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Iran-Backed
Shia Rebels Push Forward in Yemen
by Jonathan Spyer
PJ Media
November 5, 2014
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Originally published under the title "Iran Rising:
Mullah-Backed Rebels Reach Yemen's Capital"
The Middle East is currently the arena for a cross-border sectarian
war. The weakening or collapse of repressive regimes has unleashed a
fierce war for succession between rival populations, with Shia and Sunni
Arabs the main protagonists. This process is playing itself out in Iraq
and Syria, with Lebanon increasingly drawn into the vortex of conflict.
The regional rivalry between Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia further
fuels this conflict.
The Iranians are the central pillar of the united and cohesive
Shia-dominated bloc which includes the Assad regime in Syria, Hizballah
in Lebanon and its allies, the government of Iraq and the Shia militias
in that country.
The Saudis are now the main force seeking to stem the Iranian advance.
The anti-western Turkey-Qatar-Muslim Brotherhood alliance is also an
important element on the Sunni side.
The clash between Shia and Sunni and between Riyadh and Teheran is not
limited to the geographical area comprising Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. A largely
ignored but vital additional arena in this conflict is Yemen.
In this regard, the Iranian-backed Houthi militia has made very
significant gains in recent weeks, largely ignored by the western media.
The Houthi militia, which has been engaged in an insurgency against
the government of Yemen since 2004, launched an offensive in September.
The movement's fighters advanced rapidly, and on September 21st
the Houthis entered the Yemeni capital, Sana'a.
The Shia militia then announced an ultimatum to Yemeni President
Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, giving him 10 days to form a new government (that
would include representation for the Houthis) or face unspecified 'other
options.'
The latest events in Yemen are
once again testimony to the unsurpassed skill that the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards Corps displays in the practice of political and
paramilitary warfare in the Middle East.
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As of now, the situation is unresolved, and Houthi militiamen remain
deployed across the capital. They are deployed, according to reports,
outside the central bank and a number of key ministries. The Houthis have
also taken a large port town on the Red Sea and have seized a border post
on the frontier between Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
The government of Yemen, which was installed three years ago as part
of a peace plan backed by Riyadh, has been exposed as helpless by the
actions of the Houthis in recent weeks.
In addition to the Shia rebellion coming out of the north, Yemen is
beset by a powerful al-Qaeda Sunni insurgency in the south. There is also
a separatist movement in the south, that seeks to break away from Sana'a.
Fighting has now broken out between Houthi rebels and Sunni tribesmen
backed by al-Qaeda in the area south of the capital. The town of Radda
has emerged as a point of contention. Over 250 people have been killed in
the fighting, according to a report by Associated Press.
Yemen has a 1,100 kilometer border with Saudi Arabia, and Riyadh's
concern at the advance of the Houthis is not hard to understand.
The links between the movement and Teheran are clear. For public
consumption, the Houthis deny links with Iran. A senior leader of the
Houthis, Hasan al-Saadi, told Bloomberg news earlier this week that the
Houthis 'respect Iranian resistance and the movement of Ayatollah
Khomeini,' but do not agree with Teheran in all respects.
In reality, there is ample evidence of direct Iranian aid to the
Houthis. Most tellingly, on January 23rd, 2013, the Yemeni coastguard
apprehended an Iranian ship, the Jihan 1, which was carrying weapons,
explosives and other military equipment from the Revolutionary Guards
Corps, intended for delivery to the Houthis.
Iran has a number of reasons for supporting the Houthis. Alliance with
a restive armed Shia group that controls border areas facing Saudi Arabia
is a useful tool of pressure on Riyadh.
Also, Yemen has a significant section of the Red Sea coast which Iran
seeks to control as part of its broader goal of acquiring control of the
sea lanes from the Persian Gulf.
The latest events in Yemen are once again testimony to the unsurpassed
skill that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps displays in the
practice of political and paramilitary warfare in the Middle East.
This ability to develop and maintain proxy political-military forces
has been an asset in Iranian hands since the birth of the Islamic
Republic – with the Lebanese Hizballah the first fruit of it.
In the current context of the break up of formerly strong regimes in a
number of Arab countries and the outbreak of war between would be
successor groups, this ability is at a premium. The Iranian skill in this
regard is what preserved the Assad regime through the creation and
mobilization of sectarian military groups in Syria against the Sunni
insurgency there.
Teheran appears currently to be repeating this process in Iraq, where
brutal Shia militias are playing an ever more important role in the fight
against the Islamic State.
In Yemen, a similar dynamic is emerging.
The Saudis simply have no parallel ability to use clients. They
consequently prefer to invest in regular state military forces. Where the
state is a real and a strong one, as in Egypt, this orientation can pay
dividends. Where the state is largely a fiction, as in Yemen, Riyadh and
its money power is of limited use.
This applies also to the Lebanon example (in Iraq and in Syria, the
'state' is on the pro-Iran side.)
Events in Yemen ought to concern the west because they demonstrate
once again the skill and determination of the Iranians in the game that
matters most right now in the Middle East.
At the same time, Teheran appears to be well on the way toward nuclear
weapons capability, because of the fecklessness of Western policy. This
will pave the way for a yet more aggressive Iranian push to hegemony in
Yemen and beyond it – throughout the Gulf, Iraq and the Levant.
Jonathan Spyer is director of the Global Research in International
Affairs (GLORIA) Center and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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