A Response to Iran in Yemen

The impending war has been started on Yemen!
It is reported that 100 Saudi war planes have bombed the Yemeni capital Sanaa, which had recently been captured by Houthi rebels, and approximately 150,000 soldiers are entering northern Yemen for the land offensive.
It is also reported that the Saudi offensive in Yemen is supported by Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Pakistan.  According to reports the US is not involved in the offensive but is providing intelligence and logistic support.
In Yemen, with a population of 25 million and the poorest country of the region, the Houthi rebels had taken the capital Sanaa in January 2015 and installed a ‘Presidential Council’ of five members.
Reactionaries and imperialist powers that operate in the region always had a role in the conflicts in Yemen,  which is on a vital strategic path of transferring the Gulf oil through the Red Sea. Nevertheless, interventions by regional reactionaries and imperialists have never been this direct.
Those that followed the developments in the region were aware that Saudi Arabia and the USA would not turn a blind eye to Houthi rule in Yemen.
A Houthi government in Yemen was especially a ‘Shiite knife’ in the back by Iran for Saudi Arabia!
The Yemeni Shiites, while making up the southernmost tip of the ‘Shiite Crescent’ in the Middle East, are also linked to majority Shiite population in the oil fields of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries. Therefore, when the Houthi rebellion in Yemen started, the discussion was “Whether Saudi Arabia or Iran will win in Yemen?” rather than “Who will rule in Yemen?”. Subsequently the Houthi grasping power in Yemen was seen all around the world as  “the Iranian victory in Yemen”.
Without a doubt the victory by Shiite  meant panic on the thrones of monarchs and kings in Saudi and other Gulf states because the considerable Shiite population in these countries are also the most oppressed and poverty stricken.
Furthermore, after the fall of Mosul, Iranian “Revolutionary Guard” and Iranian officials (including generals) are fighting as a part of the counter-offensive against IS. This means more than the “proximity in faith ”; Iraq and Iran are becoming allies. It also means that, to the extent that the IS threat is expelled, Iraq will become a country under control of Iran. The US and other western powers are aware of this.
Therefore “Yemen is not just Yemen”, neither are the “Houthi just Houthi”! If that was the case this would have been only Yemen’s or at most Saudi’s problem. But that is not the case. On the contrary, the conflict in Yemen – from the perspective of the bigger picture the region -has become the hot territory in the ‘Shiite-Sunni’ conflict. Hence, all 10 countries that make up the attacking “coalition” on Yemen are under Sunni rule. (*)
As expected, the Turkish Foreign Ministry have supported the operation.  The statement “supporting Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen” has claimed that “the military operation will contribute to a legitimate authority in Yemen”.
Of course; it has many songs, many legends and Veysel Karani. What has Çanakkale or Sarıkamış have over Yemen!
Especially when you consider that the conflict in Yemen will not be controlled so easily!
The United States, allied with Iraq and Iran in the northernmost tip of the ‘Shiite Crescent’ in the Middle East, is allied with Saudi Arabia against Iran in the southernmost tip of the ‘Shiite Crescent’!
This is not the contradiction that it might seem. It is nevertheless a sigh of how fraudulent contradictions in the Middle East have become.
(*) Egypt and Turkey are at odds on the issue of the Muslim Brotherhood but this is an discussion, argument within Sunni Islam. They are united against Shiites.
İhsan Çaralan (EMEP General Executive Member)
Evrensel Newspaper 27 March 2015