Yemen: Saudi-Iran proxy war or repressed minority insurgency?

  Saudi Arabian - Yemen border (STRATFOR Global Intelligence)

The speaker of Iran’s parliament, Ali Ardashir Larijani, vilified Saudi Arabia’s government for its ruthless offensive against fellow Muslims in northwest Yemen, referring to the Saudi bombardment of Shia Houthi fighters located in the Sa’ada province. This declaration of support for the Houthis only adds fuel to the flaming accusations that Iran is covertly supporting the Houthi cause.

The Houthis are a minority Shia group persecuted for years by the Sunni governments in both Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The Sa'ada province borders Saudi Arabia to the north and the Red Sea to the west and is the poorest province in Yemen, which is saying a lot because Yemen is one of poorest nations in the world according to the CIA’s World Factbook.

According to the Houthi website, Saudi fighter planes launched more than 13 assaults on Sa'ada villages throughout Friday and Saturday, including dropping deadly phosphorous bombs which are banned under the Geneva Convention.

Larijani accused Riyadh for inciting divisions among Muslims, asking aloud why they were killing their Islamic brethren when they should be saving their rockets to destroy Israel. He also mentioned the Saudi’s financial support for Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war (talk about holding a grudge):

We told them (Saudis) not to collaborate with Saddam's dictatorial regime but they retorted that Iraqis were Arabs. Why is it that now you don't intervene to help in Lebanon and Palestine considering that they are mostly Sunni (Arabs)? Why don't you confront the Zionist regime?

It is statements such as this that enable the United States and the West to frame this struggle as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran – although it likely isn’t. This is all an effort to portray Iran as a menace to the region with designs on global conquest (which doesn't mean they aren't a menace to the region with designs on global conquest).

Saudis in panic mode
Meanwhile, Western intelligence sources believe that the Saudi King is in panic mode, dismayed the annoying rebel group has not yet been crushed:

The Saudi air force has been heavily bombing villages inside Yemen, but this has not made a dent in the capabilities of the Shi'ite rebels. They have been well-trained by Iran and Hizbullah and have moved steadily north in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi King even begged King Abdullah of Jordan for help, who sent special forces units over to assist in November. Reports have surfaced that the King also pleaded for American support, but whether or not the U.S. has provided any aid, weapons or personnel is still unknown.

Who is the U.S. backing?
But the U.S. certainly could be accused of tacit approval because Yemen unstable is not in America’s best interests - the more chaotic the more potential as an al-Qaeda safe haven. And if the easiest way to stabilize the country is for the government’s military apparatus to crush an insurgency – regardless if the insurgency is based on legitimate moral grounds – so be it. Although the U.S. backing the Yemen government is a bit of a mystery, considering they have developed a special relationship with al-Qaeda. And isn’t it already a safe haven for al-Qaeda? Earlier this year Yemen released one hundred or more jihadists from prison, many of whom were suspected al-Qaeda terrorists after Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh struck a deal with Ayman Zawahiri. Not to mention that Yemen is a country that hosted the founding of an al-Qaeda wing:

Al Qaeda groups in Yemen and Saudi Arabia formally merged operations in January, under the name al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The group was acknowledged by Ayman Zawahiri in a statement. AQAP is based in Yemen. Its leader is a Yemeni, Nasser al Wahishi, who was a close associate of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. AQAP vowed to strike at Western interests and supply routes across the region. The new group and its broad goals appear to be a strategic development on the part of al Qaeda Central in furtherance of its global strategy.

Saudi Arabia’s motive: religious persecution
This most recent battle on the border began as an internal struggle, when the Yemen government launched an offensive called “Operation Scored Earth” against the Houthis months ago, accusing the fighters led by Abdul Malik al-Houthi of seeking to restore the imamate system, which was overthrown in a 1962 coup.

The Houthis, on the other hand, believe they’re defending their rights against marginalization - a policy the government has adopted under pressure from Saudi-backed Wahhabi extremists and Sunni Salafis. A declaration on the Houthi website explains:

There are Salafi centers backed by the government and foreigners in the Sa'ada Province, which everyone knows is 100-percent Zaidi populated and has been the capital and the center of Zaidi Shia. These centers issue Fatwas (religious decrees) against the Zaidi Shia and Zaidi leaders on a regular basis.

The Sunnis of Saudi Arabia have been accused of religious persecution by the Human Rights Watch group in a report - Denied Dignity: Systematic Discrimination and Hostility toward Saudi Shia Citizens. The report illustrated vividly the levels of discrimination against Shia, including the fact they aren’t allowed to teach history or religion in schools. Other interesting excerpts from the report:

Sheikh Salih Ibn al-Luhaydan, Saudi Arabia's former chief of justice, opined in August 2006 that "Ismail Sunnis are Muslims on the outside, and infidels on the inside.

Furthermore, in April 2007, a subsidiary body to the council of senior religious scholars, tasked with officially interpreting Islamic faith, ritual, and law, termed the Ismaili Sunnis "corrupt infidels, debauched atheists.

Saudi Arabia claimed that the Houthis killed soldiers on the Saudi side of the border, which was, to Houthis, nothing more than a prevarication for the purpose of creating a pretext for intervention. Not satisfied with simply repressing Shias in its own country, specifically those within the border cities Najran and Jizan, Saudi Arabia had been itching for some cross-border persecution. And it appears the U.S. might be willing to help them cross that threshold.

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