What great timing for this article!:
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/yemen-war-saudi-arabia-iran-houthi-rebels-un-peace-talks-ceasefire-conflict-a8644681.html
Blaming Saudi Arabia for the war in Yemen is doing nothing to achieve peace – we need to understand Iran’s key role in the conflict
Any plan to end the conflict without putting more pressure on Iran to dismantle its Quds forces is highly likely to fail, as we’ve seen since the beginning of this conflict.
This week, Yemen’s internationally recognised government agreed to take part in peace talks in Sweden after a leader in the Houthi rebel group called for a halt to military operations.
Since the Houthi uprising in 2015, the war has turned Yemen into one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. The bulk of the criticism has been placed on the Saudi-led coalition as well as the western countries which arm it. But if we want to achieve peace in the region we need to start to take into consideration the atrocities the Houthi rebels have also committed.
In September 2014, Houthi rebels, who only represent a small minority of the population in Yemen, attacked the capital city of Sanaa and seized it. Many Yemenis called this a coup against the elected and internationally recognised Yemeni government.
The Houthis were able to take the capital in just a few days thanks to the backing they received from Iran, which has been providing Houthi rebels with missiles which have targeted Saudi Arabia, and seems likely to continue to do so regardless of UN sanctions.
The war in Yemen is a proxy for Iran’s war against Saudi Arabia, as part of its wider Shia Crescent strategy, which aims to link a network of allies spanning from the border with Iraq to Lebanon in a crescent shape. (continued)
