YEMEN: Raging insurgency exacerbates tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran

After years of teetering on the edge of stability, Yemen appears to be losing control of a minority rebellion on its northern border, raising concerns that the fighting could ignite regional tensions and possibly become a battleground for a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

In Yemen, extreme poverty, water shortages and a history of civil strife have helped foster extremism and weaken the central government, which increasingly relies on its oil-rich neighbor to the north, Saudi Arabia, for aid and military support. Many members of Yemen's Zaidi sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam whose followers make up about a third of the country (including the president) and a majority in the north, claim that Saudi Arabia's ultra-conservative interpretation of Wahhabi Islam has influenced the government to marginalize Shiites.

In August, the Yemeni government launched Operation Scorched Earth against Zaidi Shiite rebels in the north, known as Houthis. Although the government has denied the crackdown is religiously motivated, the struggle has broken down along sectarian lines, with the Houthis accusing Saudi Arabia of providing military support to the government and the government accusing Iran of supporting the rebels.

Riyadh and Tehran have denied charges of meddling, but Saudi Arabia was drawn into the fighting directly when Houthi rebels attacked a Saudi patrol in the border area last week. Since then, Saudi troops have been fighting to regain control of the area and establish a buffer zone several miles inside Yemeni territory.

Saudi Arabia and Iran have played down the sectarian nature of the conflict, but the fighting has exacerbated existing tensions between them over Iran's growing regional influence and nuclear ambitions. Most experts say that Iran, along with Hezbollah in Lebanon, serve more as an inspiration for the Houthi rebels than a conduit for arms or funds. 

But that has not stopped the rhetoric from heating up.

Earlier this week, columnist Hamed Majed penned an article for the London-based Saudi newspaper Al Sharq Al Awsaat in which he warned that "there is no smoke on the mountain without Iranian fire." Moreover, he said, these "toxic fumes" contaminate the air from Yemen to Iraq to southern Lebanon, referring to militant Shiite groups Iran sponsors in those countries. 

The Iranian newspaper Mardom-Salari responded on Wednesday with an article titled "Huthiran: Saudi Arabia's new plot against Iran," which slammed Riyadh's military involvement and accused the Saudis of attempting to cover their embarrassing performance against a ragtag group of fighters by implicating Iran.

The same day, Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki said his government would cooperate with Yemen to establish peace, but he issued a veiled warning to Saudi Arabia, saying: "Those who pour oil on the fire must know that they will not be spared from the smoke that billows."

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

Photo: Houthi rebels are seen in the border area between Saudi Arabia and Yemen in this video grab from recent footage released by the rebels. Credit: Reuters.

Video: An Al Jazeera report on fighting between Houthis and Saudi troops.

Comments

[Esther Haman]

Saeed, Ali; the insurgency was done log time ago, when the "Zaidi" and their government was taken out by the "House of Saud". Read the article ".. and a majority in the north, claim that Saudi Arabia's ultra-conservative interpretation of Wahhabi Islam has influenced the government to marginalize Shiites..". The "house of Saud" and the "Wahhabi" are the same. They are the one who are financing the "al-Qaeda" and "Bin Ladien" all these killing and the terrorism that comes with it.

Again, the article says "..In August, the Yemeni government launched Operation Scorched Earth against Zaidi Shiite rebels in the north, known as Houthis.." Is not this an act of terrorism againt the Shiites in Yemen? Who did the last bombing in Iran and killed 40 people?! The "house of Saud" is the gang who is providing the training and is behind all these financing needed for these operations.

[Saeed]

Reading your article as well as other articles in the Arabic and English media,I truly believe the mentioned group"Houthees" may have justified demands such as,civil rights and other political and regional rights owed to them.However,Their armed upraisal against their owned country and intransigence into the Saudi arabia territory make them,in my opinion, foreign agents and therefore, substancially weakens their cause.In the end,I belive Iran is implicated in arming these "Houthees" due to their sustained fighing against the Yemini army and the quality
and quantity of the arms they possess.Iran's goal seems to be expansionist and to keep the fire raging in the region so that the Mullah regime ca sustain a maximum longivity.

[Esther Haman]

Faisal; You must be related to King Faisal, the one that was killed by his son and had a Israeli girl friend. Is he your grandpa or an uncle? Did you know that? He is the one who started the Oil embargo of the US in the seventies. He was a brave man. But his family did take care of him at the end, didn't they? So no more Oil embargo.

So you comment, "... from obvious jelousy from what God has endowed on us...". OH I am so Jealous of you. Who is "us"? is that the Arabs or the "house of Saudi"? which one? Well the Yemeni's are Arabs too you know! Instead of killing them why not helping them?! That is the "arrogance" that I am talking about. Go get a life or a job.

[Ali]

I wonder if Esther can point out to Saudi Arabia or Iran on a map.
Your logic is seriously crippled. I have no idea how you're linking the fact that Saudis drive "fancy cars" with the sectarian violence in Yemen.

The Houthis made the mistake of killing a Saudi border patrol agent, and attempted to cross the border into Saudi Arabia in order to launch attacks on the Yemeni Army from there.
I wonder if it were the Mexicans who have done the same with killing a US patrol agent, and tried to cross into the US what your logic would be then.

[Joe]

It's unlikely that Iran do and can arm these Yemenis uprising since their land lock province have no access to outside world except through Saudis or Yemenis government territories.
Never the less, Saudis do finance arms and bases for global Wahhabi terrorists from Central and Southeast Asia to Africa without any consequences.
US should keep the tight leash on her clients since picture of maimed and killed Yemeni's civilian going to surface and it's going to hurt US interest again since Saudis are using same armaments (phosphorus bombs) as Israel did in her last few misadventures and left the US in position to defend a guilty against her better judgment!

[Faisal]

Esther,
Your comments relates nothing to the article. It is full of hate emnating from obvious jelousy from what God has endowed on us. You try to lump many unrelated issues to prove your case. You should also re-examine your facts. Saudi's oil money is not new its more than 80 years old, and its not the Saudi regime about to crumble, but the mullah's regime surviving on brute force on its own people.

[Esther Haman]

Saudi Arabia is a dysfunctional regime built on the Oil money. Their involvement in the 911 speaks loudly for itself. Their support for Bin Ladin and his family has clearly shown their arrogance. Their hate for the Persians, Shiites, Jews Christians etc etc is obvious.

Saudis family, a small group of people all related to each other due to their inter family marriages is abusing an enormous amount of wealth and on top of that an arrogance that is not matched by anyone through out the history is keeping them away from their subjects, religion and tradition.

Saudis newly found money and wealth will not shield them from the other hungry peasants who legally and traditionally are part of the Islamic world. Saudis may have fancy jets and cars or tanks, but that will not help them in this struggle for survival and the kingdom will eventually crumble.

[Banafsheh]

Reading this article, I get the feeling that the writer almost condones Iran's backing of the rebels. I have to wonder why. When we Iranians are seeing our economy gutted, our people hungry, the price of something as mundane as bread go so high, why does this writer think it's okay for Iran to continue expanding its filthy sphere of influence? Is Tehrans meddling and financing of terror (with the money that belongs to the starving people of Iran) in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, The Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, etc. etc. not enough?