 70 million weapons—or peaceful struggle, the more arduous and costly road. With deep awareness and a sense of historical responsibility, they chose peaceful resistance as a strategic commitment, not a temporary tactic, fully aware that the regime thrived on violence and sought to provoke it.
Through peaceful resistance, Yemenis stripped the regime of its moral legitimacy, exposing its true nature at home and abroad and revealing its brutality to the world. They believed that only nonviolent struggle could dismantle the legitimacy of injustice, safeguard society, unite diverse communities around a just cause, and open the path toward genuine development, lasting justice, and sustainable peace.
For months, Yemenis answered bullets with chants and violence with patience, steadfast in their peaceful course until they compelled the dictator to relinquish power in November 2011—a triumph of popular will over tyranny.
O great Yemeni people, across our beloved homeland and throughout the diaspora,
Following the victory of the February Revolution and the fall of the regime’s head, Yemen entered a comprehensive transitional phase grounded in inclusion rather than revenge. No political force was excluded, including the ruling party whose leader the revolution had overthrown. Despite serious shortcomings and grave missteps, this period—guided by the spirit of the peaceful revolution, its values, and its forward-looking vision—witnessed genuine and unprecedented achievements.
Just as the February Revolution offered the world a rare example of a great peaceful uprising, it also presented a promising model of governance during the three years of transition. Peace and political engagement replaced violence and war, long used as tools of rule. Fundamental freedoms flourished in an unprecedented climate, most notably freedoms of opinion, expression, assembly, and peaceful protest. Political detentions ceased, leaving no political prisoners during the transitional period. Salaries were raised, major corruption deals were halted, relative economic stability was achieved, and confidence in state institutions began to recover.
The transition also launched an inclusive national dialogue that brought together Yemenis from north to south and east to west. It addressed the country’s most pressing challenges and aspirations, including the structure of the state, transitional justice, economic reform, rights and freedoms, military restructuring, and the Saada and Southern issues. This dialogue produced a national document outlining consensus outcomes and a progressive draft constitution—one capable of transforming Yemen into a state founded on rights and freedoms, equal citizenship, accountability, participation, and the rule of law, paving the way for a peaceful transition to a modern state.
Yemen stood only days away from a constitutional referendum and a democratic transition through free elections when the ousted president, Ali Abdullah Saleh—driven by vengeance against his people and hostility to the very idea of a Yemeni state—formed an alliance with the Houthi militia, a dynastic, imamate-based movement. This alliance constituted one of the gravest acts of betrayal against the Yemeni state and a direct coup against the republic, marking a historic crime against Yemen’s democratic aspirations.
On September 21, 2014, the counter-revolutionary alliance struck— an unholy union of Ali Abdullah Saleh, bolstered by Emirati support and tacit Saudi approval, and the Houthi militia, armed with Iranian backing. Together they staged a coup against the peaceful revolution and its fragile transitional process. The government was besieged, the draft constitution silenced, state institutions seized, and the capital, Sana’a, fell.
Ironically, the counter-revolutionary states—Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE— despite their contradictions and rivalries, found common cause in a single objective: to abort the birth of a modern, independent Yemeni state. Their hostility was not born of Yemen’s weakness, but of its impending strength, its immense potential. They feared a Yemen that could rise as a democratic republic, anchored in the will of its people, and empowered by its strategic location, its vast coastline and islands, its wealth of oil, gas, gold, and minerals, and above all, the resilience and capacity of its people to build, innovate, and invest.
For these powers, an independent and sovereign Yemen would have been a force in the region— a reality they could not welcome, nor could larger global actors who preferred Yemen fragile, ruled by dictators or militias, rather than by its own free institutions.
Thus the counter-revolution aborted a transitional phase that had followed a great peaceful uprising— a revolution that had brought rights, freedoms, and a measure of stability. In its place, they delivered war, chaos, and collapse. Their victory is hollow, temporary. For the meaning of February has not been defeated; rather, the depth of fear it inspired has been revealed.
Revolutions are not measured by the moment they are overthrown, but by their endurance as living ideas, as moral values, as compasses for the future.
February endures— a living idea, a guiding star, a promise that will be fulfilled, however long the journey may take.
O great people of Yemen,
The unspoken pact among the counter-revolutionary forces and their patrons was to confine the Houthi–Saleh coup to Sana’a and the northern reaches. Yet when their expansion pressed southward toward Aden, the red line was crossed, and Yemen was plunged into full-scale war.
In March 2015, the Arab Coalition—led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia—intervened under the banner of restoring legitimacy and preventing the collapse of the state. But what began as a promise of salvation soon transformed into a Saudi–Emirati alliance that strayed from its declared purpose. It did not restore the state; it dismantled it. It did not empower legitimacy; it weakened it. It did not confront the Iranian-backed Houthi militia; it raised parallel militias in liberated lands, beholden not to Yemen, nor to its institutions, but to foreign powers.
Thus, the institutions of the state were paralyzed, stripped of authority, and hollowed out. Over ten years of coup and war, the suffering of Yemenis has been compounded—not only by the Houthi takeover, but by the coalition’s deviation into a struggle for power and territory.
Today, under competing authorities, Yemenis endure one of the world’s gravest humanitarian crises:
•    a collapsed economy,
•    paralyzed institutions,
•    a currency in freefall,
•    services reduced to shadows,
•    and millions living under oppression, hunger, and the absence of protection and rights.
In this context, the Emirati role emerged as the most perilous to the trajectory of the Yemeni state, the most prominent in its dismantling and destruction— a danger we had long forewarned.
This role was neither accidental nor fleeting, but part of a deliberate, comprehensive project to re-engineer Yemen—security-wise, politically, and militarily— in ways that serve Emirati and foreign interests.
From the very first moment of war, the UAE seized ports, islands, airports, coastlines, and oil and gas sites. It focused on militarizing the south, constructing separatist entities, and raising armed militias parallel to the state.
Thus, its role shifted: from supporting legitimacy to undermining it, from confronting the coup to orchestrating parallel coups, from defending unity to pushing for division— between a dynastic, coup-born authority in the north, and separatist militias in the south.
As this project expanded into Hadramawt and Al-Mahra, the Saudi–Emirati dispute erupted into open conflict. What had once been simmering tensions now flared into confrontation, after the Southern Transitional Council militia, backed by the UAE, invaded Hadramawt and Al-Mahra.
At that moment, Emirati expansion became a direct threat to Saudi national security. For Hadramawt is not merely a Yemeni province of strategic weight— it is a security depth for the Kingdom, an advanced line of defense for its stability. Thus Saudi Arabia intervened decisively, ending the Emirati military role, removing it from the Yemeni equation, and effectively expelling it from the battlefield.
Yet Hadramawt revealed more than a clash of arms. It exposed the truth that Yemen’s war was never simply an internal struggle between “legitimacy” and “coup.” It was, and remains, an arena of regional competition over territory and influence. It showed that chaos in Yemen is not a mere byproduct of war, but a deliberate instrument of power. Partition was not accident, but policy— a calculated design within a broader regional conflict.
What unfolded in Hadramawt was also an implicit admission: that dismantling Yemen, as rejected by its people, is no longer an acceptable option for Saudi and regional interests. But unless the course is corrected— unless the national state is empowered— the cost of chaos will not remain confined within Yemen. It will spill across the region, threatening its security and stability, and foremost among them, the security of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Here I address a message to Saudi Arabia:
Today, with the UAE expelled from the coalition and its destructive projects curtailed, a genuine horizon for peace begins to unfold. The picture is clearer: a recognized Yemeni state, supported by the Kingdom, standing against the Iranian-backed Houthi militia. This clarity opens a historic window—one through which the state may be restored and the coup brought to an end.
The swift victories in Hadramawt, Al-Mahra, and Shabwa, culminating in the liberation of Aden, were not passing moments. They instilled deep confidence among Yemenis in a serious Saudi shift—toward restoring the state and safeguarding its territorial integrity. This confidence is the most vital element for any future campaign, whether political or military.
By the same logic, Sana’a too can be liberated if this momentum continues. In this moment, a rare opportunity arises: to fully restore the Yemeni state, serving both Yemen’s destiny and the security of Saudi Arabia and the Arab world. With Iran’s waning reach and Saudi Arabia’s growing strength, the choices are stark:
•    Either a comprehensive peace—built on disarming the Houthis, ensuring independent national decision-making, and integrating them as an unarmed civilian component of political life;
•    Or a decisive victory that retakes Sana’a, establishes a unified state, and ushers in a political process free of weapons.
The gravest danger lies in remaining suspended between war and peace. The worst path is hesitation: transferring militias from Emirati to Saudi sponsorship, or dividing Yemen into spheres of influence. Such policies recycle chaos instead of resolving it, and grant the Houthis time to rebuild, to cloak themselves in the rhetoric of sovereignty and unity, and to expand under the guise of the state.
There is no path to lasting peace, nor to making Yemen a cornerstone of regional security, except by fully supporting the legitimate government, unifying forces under its command, providing genuine economic backing, empowering institutions to govern liberated areas, and advancing steadily toward Sana’a—peacefully if possible, decisively if necessary.
This is no posture, no mandate for any faction. It is a clear equation: a unified and strong Yemen is a strategic depth for its neighbors, while a fragmented Yemen will remain a source of drain and instability for the entire region.
A Message to the Yemeni Political Elite:
Our nation is wounded, and our people have borne a heavy price. To abandon the task of rescuing them is not merely negligence—it is a moral and historical betrayal. The current authority must restore the credibility of institutions and the very meaning of the state, presenting in the liberated areas a model worthy of respect. Parliament must convene, oversight must be exercised, and legitimacy must no longer remain beyond accountability.
Build a successful model in the liberated lands, and the Houthis will fall. There are no excuses left. Either correct your course or step aside. Neither you nor the Houthis are destiny imposed upon the Yemeni people. We stand with you so long as you stand with the Republic, unity, and the people’s supreme interests; we will stand against you if you deviate, corrupt, or betray.
End weapons outside the state’s command. Dismantle militias beyond its authority. Halt the war economy. Reject foreign tutelage. Present a genuine model in the liberated areas—one that secures citizens, delivers services, and manages public funds transparently.
Only then will peace be born as the natural fruit of state-building— not as a fragile truce, but as a lasting covenant, shielding Yemen from the return of war.
Finally, free Yemenis,
In recent years, politics has been marginalized, stripped of its national responsibility, and turned into a reprehensible act—blocking the government from addressing public affairs. This crime opened the gates to violence, militias, and obscurantist agendas. When politics is silenced, weapons rule; when debate is suppressed, extremism advances and chaos spreads.
We must therefore guard against demonizing political action, parties, elections, democracy, and accountability. Closing the public sphere serves only militias and narrow factions.
Despite the brutality of coup and war, Yemen’s conflict has remained political—about power and the meaning of the state—not sectarian or ethnic. This reflects the awareness and cohesion of Yemeni society, a source of pride and strength. Yemen has not been defeated, for nations fall only when they lose their moral compass. Yemenis have preserved theirs, along with the idea of homeland and the dream of a state.
Peace is possible because society remains unbroken, and Yemenis have shown both the will and capacity to achieve it. This is why they rose in February, why they endured, and why their project remains alive.
February has not ended. It is not a date, but a compass. The further we stray from it, the more lost we become; the closer we return to its values, the nearer we are to salvation.
Glory to the martyrs. 
Freedom for the detainees. 
Dignity for all Yemenis. 
Victory for a just, unified, democratic republic.
Glory to the great republican Yemen. 
May God have mercy on the martyrs, and heal the wounded.
Peace be upon you, and God’s mercy and blessings.