News Analysis: Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen a blow to Iran

The military operation led by Saudi Arabia against the Shiite Houthi rebel group in Yemen is a strategic Arab action to regain power balance with long-time foe Shiite state of Iran, an expert said on Thursday.

"It is not about the Houthis at all, it is all about Iran," Mohammed Abdel Wahab, an Egyptian writer and political analyst specialized in Arab affairs told Xinhua. "The Houthi rebels is a tool in the hands of Iran which poses real threats to the security of the Arab Gulf countries, mainly Saudi Arabia."

Saudi Arabia and fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states launched airstrikes on Houthi positions early Thursday in Yemen, a move condemned by Iran but supported by the United States, Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco.

The airstrikes targeted the Shiite Houthi group in Yemen's capital Sanaa, killing four civilians. Iran hurried to condemned the airstrikes, saying they will allow more deaths in Yemen.

The airstrikes came hours after Yemeni foreign minister Riyadh Yassin urged for an Arab militarily intervention to thwart Shiite Houthi group.

Yemen has been gripped by widespread violence in the southern regions since early February, raising fears that the impoverished country is slipping into a civil war.

The Houthis, who have seized large parts of the country including its capital Sanaa, ousted the Yemeni president who fled to the southern port city of Aden.

The impoverished country mired in political gridlock in 2011 when mass protests forced former president Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. The three-year reconciliation talks failed to resolve the crisis but created a huge power vacuum that could benefit the powerful al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and other extremist groups.

IRAN-ARAB RELATIONS

Iran has been demonized in the Sunni Arab world for decades. The enmity between Iran and its Arab neighbors is seen as sectarian since Iran is a Shiite Muslim while most of the populations of the Arab countries are Sunni Muslims.

The United Arab Emirates (EUA), supported by Arab countries, challenges Iran's sovereignty over two islands in the Persian Gulf, while Iran, which had engaged in a fierce war with neighboring Iraq for eight years in early 1980s, considers them as its inseparable parts.

"Such sectarian division widens the gaps and enlarges disputes," Abdel Wahab, the Egyptian political analyst noted.

He pointed out that Iran's ambitions in the Arab world are clear, this is why the Arabs thought an action must be taken swiftly to stop the Iranian plans that are meant to weaken Arab regimes through supporting opposition groups, mainly Shiite, or regimes loyal to its policies like the Iraqi and Syrian regimes.

"Iran plays a main role in the ongoing fighting in Iraq, this is why the pro-Iran Iraqi regime has rejected the Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen," Wahab said.

One of the reasons why Saudi Arabia and Arab countries have hit the Houthis, said the analyst, was to stop the rebels' rapid advance to the border and storm Saudi Arabia, and to blockade the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea, through which thousands of ships pass every year.

"Iran has full control over Hormuz Strait, one of the world's most strategically important choke points in the north of the Arabian gulf, and if the Houthis take over the Bab al-Mandab Strait, this means the Arabian Gulf is locked and it is totally under the full control of Iran and its Houthi fellow group," he pointed out.

"I believe that the Arab world will be more united in the face of Iran after these strikes," he said, expecting that the operation will widen mainly after Egypt announced that it is ready to send ground troops to fight the Houthis in Yemen.

Abedl Wahab also expected that the military operation may continue for a long period of time to weaken the military abilities of the Houthis, adding that the solution of the crisis will eventually be political.

The observer also said Thursday's airstrikes and the decision of a number of Arab countries to the launch a military operation in Yemen will help form the formation of the joint Arab force originally initiated by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi.

"Although there are some Arab countries opposing the formation of a united anti-terror Arab force such as Iraq and Algeria, today's airstrikes will boost Sisi's initiative because everyone is aware now that the Arab world is in bad need for such a military force to urgently intervene to solve crises in Arab countries," he said.

Forming a multinational anti-terror Arab force will top the agenda of the Arab League (AL) during the Arab Summit meeting that will be held on March 28 and 29 in Egypt's Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh. Endit