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While you were watching ISIS, Iran took Yemen

While you were watching ISIS, Iran took Yemen

Iran continues to destabilize the Middle East

The Houthis, Iranian backed rebels have taken control of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.

The Washington Post reports:

The capital of Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest and perhaps most chronically unstable nation, has new masters. Shiite rebels man checkpoints and roam the streets in pickups mounted with anti­aircraft guns.

The fighters control almost all state buildings, from the airport and the central bank to the Defense Ministry.

Only a few police officers and soldiers are left on the streets. Rebel fighters have plastered the city with fliers proclaiming their slogan — “Death to America, death to Israel, a curse on the Jews and victory to Islam” — a variation of a popular Iranian slogan often chanted by Shiite militants in Iraq and supporters of Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The comparison to Hezbollah is apt as Reuters is reporting that the Houthi are blocking the appointment of Yemen’s president.

Abdel-Malek al-Ejri said Hadi had suggested five names at a meeting of his advisors, who represent various political parties in Yemen. When the aides failed to agree on a candidate Hadi suggested his presidential office director, Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, as a compromise.

“But we did not agree, and the matter is still under consultation,” Ejri told Reuters.

Similarly, Hezbollah has kept Lebanon’s politics unsettled preventing the appointment of a President.

So what’s Iran’s interest in Yemen? It was spelled out by Michael Segall of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs two and a half years ago. A couple of Segall’s observations are sobering:

Iran regards Yemen in general, and its Shia northern part in particular, as a springboard for subversion and for creating a tangible threat to Saudi Arabia, its main religious-political rival in the region. Iran also seeks to establish a physical Iranian presence, ground and naval, in the countries and ports of the Red Sea littoral, which control the shipping (and weapon-supply) lanes leading from the Persian Gulf to the heart of the Middle East and to Europe.

Islamic Iran aspires to superpower status. It is actively involved in the region’s primary crisis centers. These include the “Arab Spring’s” main fronts with the West and the moderate Arab states: Syria, where Iran backs Bashar Assad through thick and thin; Bahrain, where Iran calls for the overthrow of the Royal House and supports the Shia demonstrators; and Yemen, where Iran is active in attempts to create a new order that is not based on support for the West.

While the West is obsessed with ISIS, Iran has continued its quest for dominance in the Middle East. In Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and now Yemen Iran is emerging as a major player.

In defending the nuclear deal with Iran President Obama said last year, “But if we can negotiate on the nuclear program in the same way that Ronald Reagan was able to negotiate with the Soviet Union even as we were still contesting them around the world, that removes one more threat — and a critical, existential threat — takes it out of their arsenal. And it allows us then to ultimately I think win them — defeat some of their agenda throughout the region without worrying that somehow it’s going to escalate or trigger a nuclear arms race in the most volatile part of the world.”

The problem is that even if the deal the P5+1 is negotiating with Iran is as effective as the president claimed it would be (and it appears to be a total capitulation), Iran continues to promote its agenda throughout the Middle East at little or no cost.

[Photo: WochitGeneralNews / YouTube ]

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Comments

I hope they either increase Embassy security or get out while the getting’s good. If the Feds don’t do either, stand by for another Benghazi.

Pres. 2Little-2Late cannot keep up. Because he only knows what he reads in the Times, or sees on the news.

Well, plus, he loves him some Islam and displacing friendly (or at least de-fanged) governments.

“But if we can negotiate on the nuclear program in the same way that Ronald Reagan was able to negotiate with the Soviet Union. . .” Big difference is the Soviet Union already had nuclear weapons.

    genes in reply to gasper. | October 8, 2014 at 9:56 am

    Bigger difference, the Soviet leaders Regan was dealing with weren’t religious fanatics bend on killing all unbelievers.

    Ragspierre in reply to gasper. | October 8, 2014 at 10:16 am

    Biggest difference…Ronald Reagan.

    Having a President who believes in his nation makes a HUGE difference.

    Maybe I’m misremembering things, but wasn’t Reagan’s philosophy that if we wanted to beat the Soviet Union, we had to do it by ramping UP our offenses, rather than deplete them?

    Of course, Obama was smoking weed and traveling to Muslim nations while Reagan was in office, so I’m not surprised that he doesn’t understand Reagan’s tactics.

      Henry Hawkins in reply to teresainfortworth. | October 8, 2014 at 9:10 pm

      The USSR was fading economically for a long time, as is the way with communist regimes, by the time Reagan came to office. One way he used to fight them cold war style was to force them to spend money they didn’t have trying to play keep up with the Americans re: nuclear weapons. Reagan was ridiculed on the left for the Strategic Defense Initiative, which the left derisively called “Star Wars Missile Defense,” stating that it was a dream, impossible. (It involved a missile defense system that would shoot down any incoming Russian intercontinental missiles). This freaked the Russians who saw themselves about to get left behind asa nuclear power if they weren’t able to develop missiles to defeat SDI or develop their own missile defense system.

      Long story… well, long, Reagan’s saber rattling increased the Russians’ slow economic decline until crunch point came, the wall came down, and the USSR broke up.

Gee, what event, or series of events, precipitated and caused the destabilization of the region and rise of Iran’s influence therein?

I think that this could get very bloody. These Shia are now apparently ensconced right next to Saudi Arabia, which claims leadership of Sunni Islam.

    platypus in reply to Bruce Hayden. | October 8, 2014 at 11:08 am

    And it won’t be very fair and balanced either. Saudi has beau coup America military hardware and knows how to use it.

    Pass the popcorn – this should be better than the Roman gladiator games.

Not A Member of Any Organized Political | October 8, 2014 at 10:13 am

Is this what the White House jilted lover, er… I mean “Omar – the White House fence jumper” was to distract us away from?

And Pakistan is attacking India.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/cheat-sheet/india-warns-pakistan-it-s-not-afraid-of-escalating-fire-sources-603382?site=classic

I am sure none of this is related to the formation of the Caliphate.

    David Gerstman in reply to Valerie. | October 8, 2014 at 12:25 pm

    Valerie, except, well there are so many different folks looking to re-establish the caliphate. I guess what’s frightening is how many of them think that right now is a propitious time to do so.

Things in the Middle East are unraveling rather quickly. Should Iran develop a bomb, it WILL be used– either by a proxy terror group or launched on Tel Aviv. China is banging its war drums, targeting Vietnam, the Philippines, and making Taiwan and Japan extremely worried. Oh, and China has close ties to Iran so watch for that.

What Obama and the Left seem so ignorant about is the extent of the role that the US played as a superpower. While and Obama and the Left despise this role because it offends their anti-American sensibilities (“I believe in American exceptionalism in the same way Germans believe in German exceptionalism…” and all the while speaking Austrian too, I guess), they completely neglected to see the fallout that comes from the touchy-feely, nobody-really-is-our-enemies-we-just-don’t-understand-each-other (and have a Happy Nowruz which is just like our Christmas) brand of international politics.

Ignoring, and at times engaging in outright betrayal, of our allies does nothing to increase our status in the world. But it does embolden despots and ambitious tyrants. Though Obama claims surprise at the rise of ISIS and such, his ignorance has just as much to do with his naive Leftist beliefs as it does the lack of attention he and his administration have given to international realtions.