March 30, 2015 |
Has the final battle for Middle East begun?
By Latheef Farook
The ancient country of Yemen seems to be next on line to be destroyedunder the United States led European- Israeli campaign to turn Muslim countries into killing fields, under the guise of fighting a war on terrorism, to ensure Israel’s supremacy in the Middle East.
The fighting in Yemen is part of a deepening power struggle between the government of President Hadi and Houthi militant group which allied with former president Ali Abdullah Saleh controls the capital Sanaa.
The Houthis and elements of the army loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh and his son Ahmed had advanced on the southern city of Aden with such speed forcing President Hadi to flee.
Unable to withstand the Houthi attacks, Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi fled first to Aden from the capital Sanaa before fleeing to Riyadh where he made a desperate plea to Gulf countries for military assistance to stop the Houthi advance.
It appears Iran has played into the hands of United States, Europe, Israel and their Arab collaborators by training, equipping and instigating Yemen’s minority Shia Houthis to attack Sunni majority government in Yemen.
As a result the federal government in Yemen has collapsed.
Threatened by developments in Yemen Saudi Arabia which always got others to fight its wars, began bombing Houthi militia forces since Wednesday 25 March 2015 to prevent the Houthis from taking over the country and Iran from getting a foothold in Yemen.
Air strikes destroyed fighter jets, helicopters, communication and other military equipment of Houthi militants besides killing number of Houthi fighters.
According to reports around 100 Saudi warplanes were involved in the attacks. Saudi war planes were supported by United Arab Emirates with 30 fighter jets, Kuwait 15, Qatar 10, Bahrain eight, three each from Morocco and Jordan. Sudan offered three. There was no mention of Oman, the sixth GCC member. They were later joined by Jordan, Egypt and four Muslim countries including Pakistan.Egypt sent three warships.
The Saudi bombing had the full backing of United States. According to reports President Obama has authorized the provision of logistical and intelligence support .The US forces also established a Joint Planning Cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate US military and intelligence support.
Saudi Arabia had also mobilized 150,000 troops near the border and began boosting security on its borders and across the kingdom, including at the country’s crucial oil facilities.
Thus Yemen has become a battle ground between Iran which wanted to exploit the Shias to expand its influence and Saudi Arabia, backed by a coalition of pro American and pro Israeli Arab dictators and United States, all out to keep Iran out of Yemen
The fear is that this rivalry could tear apart Yemen by a proxy war. Unless a settlement is reached soon it is bound to engulf the region and beyond with unpredictable consequences.
In the past it was the United States which led coalitions with the active collaboration of Arab dictators in all their invasions and the destruction of Muslim countries. However this time Saudi is leading the bombing campaign backed by the other Arab dictators, United States –United Kingdom and Europe-and of course Israel.
The entire conflict was made to look like a local issue, but cleverly manipulated and orchestrated by the US led Europe and Israel together with their Arab collaborators.
Saudi Arabia is the most oppressive and corrupt regime in the planet with a brutalized population which, despite consequences, demands political reforms and freedom. Saudi regime which survives due to oil wealth and the support of US, UK, Israel and Arab dictators and surrounded by hostile countries such as Iraq, Syria and Iran and detested by Muslims worldwide, seems to have over estimated its ability to fight a war.
Iran has been preparing for a possible Saudi campaign in Yemen, but it didn’t expect such a large number of countries to join the Saudi coalition. Iran will not respond on a large scale, but will try to be cautious not to affect its standing in the nuclear talks with US as deadline was given for a final agreement on the talks at the end of the month.
Commenting on Saudi involvement Saudi activist and renowned academic Dr Madawi Al-Rashid has outlined a series of failures in Saudi foreign policy since the beginning of the Arab Spring that have led to the current situation in the Arab region, but more specifically in Yemen, which has been almost completely taken over by Houthis rebels.
Al-Rashid said in a series of tweets that “the Saudi regime is reaping the fruits of the failure of its foreign policy since the beginning of the Arab revolutions, which the hereditary regime considered a direct threat to it. The Saudi regime stood in the face of the inclination of the masses of all forms especially the Islamic masses, which joined the democratic process and succeeded in the elections. The Saudi regime has reaped the enmity of the most horizontally widespread current in the Arab societies but stood alone and found none but new dictatorships to stand by it.”
Dr Al-Rashid concluded that, “this foreign policy needs a new Saudi approach that includes sitting down around a table to have dialogue with the regional players Iran and Turkey instead of the alleged Sunni coalition, which will fail because politics cannot simply be based on an alleged Shiite-Sunni conflict.”
Al-Rashid also believes that “the current situation necessitates changing those who are in charge of foreign policy in Saudi Arabia. A new team, who thinks strategically and not in a stupid sectarian fashion, should be appointed. Saudi Arabia also needs to disengage its internal fears about a popular movement from its foreign policy. The revolutionary tide cannot simply be stopped. It should not embroil itself in a military adventure in Yemen while knowing that Yemen is a nest of wasps that will sooner or later come back to sting it.”
Meanwhile within 48 hours after Saudi bombing began, the Arab League which was virtually a dead organization, woke up suddenly and summoned a conference of Arab heads of states in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm Al Sheikh where they decided to form a joint military force. The question is to fight whom? Certainly not against Israel to liberate Palestinians and Jerusalem.
Unlike the Gulf States which came to limelight with oil wealth since early 1970s, Yemen has been an ancient country where Ad civilization flourished. Long before the oil wealth which changed the face of the Gulf, Yemen was their only outlet to the world. Even in the early 1970s Yemeni port of Aden was the second busiest in the world.
However in the subsequent years, Yemen lost its importance due to civil wars and unprecedented development boom in the neighboring oil rich Gulf sheikhdoms.
Yemen was never allowed to settle down as even in the 1960s Saudi Arabia and Late Egyptian President Gama Abdel Nasser fought their battle in Yemen which was then divided into North and South.
If the conflict continues and Yemen becomes another Syria or Libya, the ultimate beneficiary will be Israel. Yemenis, both Sunnis and Shiites, will suffer as Iraqis, Libyans, Somalis, Afghans, Syrians and millions of others suffer. Ends
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