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Abdulghani Al-Iryani

Abdulghani Al-Iryani is a senior researcher at the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies where he focuses on the peace process, conflict analysis and transformations of the Yemeni state. Al-Iryani has more than three decades of experience as a political and development consultant.

Prior to joining the Sana’a Center, Al-Iryani worked with the United Nations in the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen and with the United Nations Development Programme’s mission in Hudaydah, as well as with the World Bank on issues related to the conflict in Yemen. He has conducted research on constitutional reform, anti-corruption, governance, government capacity, state-building, and conflict management and resolution as well as social and economic development.

Since the 1980s, Al-Iryani has consulted for a number of international organizations, including UN agencies, the World Bank, DFID, GIZ, USAID and AUSAID. His volunteer work includes co-founding and serving as president of TAWQ, a political NGO advocating democracy. He also served on the Advisory Board of Human Rights Watch MENA Region.

Abdulghani's latest contributions

Ramadan Truce Faces Uphill Struggle – The Yemen Review, March 2022

April 7, 2022
March saw an escalation in cross-border attacks between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, with Houthi missiles and drones targeting Saudi oil and gas infrastructure, and the kingdom responding with airstrikes … Read more

Yemen and Saudi Part II: A Future of Neighborly Relations

March 30, 2022
For seven decades, leaders and pundits from Yemen and Saudi Arabia have capitalized on the differences and conflicting interests between the two nations to advocate adversarial, often antagonistic … Read more

When Giants Strike – The Yemen Review, January & February 2022

March 15, 2022
The Houthi threat to Marib that dominated 2021 set in motion a shift in strategy by Saudi Arabia that restored the vanguard role to the United Arab Emirates and its allied Yemeni forces. The turning … Read more

An Unneighborly Rapport: How Yemeni-Saudi Relations Went Astray

December 24, 2021
The Taif Treaty between North Yemen and Saudi Arabia ended the 1934 war between the two states and led to the Saudi annexation of the disputed provinces of Najran, Jizan and Asir. The treaty … Read more

The Houthis’ Fatal Military Success

October 13, 2021
Seven years into the Yemen war, nearly everyone has come to accept what was obvious from the start: foreign military interventions carry within them the seeds of their own failure. The arrogance of … Read more