Posted by
Gray Ghost on Monday, January 04, 2010 3:37:25 PM
Back on October 31, 2009, the Saudi daily Al-Watan published an article about an unprecedented crisis in Yemen-Iran relations. The Yemen government accused Iran of supporting the Houthi rebels in the Sa'da region of northern Yemen. The article indicated that apprehension was increasing in Saudi Arabia about the ramifications of Iran's increased military activity in Yemen and in the Red Sea.
Today, January 4, 2010, the Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh quoted a high-ranking Yemeni diplomatic source in Cairo which claimed that the U.S. is refraining from dealing harshly with the Houthi rebels, in order not to anger Iran. Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Kirbi denied that the U.S. had attacked Al-Qaeda strongholds in Yemen, saying, "Yemen army aircraft had carried out the bombings."
Al-Kirbi further said said that Yemen and the U.S. had not reached an agreement over the use of U.S. aircraft or cruise missiles for bombing Al-Qaeda targets on Yemeni soil.
"Skirmishes" between Iraqi and Iranian military forces on the border between these two countries are increasing in number.
The Qom Seminary Teachers Society, which supports Ahmadinejad, recently announced that Ayatollah Yousef Sanei (a supporter of the Iranian protest movement and critic of the Iranian president) had been stripped of his religious title.
In a recent sermon in Tehran, Guardian Council Secretary Ahmad Jannati said, "The regime could not tolerate opposition and insults to Islam, and that the members of the protest movement must apologize to the people for their actions or else be executed."
Meanwhile, Iranian protest movement leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has posted on his FaceBook page a five-point plan for resolving the crisis in Iran after the latest protests:
1. The regime will acknowledge its responsibility for the crisis.
2. New clean elections will be held.
3. Prisoners and protesters will be freed.
4. Freedom of the press, of expression and of assembly will be guaranteed.
5. Freedom of action will be given to political parties.
Mousavi declared that he and Mehdi Karroubi (Iranian reformist politician and one of the major leaders of the Iranian protest movement) are willing to die for their cause.
If all of the above sounds confusing, join the club. Iran seems to be on conflicting paths. And the direction these paths could take could lead to anything from an interal revolution to a war with Iran's neighbors.
On the other hand, Israel is being very quiet. Almost too quiet.