Saudi-Iran dispute jeopardises Yemen peace talks
Reuters, Dubai :
Worsening enmity between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran is jeopardising peace prospects in Yemen where a nine-month-old war has given Islamist militants a foothold in Riyadh’s backyard.
Yemen’s principal warring factions — fighters loyal to the ousted Saudi-backed Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who are battling the Iran-allied Houthi militia and loyalists of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh — held talks last month in Switzerland to try to end a war that has killed some 6,000 people.
They were due to meet again on Jan. 14 in a bid to seal a lasting peace. But the Riyadh government cut diplomatic ties with Shi’ite Iran in a row sparked by Saudi Arabia’s execution of Saudi Shi’ite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Jan. 2.
Shortly after the row in which the Saudi embassy in Tehran was stormed, the U.N.-brokered talks between the two opposing sides were postponed, with no clear date set to resume.
Saudi Arabia, a conservative Sunni Muslim monarchy, sees revolutionary Iran as the paramount threat to the Middle East’s stability, because of its support for Shi’ite militias that Riyadh says have inflamed sectarian violence.
For the Al Saud dynasty, the recent nuclear deal was a double blow, freeing Iran from sanctions it believed helped check its regional ambitions and raising the spectre of better ties between Tehran and Washington, Riyadh’s ally.
While Yemen’s government has long been mired in conflict with Islamist militants, secessionists and tribal fighters, its war coincides with unprecedented turmoil in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia’s campaign in Yemen marks the first time it has openly confronted what it sees as Iranian regional expansionism.
As long as the war rages in Yemen, there is more space for militants to gain territory as they exploit the security vacuum.
ISIS and al Qaeda have both emerged in Yemeni regions where they had not previously been present before Saudi Arabia entered the conflict and a Saudi-led coalition began bombing the Houthis in March 2015.
Saudi Arabia and Iran blame each other for Yemen’s conflict, further embittering a regional rivalry between the two nations being played out from Syria to Iraq and Lebanon to Bahrain.
Worsening enmity between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran is jeopardising peace prospects in Yemen where a nine-month-old war has given Islamist militants a foothold in Riyadh’s backyard.
Yemen’s principal warring factions — fighters loyal to the ousted Saudi-backed Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who are battling the Iran-allied Houthi militia and loyalists of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh — held talks last month in Switzerland to try to end a war that has killed some 6,000 people.
They were due to meet again on Jan. 14 in a bid to seal a lasting peace. But the Riyadh government cut diplomatic ties with Shi’ite Iran in a row sparked by Saudi Arabia’s execution of Saudi Shi’ite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Jan. 2.
Shortly after the row in which the Saudi embassy in Tehran was stormed, the U.N.-brokered talks between the two opposing sides were postponed, with no clear date set to resume.
Saudi Arabia, a conservative Sunni Muslim monarchy, sees revolutionary Iran as the paramount threat to the Middle East’s stability, because of its support for Shi’ite militias that Riyadh says have inflamed sectarian violence.
For the Al Saud dynasty, the recent nuclear deal was a double blow, freeing Iran from sanctions it believed helped check its regional ambitions and raising the spectre of better ties between Tehran and Washington, Riyadh’s ally.
While Yemen’s government has long been mired in conflict with Islamist militants, secessionists and tribal fighters, its war coincides with unprecedented turmoil in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia’s campaign in Yemen marks the first time it has openly confronted what it sees as Iranian regional expansionism.
As long as the war rages in Yemen, there is more space for militants to gain territory as they exploit the security vacuum.
ISIS and al Qaeda have both emerged in Yemeni regions where they had not previously been present before Saudi Arabia entered the conflict and a Saudi-led coalition began bombing the Houthis in March 2015.
Saudi Arabia and Iran blame each other for Yemen’s conflict, further embittering a regional rivalry between the two nations being played out from Syria to Iraq and Lebanon to Bahrain.
