News - Yemen: A prominent Arab geopolitical scholar has urged the Arab National Conference (ANC) to fundamentally rethink its mission and rhetoric, warning that it risks becoming irrelevant unless it aligns itself with the spirit and sacrifices of the region’s resistance movements.

Issam Al-Saadi, Dean of the Mashriq Institute for Geopolitical Studies and a former member of the ANC’s General Secretariat, described the recent address by Sayyed Abdulmalik al-Houthi at the 34th session of the Beirut conference as a “rifle speech”—a label he said equally applies to the address delivered by Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem.

Al-Saadi said both speeches represented “genuine revolutionary discourse,” reflecting “the will of the battlefield and the great sacrifices made from Yemen to Gaza and Lebanon.” He called for these messages to guide the conference through its next phase.

He urged the ANC to “elevate its goals and tools” to match the level of this “revolutionary discourse,” warning that if the conference cannot integrate itself into the broader landscape of confrontation, “it will find itself outside history and outside the resistance.”

The scholar praised Yemen’s role in the regional resistance axis, highlighting the massive weekly Friday marches in solidarity with Gaza, which he described as a model for Arab societies and political forces. He called for the emergence of a new, youthful, “revolution-spirited” elite, and for traditional elites to step aside, stressing that “those who abandon the idea of sacrifice cannot resist,” and that resistance has no room for “opportunists or shaky elites.”

Al-Saadi criticized the conference for lacking a fundamental principle of intellectual and political work—“criticism and self-criticism”—and described its current and past sessions as a “regurgitation of old documents,” reflecting a failure to renew and develop its message.

He said the ANC’s discourse remains “worn-out,” tied to political elites that have long remained “on the margins of resistance” and built “high walls” between themselves and their people.

According to Al-Saadi, the Al-Aqsa Flood and the blood spilled from Yemen, Palestine, and Lebanon had “stirred stagnant waters” and exposed the true nature of Arab elites. Yet, he argued, the upheaval “did not penetrate these elites” or the political parties and organizations weakened by political repression and fragmentation, widening the gap between them and the broader public.

The Arab National Conference, he said, now stands “face-to-face with a great challenge imposed by the resistance.” He noted that the conference still has an opportunity to “rebuild itself” and realign its discourse with the foundations of the current resistance movement—namely “the militant and revolutionary achievements forged in blood and sacrifice.”

Al-Saadi warned that if the conference fails to harness this historical moment to confront US and Israeli enemy power, it will inevitably find itself “outside history and outside the resistance.”

He stressed the need to “elevate the level of Arab nationalist discourse” to match that of resistance leaders, citing influential speeches delivered at the conference, especially that of Sayyed Abdulmalik al-Houthi, which he described as “a true revolutionary speech rooted in the battlefield and blood—one that believes in the victory of tomorrow.” He also called for a comprehensive restructuring of the ANC’s internal organization.

Al-Saadi welcomed the election of Maher Al-Taher as the new Secretary-General—marking the first time the post goes to a Palestinian figure—in recognition of the sacrifices of the Palestinian people.

He concluded that the Arab nation cannot rebuild itself while the Israeli occupation remains entrenched, asserting that the conference must guide its efforts “toward the rifle, toward liberation, and toward forever.”

The 34th Arab National Congress convened amid escalating regional tensions driven by the Gaza war and the widening confrontation with the Israeli enemy. Yemen’s sustained support for Gaza over the past two years has strengthened its standing across Arab political and intellectual circles, reinforcing calls to restore Arab-Islamic unity and intensify collective resistance to Western and Zionist domination.