On February 27, a Saudi coalition aircraft killed a senior Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) officer, known only by the nom de guerre “The Afghan,” in Yemen’s northwestern region of Sa’ada, which borders the Kingdom.
Yousef al-Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to the United States, said on Thursday that Iran’s “hostile behavior” in the Middle East “is growing worse” despite the nuclear deal Tehran signed with world power
Anwar Mohamad Gargash, the minister of state for foreign affairs of the United Arab Emirates, blamed Iran’s “interventionism” for the war and human suffering in Yemen.
The New York Times reported on February 12 that Defense secretary Jim Mattis last week was exploring whether the U.S. Navy should “intercept and board an Iranian ship to look for contraband weapons possibly headed to Houthi fighters in Yemen.” But according to unnamed U.S.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) media outlets continue to justify and encourage attacks by Yemeni Houthi rebels against Saudi Arabia. I.R.G.C.-affiliated Fars News Agency, for example, ran a number of news stories and commentaries today glorifying the Houthis’ latest attacks against Saudi military targets, including a recent attack targeting a Saudi warship and a scud missile that the Houthis claimed hit a military base near the Saudi capital.
Hardline Iranian media are enthusiastically speculating that the conflict in Yemen will soon enter a more dangerous phase with the intensification in the use of missiles by the Yemeni rebels.
The United Arab Emirates has summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires to protest Iran’s arming of Houthi rebels in Yemen, Iranian and
If President Donald Trump’s pick of James Mattis as defense secretary is an indication of the direction of foreign policy in the Middle East, then the U.S. stance towards Yemen will likely align more closely with the approach of Gulf states in pursuing a military victory over the Houthi-Saleh alliance in Sanaa. The Obama administration had diverged, at least partly, from the Gulf position in Yemen by pushing the G.C.C. and the Hadi government toward a negotiated settlement.
Following the Houthi takeover of Sana’a, Iran expanded its academic and cultural exchange programs in Yemen’s education sector. Iran initiated these programs in response to a Saudi-financed program to increase the number of Salafi mosques and madrassas in northern Yemen in the 1990s.
It is not a secret that Iran plays a role in the Yemeni conflict. But a new report provides yet another piece of evidence released to the public about the Iranian government’s arms aid to the Houthi rebels that fight against the Yemeni government backed by Saudi Arabia and its allies. The Australian government has released photographs that show light anti-armor weapons seized near the Yemeni coast were manufactured in Iran.
Despite growing concerns in the United States and the Arab world about Iran’s destabilizing role in the region, Iranian leaders continue to defend the country’s subversive policies in the Yemeni conflict.
In its first official reaction to the fall of Aleppo, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) hailed the seizure of Syria’s second largest city as a “divine gift” to the Iranian regime and a prelude to bigger achievements by Iran and its regional proxies across the Middle East.
The governor of Yemen’s Jawf governorate, in north central Yemen bordering Saudi Arabia, told a press conference, December 15, that the Yemeni army had captured “a large number of militias, including Iranian experts and others from Hizballah… ,” according to al-Arabiya. The governor said that the Iranians and Hizballah personnel were providing the Houthi militias with information and support.
Comment:
In a remark that is likely to heighten tension in the Gulf region, the Iranian chief of staff of the armed forces has called for setting up naval bases across on the coasts of Yemen and Syria in the future.
