The war in Yemen
The human disaster in Syria threatens new and even greater disasters.
An essential aspect of the war in Syria has been the increased influence of Iranian imperialism. All capitalist regimes try to increase their power and influence at least in the countries around them, and the Saudi regime is no exception. But the spread of influence of the Iranian regime spurs the Saudis onwards even more so.
Not only are the Syrian people made to pay the price for this, but even more so are the Yemenis. There, the Houthi rebels represent the Iranian regime and the Saudis are bombing the hell out of them, and everybody around them. More recently, the Houthis
- Claimed they fired a missile at a nuclear power plant under construction in the United Arab Emirates. The UAE denies this.
- Shot a missile at the Saudi airport in Riyadh (the Saudi capital) on Nov. 4. The Saudi regime claims it shot the missile down, but a New York Times analysis of the photo shows that the missile did strike near its target.
- Fired a missile at the Saudi royal palace on Dec. 19. The top leadership of the Saudi
Map of latest missile attack and where it was intercepted
regime was meeting there at the time. Apparently the Saudi forces succeeded in intercepting the missile.
These are proxy acts of war, and sooner or later one of these attacks will succeed. What would have happened, for example, had the latest attack succeeded and the missile had struck the Saudi royal palace, killing several top government officials? There would have been tremendous pressure for Saudi Arabia to declare war directly against Iran.
Then a new and even more disastrous chapter in the crisis in that part of the world would open up.