Yemen Falls to Iran in Regional Proxy War

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David Andrew Weinberg, a specialist on Gulf affairs and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Post that the Gulf monarchies are terrified about what is going on in Yemen and at the thought of directly intervening militarily there.

“Saudi Arabia tried going to war with the Houthis in 2009, and they got clobbered,” said Weinberg, noting that “well over 100 Saudi soldiers were killed, and the debacle ruined the career of Khaled bin Sultan, a Saudi prince who had been one of the kingdom’s top security chiefs at the time but is now largely out of the picture.”

The last thing King Salman wants is to “stake his legacy and authority on a direct military intervention in the quagmire of Yemen,” he said, adding that AQAP and the Houthis are stronger now than they were the last time the Saudis got involved.

The Saudis, who have already cut off aid to the Yemeni government, are going to look for other ways besides military action to change the situation there, such as by supporting proxies, asserted Weinberg.

He speculated that the Gulf states may even seek a solution that involves redividing Yemen into north and south, since the Houthis are much weaker in the south, but this also has its disadvantages.

“The Gulf monarchies were distracted by Iraq and Islamic State when the Houthis launched their offensive this summer, and then they were focused on resolving their internal spat with Qatar during the fall.”

“In the meantime, much of Yemen fell to Iranian-backed radicals who hate the Gulf states, hate America, and explicitly hate not just Israel but specifically Jews as well.

Yemen is bad, bad news these days,” said Weinberg.
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