Will Iran surrender positions in Yemen?
By Rufiz Hafizoglu
Radical groups are today active in all countries that have been
previously engulfed with the “Arab Spring”, and only Egypt, at the
cost of a military coup, was able to keep relative stability within
the country.
An idea was at the time implanted in these countries that the “Arab
Spring” is the only way to restore democracy and human rights, but
over time these processes fell under control of some interested
forces in the region.
There is no doubt that the West, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran
initially pursued their aims in the region.
But today, the countries, which were earlier covered by the "Arab
Spring", have fallen victims of a chaos. Yemen is one of them.
An international military operation kicked off in Yemen on March
26, with involvement of the armed forces of a number of Arab states
led by Saudi Arabia.
The operation is directed against "Ansar Allah", a militant group
of the Shiite Houthi movement. It was the members of this movement
who on Jan. 20 this year seized the presidential palace in Yemen’s
capital, Sana'a.
No matter how the international community would evaluate the
actions of Houthis (struggle for freedom, the rights of religious
minorities), one can assert with full confidence that the events in
Yemen are not just a coup, but a real Islamic revolution. It is
sufficient to recall that namely Iran openly supports the movement
of Houthis “Ansar Allah” (Supporters of God).
Such major Yemeni cities and ports as Saada, Amran, Sana'a, Ibb,
Hodeidah and Mocha are under the full control of the Houthis today,
which provides access to the Red Sea for Iran through Yemen.
In addition, Iranian authorities have called the international
military operation against the Houthis carried out in Yemen
together with Saudi Arabia a fatal mistake of Riyadh. At the same
time, movement “Hezbollah” even declared war on Saudi Arabia,
according to some Lebanese media.
Given the political and economic situation in Yemen, one can say
that despite all the efforts of Arab allies to keep president of
the country Mansour Hadi in power and prevent the further spread of
Iranian influence in the region by the movement of Houthis, Sana’a
increasingly finds itself embroiled in a civil war.
By the way, this country has no strong army. Most of the Yemeni
armed groups are tribal militias.
Moreover, the coup in Yemen can be regarded as a failure of Saudi
Arabia’s policy. Earlier, the authorities of this country were busy
preventing the spread of the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in the
region, including Yemen. Islah movement, considered as an
ideological supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, acted in Yemen.
This time Iran successfully carried out the policy of expanding its
ideological influence on the region.
Thus, Iran has successfully taken advantage of the fact that the
Muslim Brotherhood with the help of Saudi Arabia was removed from
the political arena of the Middle East.
While speaking about the military operation of international forces
in Yemen, one can say that Saudi Arabia’s authorities have realized
their political mistake and they are more determined to rectify the
situation by military means.
Despite Iran won the first round of the battle for the Red Sea and
Tehran began to dictate its terms, one must not jump to conclusions
that this country will maintain its positions in the region with
the help of Houthis.
Waging war on several fronts (protecting Shiite Muslim shrines in
Iraq, supporting government armies against the armed opposition and
the militants of the “Islamic State” in Syria) will not be an easy
task for Iran.
By carefully analyzing the process of military operations in Yemen,
one can conclude that aside form Saudi Arabia, Egypt also intends
to show its political and military power in the region.
One fact to confirm this is that the majority of statements on the
military operation in Yemen were made by Egypt. The latest
statement made by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi can serve
as an example.
He said Cairo is participating in the military operation of the
Arab countries against the militants of the Shiite Houthi movement
in order to maintain Yemen’s unity and create peace there.
Nevertheless, even if the coalition of Arab countries succeeds to
neutralize Iran’s influence in Yemen through Houthis, it doesn’t
give a guarantee for stability and unity in the country.
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