Surprising Sentiments from Yemen

In the past 90 days the United States has conducted several major airstrikes in Yemen against Houthi targets.

One might expect sentiment around the United States in Yemeni media to have declined after a strike. When we looked at the question of Yemeni sentiment towards the U.S. in Talisman, Filter Labs’ flagship data platform, that is not what we found.

Although much of the sentiment surrounding the U.S. is negative, the three illustrative strikes we looked at seemed to have little impact; and what little impact there was seemed to be positive. Talisman gives us four potential reasons the trend line looks the way that it does:

Yemenis care about more than just the Houthis. In fact, the two biggest stories driving negative sentiment towards the U.S. in December were the fall of Assad and perceived U.S. alignment with Israel. On the latter, news outlets reported that the U.S. was “pouring oil on the fire and igniting more fires in the region, with the aim of protecting its interests and defending its protégé, Israel,” and that “there is little to no end in sight concerning “US-Zionist aggression.”
U.S. security cooperation = positive. Public sentiment rose when the Yemeni press covered interaction between the Yemeni government and the U.S. For example, the press reported positively on a meeting between Yemen’s Prime Minister, Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, and US Central Command. The two parties “reviewed strategies to enhance the operational capabilities of the Yemeni Armed Forces, with the aim of enhancing security and stability in the region.”
Yemenis liked seeing their leader on the global stage. The Yemeni press also followed the PM as he visited the United Nations in New York City and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC.
Yemenis also think the Houthis are terrorists. Sentiment rose to its peak right after the Trump administration designated the Houthis a “foreign terrorist organization” on January 22. The Yemeni Prime Minister applauded the decision, calling it “an important measure…to dismantle the structure of these Iranian-backed terrorist militias and protect citizens affected by their repressive behavior.”

The strikes on the Houthis have not been the main drivers of sentiment around the United States. By gathering hard-to-find local data, we were able to see that the real drivers of sentiment were narratives about the U.S.-Yemeni relationship more broadly—narratives that, for the moment, are trending in a positive direction.

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