With the new U.S. administration blueprinting its #Iran policy after escalating developments in #Syria and the recent attacks in Tehran, one major battleground between the two arch-rivals is set to be Yemen. Sitting at the opening of a major waterway through which a significant amount of the world's seabound oil flows, this country of 27 million has been war-torn and desperately grappling with a famine currently risking the lives of 7 million people.
All the while, #Iran, and its offspring terror organization, the Lebanese Hezb'allah, are escalating their meddling in a war that has already left more than 10,000 killed and literally leveled the country's already poor infrastructure.
And while the United Nations has issued pleas for support to boost the efforts of humanitarian aid organizations, signs show that Iran and its Houthi proxies are ignoring these calls. The larger picture of the Middle East power struggle is casting a long shadow over this entire nation. It is, however, worth noting that the Saudi-led coalition welcomed a U.N. proposal to hand the port city of Hodeidah, currently the country's lifeline, to a neutral third party to supervise the urgent flow of humanitarian aid into Yemen.
The Iran-backed Ansar Allah militia group, aka the Houthis, will most likely turn down the proposals. Such a handover would render the loss of their last remaining port in #Yemen, choking the flow of Iran-supplied arms and ammunition. It is a known fact that Iran's involvement in Yemen is in line with its broader strategy of encircling the entire Arabian peninsula and upping the pressure on its regional arch-rival, Saudi Arabia.
#Iran seeks the destabilization of the Gulf States and to ultimately obtain the capability of replacing these governments with rulers loyal to the Islamic Republic's doctrine. Iraq is a vivid example of how Iran usurped the opportunity of the 2003 invasion to cast its shadow over this nation, especially during the eight years of former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and eight years of Obama's Chamberlain-style appeasement.
This is the very philosophy behind establishing and procuring terror cells with the objective of purging government officials and staging attacks targeting the infrastructure of various states, including Bahrain, Kuwait, and the UAE. Bahrain, particularly, in March busted a terrorist cell linked to #Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).
It is a known fact that the IRGC and Hezb'allah are present in #Yemen, with their troops and foot soldiers fighting alongside Houthis, parallel to providing much-needed training and advice to these forces.
The number of Hezb'allah fighters being captured is on the rise, with such statistics in the first three months of 2017 matching the entire course of 2016. The death toll of Hezb'allah and IRGC forces also escalated in the first quarter of 2017.
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