Yemen’s Civil War Is Spilling Deeper Into the Gulf Region
Yemen’s Civil War Is Spilling Deeper Into the Gulf Region
(Bloomberg) -- Yemen’s four-year civil war is spilling deeper into the oil-rich Persian Gulf region. Saudi Arabia, with its Sunni majority, intervened to support the government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi; Iran, which has a Shiite majority, aids the Houthi rebels who took control of the capital, Sana’a, and other cities in 2015. Now a strike by the Yemeni rebels more than 400 miles inside Saudi Arabia has raised the prospect that Iran might be helping to arm them.
1. What did the rebels hit?
The Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a May 14 drone attack on two pumping stations along Saudi Arabia’s cross-country oil pipeline. The Saudi government said the attack was ordered by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. The kingdom sees various militias, including the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon, as arms of the Revolutionary Guard, which has been designated a terrorist organization by U.S. President Donald Trump. The Houthis are not known to have the capacity to build sophisticated drones that can fly long distances.
2. What does Iran say?
Iran has remained silent on the pipeline attack. The Houthis claimed responsibility, but they have not commented on speculation that Iran has been arming them. The range of the drones “significantly” exceeded the previous confirmed cases of rebel missile and drone strikes, Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said in a report. The Iranians and Hezbollah “almost certainly provided critical technical and operational assistance,” as the United Nations has said in the past, he added.
3. Where does the U.S. stand?
The U.S., a close Saudi ally, supports the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen with weapons, intelligence and logistical help. In April, Trump vetoed a resolution passed by the U.S. Congress demanding the U.S. end its involvement. Trump defended the U.S. involvement as essential to protect Americans in the region and to fend off Iran’s influence.
4. Who’s fighting whom in Yemen?
The Houthi rebels are members of a Shiite Muslim tribe from the mountains of northern Yemen that has long complained of marginalization. On the other side stand forces of the internationally recognized Yemeni government and allied militias backed by Saudi Arabia and its coalition of mainly Sunni Muslim nations, including the United Arab Emirates. The U.K., like the U.S., supports the Saudi-led coalition. The four-year war has produced what the United Nations calls “the worst man-made humanitarian crisis of our time.” With thousands killed and poverty, displacement and sickness rampant, the Middle East’s poorest country could be headed toward famine. Three-quarters of the country’s 28 million people need aid to stave off hunger and disease, and half of those require it urgently to survive, according to the UN.
5. Why is Saudi Arabia involved in Yemen?
Its campaign in 2015 was aimed at restoring Hadi’s government, a mission Saudi Arabia expected to complete quickly. But as the war drags on, Saudi leaders say they fear that Houthi control of Yemen would give Iran a foothold in the Arabian peninsula that would threaten Saudi interests. Iran and Saudi Arabia are engaged in a larger battle for dominance in the Middle East. Since the start of war, Houthi rebels have repeatedly fired missiles into Saudi cities, reaching as far as Riyadh.
6. What is Iran’s involvement in Yemen?
The Saudi military campaign has given Iran more influence in Yemen. At the outset of the Saudi intervention, many experts said the kingdom was overstating Iranian involvement there -- that while Iran was backing the Houthis, there was no evidence it was arming them. Experts say Iran’s involvement may now include training and armaments, but on a scale much smaller than Iran’s involvement in Syria or Iraq.
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To contact the reporter on this story: Zainab Fattah in Dubai at zfattah@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Laurence Arnold, Amy Teibel
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