to US & western (mostly Britain) multinationals. Dictators or even Democratic countries that nationalize their oil production are our enemy.
You have had AQAP controlling the Southwest territory for the longest time but when the Houthis seized the capital that was a big concern which came a Saudi led coalition featuring Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, Sudan, and Jordan. I have yet to look into the country profile of UAE but all those countries are oppressive human rights violators that are mostly dictatorships.
Kuwait is pretty Democratic -- the Parliament appoints a Monarchy that can apparently dissolve them whenever convienent which is kind of weird but only the wealthy elite & corruption is rampant. Bribery & kickbacks are incredibly common
--
CAIRO — Two of Kuwait’s largest banks thought it a bit suspicious when about $92 million was transferred into the accounts of two members of Parliament.
So the National Bank of Kuwait and the Kuwait Finance House alerted the public prosecutor, who decided last week to open an investigation not just into those suspicious deposits, but also into the account activity of seven other members of Parliament, as well.
<snip>
The corruption inquiry threatens to put the government into an impossible position, Mr. Ghabra said. If the emir allows Parliament to remain in place while at least one-fifth of its members are investigated for graft, he risks the growth of ever larger street protests and an erosion of public trust. But if he dissolves Parliament and calls for new elections, public outrage could help usher in a legislature hostile to the monarchy and more assertive in demands for constitutional changes.
“All that the government has in its hand is money, and it thinks it can use it to buy itself time,” Mr. Ghabra said, “but this scandal came about because the government has been using money to buy loyalty” from lawmakers. “We are getting more and more into a situation where money cannot solve the country’s problems. Those who have it do not use it wisely, and the result is a scandal like this that carries a very high political cost.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/world/middleeast/corruption-inquiry-rocks-kuwait.html
There was also a huge Army officer scandal at Arif Jan from 2005-2008 whose job was to find businesses to contract a variety of supplies & services (the biggest one was a water bottle company) so they took bribes to give the businesses the contracts. The defense contractors were doing this to as well but unlike the military don't have a UCMJ & independent enforcement such as CID who conducted the investigation & charged the Officers (a few killed themselves after they were caught).
Egypt I'm not really sure, on paper they're Democratic & there was a popular uprising against the Saudi-Qatari backed Mubarak which led to Morsi so Saudi-Qatar helped out the overthrow of him for the next guy who is their friend that recently jailed protestors for lifetime sentences -- including a US journalist. During this time the US sold them military weapons & equipment.
The Yemen government was a top 10 most corrupt country widely considered a "kleptocracy" that was a brutal human rights violators of dissenters or those suspicious of being of dissenters.
The government and its security forces, often considered to suffer from rampant corruption,[262] have been responsible for torture, inhumane treatment, and extrajudicial executions. There are arbitrary arrests of citizens, especially in the south, as well as arbitrary searches of homes. Prolonged pretrial detention is a serious problem, and judicial corruption, inefficiency, and executive interference undermine due process. Freedom of speech, the press, and religion are all restricted.[263] Journalists who tend to be critical of the government are often harassed and threatened by the police.[222] Homosexuality is illegal, punishable by death.[264]
Since the start of the Shia insurgency, many people accused of supporting Al-Houthi have been arrested and held without charge or trial. According to the U.S. State Department International Religious Freedom Report 2007, "Some Zaydis reported harassment and discrimination by the Government because they were suspected of sympathizing with the al-Houthis. However, it appears the Government's actions against the group were probably politically, not religiously, motivated".[265]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemen#Contemporary_Yemen
Your question is interesting on many levels, one reason why is because Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (with many Saudi nationals in their ranks) which is an enemy both the US & Houthis forces share but fighting on the same side as the Hadi loyalists which is who the Saudi-coalition is backing.
Yemen has had countless civil wars since the '60s and probably much longer before, generally the divisions remain the same. The area Houthis control was always the "Socialist" or "Marxist" side & the Hadi & AQAP side right wing. After "North" & "South Yemen" reunified in 1990 there was a Socialist purge. For the longest time Saudi Arabia has been assisting the side that wasn't "Socialist" and somehow AQAP magically appears.
It is easier to make sense of it all when viewing all these conflicts & who is allied with who from an economics lens. Iran nationalizes oil production & a lot of other things including subsidizing health care & other social programs so them gaining influence is a threat to Gulf corporations & foreign multinationals. Saudi Arabia is driven by pushing their Wahabbism but they're practically Libertarian in the sense of regulations & labor rights (non-existent, especially for the imported poor of Asian & Africa workers) -- acquiring massive wealth with human trafficking & slavery.
It gets complicated other places such as the Iraqi government which is allied with Iran with the Iran backed militias (who Iraq prefers to use the unregulated army than the Iraq Army) & ISIS really complicates thing (heavily financed by wealthy donors from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, & Qatar) so you have the US on the same side as Iran basically but Iraq has record levels of oil production & exports with Shell, Exxon, & BP. Iraq also has Russian & Chinese oil companies there too, Iraq is one of those countries that purchase arms from both US & Russia. Which is why the US is OK with the Iraq government for now even though they are brutally oppressing the countries religious minorities.
ISIS I'd guess the US cares so much is they threaten the oil production in a country that handles it more favorably on their terms but the biggest oil field are in the South east corner (where Saddam accused Kuwait of slant drilling in the '90s). Whoever controls the rivers controls the water supply controls the country, Saddam flooded Shia crops or shut it off whenever they were uncooperative, same idea behind the river & dam battles.
Iraq like Yemen & Afghanistan is a top 10 country. Business corruption & corruption in general is rampant in Iraq especially in the area of awarding business contracts (a lot like Kuwait).
Syria is ruled by the Alawite (sect of Shia Islam) Assad who is up there in human rights violations but the reason the US occasionally mentions an interest in regime change is because they nationalize oil production & are very picky with foreign investors they let in. Mostly India & China.
This was recent information
A more recent entrant into the Syrian oil sector was the United Kingdom's Gulfsands Petroleum. At the beginning of 2011, its oil fields produced 20,700 bbl/d (3,290 m3/d).[40] As of February 2012, Gulfsands has suspended its Syria operations and entered into a force majeure due to EU sanctions on the Syrian government prohibiting the trade of oil.[41] Gulfsands dealings in Syria were also hit by EU sanctions due to Syrian tycoon Rami Makhlouf, a cousin of the Syrian president formally owning a 5.7 percent stake in the company,[28] with this stake being suspended in August 2011 due to specific sanctions relating to Makhlouf.[42] Other international players include or included: Canada's Suncor, Poland's Kulczyk, US-Eygptian firm IPR, Croatia's INA, Russia's Stroytransgas and Soyuzneftegaz, and Triton Singapore.[32][43]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Syria#Oil
Also where Syria is located is highly significant. The Aleppo through Baghdad to Kuwait City was a major trade route historically for centuries & there is a reason why the Suez Canal was built. US went as far to recruiting rebels that the CIA smuggled into Turkey flew to Qatar to train & equip them. Syria is a proxy mess but as far as who assisted the Sunni rebels whether moderate or the fundamentalist Wahabbis are Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Morocco, Jordan, Bahrain, & UAE among bunch which includes the US & France.
Assad is supported by Iran & Iraq with the Iran backed militias but also Russia. Iraq is the odd one but the ISIS & Al-Nusra 35d are also fighting to overthrow their government as well as Assad.
US also provided Kurdistan air support which helped them gain control of more territory in Iraq than they had before it all started. Not sure if because they were useful as don't know where they stand on the KRG's dispute but Exxon & everybody has contracts there so they aren't a problem right now. they helped the highest elected Sunni official flee from the Iraq government under Al-Maliki from a political prosecution where he got the death penalty in a trial without him into exile in Turkey & have provided refugee camps. Many of Iraq's & Syria's displaced refugees. But KRG is also an enemy of the Iraq government but share the ISIS enemy.
Anyways, this their current situation in Iraq
Iraqi Kurdistan
Tensions between Iraqi Kurdistan and the central Iraqi government mounted through 2011-2012 on the issues of power sharing, oil production and territorial control. In April 2012, the president of Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region demanded that officials agree to their demands or face the prospect of secession from Baghdad by September 2012.[49]
In September 2012, the Iraqi government ordered the KRG to transfer its powers over the Peshmerga to the central government. Relations became further strained by the formation of a new command center (Tigris Operation Command) for Iraqi forces to operate in a disputed area over which both Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) claim jurisdiction.[50] On 16 November 2012 a military clash between the Iraqi forces and the Peshmerga resulted in one person killed.[50] CNN reported that 2 people were killed (one of them an Iraqi soldier) and 10 wounded in clashes at the Tuz Khurmato town.[51]
During the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive, Iraqi Kurdistan seized the city of Kirkuk and the surrounding area, as well as most of the disputed territories in Northern Iraq.
On 1 July 2014, Massud Barzani announced that that "Iraq's Kurds will hold an independence referendum within months."[52] After previously opposing the independence for Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkey has later given signs that it could recognize an independent Kurdish state.[52][53] On 11 July 2014 KRG forces seized control of the Bai Hassan and Kirkuk oilfields, prompting a condemnation from Baghdad and a threat of "dire consequences," if the oilfields were not relinquished back to Iraq's control.[54] In November 2014, Ed Royce introduced a bill to arm the Kurds directly, rather than working through the local governments.[55]
<snip>
Petroleum and mineral resources
KRG-controlled parts of Iraqi Kurdistan contain 4 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. However, the KRG has estimated that the region contains around 45 billion barrels (7.2×109 m3) of unproven oil resource.[93][94][95][96] Extraction of these reserves began in 2007.
In November 2011, Exxon challenged the Iraqi central government's authority with the signing of oil and gas contracts for exploration rights to six parcels of land in Kurdistan, including one contract in the disputed territories, just east of the Kirkuk mega-field.[97] This act caused Baghdad to threaten to revoke Exxon's contract in its southern fields, most notably the West-Qurna Phase 1 project.[98] Exxon responded by announcing its intention to leave the West-Qurna project.[99]
As of July 2007, the Kurdish government solicited foreign companies to invest in 40 new oil sites, with the hope of increasing regional oil production over the following 5 years by a factor of five, to about 1 million barrels per day (160,000 m3/d).[100] Gas and associated gas reserves are in excess of 100×1012 cu ft (2,800 km3).[citation needed] Notable companies active in Kurdistan include Exxon, Total, Chevron, Talisman Energy, MOL Group, Genel Energy, Hunt Oil, Gulf Keystone Petroleum, and Marathon Oil.[101]
Other mineral resources that exist in significant quantities in the region include coal, copper, gold, iron, limestone (which is used to produce cement), marble, and zinc. The world's largest deposit of rock sulfur is located just southwest of Erbil (Hewlêr).[102]
In July 2012, Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government signed an agreement by which Turkey will supply the KRG with refined petroleum products in exchange for crude oil. Crude deliveries are expected to occur on a regular basis.[103]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Kurdistan
I really went on much longer than intended but I was seriously in a way trying to explain who is our friends & enemies and why and it seems primarily economically motivated. A lot are caught in the middle but the ones we don't fight directly open their oil fields to Exxon Mobile & those that don't have problems. If people rebel against their government because they are disenfranchised & oppressed but play ball with oil production we save Saudi pilots when US citizens in Yemen are trapped in a country being torn apart by Saudi bombs the US. They're trying to stop Iran helping out the Houthis on the same side of the corrupt government with a lot of Southwest Asia & North African countries. Just sad really.
A couple more things
Libya, Gaddafi has nationalized oil production since the 1960s & the hype was so strong but stopped hearing about him until the 2010s that I didn't know he was still alive even. A lot of the usual suspects such as Qatar were on the rebel sides as well -- I recommend this article on Qatar & their foreign policy -- http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/09/30/the-case-against-qatar/
Afghanistan -- I don't even want to begin on that mess which traces back to 1978.
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