Last week, some key Yemen's sheikhs, tribal leaders, and social leaders met in Amman with sponsorship of EU and facilitation of Sana'a Center for Studies and the International Crisis Initiative Organization.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the participants called on all parties in Yemen for a comprehensive and immediate cease-fire, opening all roads, protecting the Yemeni people, and releasing all detainees and prisoners. They also called for activating customary rules which will be the guarantor of the relationship between Yemenis to ensure respecting residential zones, and displacement camps which shall be removed of their military targets.

Moreover, they called on the UN envoy and mediators to present their visions for solution leading to ending the war, partnership under the umbrella of the Republic of Yemen, ensuring justice and equal citizenship, stressing sustainable peace and a plurality of comprehensive paths, stressing the start from effective locality, leading to political leaders and components.

Further, the Sheikhs also demanded the abolishing of the current financial division in the various parts of the country; to alleviate the suffering of the citizens, supply all financial resources to the Central Bank to be spent in favor of basic services in all provinces of Yemen, pay the salaries of state employees. Additionally, they called on brothers and friends to enhance economic support, and appealed to the United Nations and the international community, especially the European Union, to strengthen the role of the tribe and its tools in containing the conflict and its impacts, and providing guarantees for the efforts of local mediators, to support and facilitate a general conference for all Yemeni tribes, and to hold meetings at the governorate level, and to invite social and tribal dignitaries to join these founding efforts.

The conferees urged the sponsors of the Riyadh and Stockholm Agreements, and all local agreements, to adhere and activate the implement these agreements to stop the bloodshed among Yemenis.

Undoubtedly, the call for peace in the great ordeal that is grinding Yemen is key and welcomed, as well as the call for the release of detainees, the release of prisoners, the call for respecting residential houses and IDP camps, the payment of salaries and the control and disbursement of resources for the benefit of basic public services - are all significant and welcome.

However, the meeting has not referred to the diagnosis of the crisis; given the fact that the participants are caught between the hammer of Ansar Allah (Houthis) and the anvil of the Arab coalition, and they are an essential part of the plight of Yemen, and part of the solution as most of the battles are taking place in their areas, and the largest number of their sons and members of their tribes are involved in this complex and catastrophic war. In fact, the tribe and its leaders - as a social structure - constituted and are still the main party in the wars of the past, and in contemporary history, specifically since 1948, 1955, 1962, October 14, 1963, the 72, 79, 94, and even the six Sa'ada wars.

The tribe and its symbols had the greatest role, and they were not far from the tragedies of the conflicts of January 13, 1986 in the south. The tribe also had a pivotal role in the inter-revolutions and internal conflicts, and the current war that swept Yemen in the north, south, east and west, in which civil and civil society participate, and the tribe and its leaders are no longer the only party. Similarly, political parties have involved, and were distributed on the fronts and within militias. Therefore, the tribe was not the only one who had a monopoly on the crisis, and therefore. Consequently, the tribe cannot be alone in resolving the crisis as it calls for in the final statement of their meeting.

The essence of the conflict in Yemen goes back since the flourishing of civil and political life in Aden, in the thirties and forties of the last century, and the emergence of parties and the unification and civil movement, the 48th movement, and the Yemeni revolution: September and October, and the establishment of unity - is reflected in the demand for building a civil state as the goal of the all democratic powers was to build a civil and democratic state, however, despite the affirmation of the political parties’ programs and statements, achieving such civil state remained the biggest absentee.

In my opinion, the main challenge - as key as life issue, which is the greatest and common denominator - is to advocate and stop the war, and to enter into a comprehensive dialogue in which all colors of the societal, intellectual and political spectrum participate in co-founding a civil life, and building their democratic civil entity that does not exclude anyone.  It is no longer acceptable or possible to believe in the saying that “the tribe is the solution and the decision-maker” as the participants in Amman meeting imagine, nor to jump on the tribe either.

What should be emphasized is the fact that it is impossible for any party to find a solution alone, and a fortiori, it is impossible for one party to rule the diverse and plural Yemen. It is the sin of those gathered to call on the United Nations and the international community to support the tribe and enhance its status; Yemenis and the international community are aware that the components of the pre-state era - not only in Yemen, but in the entire Arab region - are a major source of war, and the evidence is the existing dismantling in a number of Arab countries. Not only that but the memory of the Yemenis about the lived wars, and the role of the tribal leaders in the congresses of the soldiers, Amran, Khamer, Taif and Haradh, is still present and alive.

The demonization of the tribe is no longer feasible, and its leaders' obsession with exclusivity is false and imprudent. The tribe cannot be bypassed by political preaching or by general and abstract theorizing. Only comprehensive societal transformations can create modern societal structures, which the Arab revolutions failed to achieve, especially in Yemen.

A lot of changes and events has flowed since the thirties of the last century, and wars marginalized the entity and Yemeni society, and the events confirmed the overlap between social and civil societies, which necessitates reading and re-reading the reality of Yemen. Therefore, the call to stop the conflict is the greatest and common denominator between popular and civil societies, party leaders, sheikhs, clan leaders and social figures.

This good call must be embodied in realistic practice. Moreover, the tribe is not a societal structure, but it is also values, ideas and traditions that nest and spread in the community awareness, and the mentality and behavior of party leaders are not far from this influence.

The passion for conflict, and claims of distinction to the point of arrogance, are a tribal trait: “We have the chest without the worlds or the grave,” and it was dressed up in modern robes by chauvinistic nationalism and Stalinism.

Blaming the tribe for being the sole responsible body is self-acquittal while praising it, and overlooking its faults, is a fundamental reason for the situation that are living now.

The Arab revolution, and the Yemeni one in particular, were preoccupied with grim conflicts, reliance on force, criminalization, treason, and demonization of the different, but failed to embody the values ​​of coexistence, tolerance and modernity. Furthermore, the revolutionary sovereignty has also failed to upgrade and develop the structure sufficiently, and thus declined to move from the incomplete “revolutionary legitimacy” to the democratic legitimacy and civil rule, and abolished freedom and democracy, respect for human rights, and most importantly, the absence of comprehensive economic, social and cultural reforms, and the failure to protect and preserve them.