US Warship Sent to Block Iran Weapons off YemenO

[cali]

Oh good. Maybe we won't have to worry about a deal with Iran. We can just settle it now with a war.

The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is steaming toward the waters off Yemen to beef up security and join other American ships that are prepared to intercept any Iranian vessels carrying weapons to the Houthi rebels fighting in Yemen.

Navy officials said Monday that the Roosevelt was moving through the Arabian Sea. The U.S. Navy has been beefing up its presence in the Gulf of Aden and the southern Arabian Sea amid reports that a convoy of about eight Iranian ships is heading toward Yemen and possibly carrying arms for the Houthis. Navy officials said there are about nine U.S. warships in the region, including cruisers and destroyers carrying teams that can board and search other vessels.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ship movement on the record.

The Houthis are battling government-backed fighters in an effort to take control of the country. The U.S. has been providing logistical and intelligence support to Saudi Arabia-led coalition launching airstrikes against the Houthis. That air campaign is now in its fourth week.

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http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/us-warship-heads-yemeni-waters-block-iranian-weapons-30452148

[TwilightGardener]

1. It used to be that our only interest in Yemen was to kill Al Qaeda there.

Suddenly our mission is to help Saudi Arabia fight the Houthis? Someone needs to explain what we're doing and why, because I'm not seeing the national interest here.

[Agnosticsherbet]

2. ISIS claims increasing stake in Yemen carnage

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/isis-yemen-carnage-houthi-rebels-advance-in-aqap-territory-toward-hadi/

Basicly, if Yemen is embroiled in a civil war it is the perfect breadig groud for ISIS. They thrive in failed States and Yemen is pretty much there.

[TwilightGardener]

3. Blocking Iranian weapons will stop ISIS? Or AQ?

We're seriously going to halt and board Iranian ships? Are we going to start fighting Houthis now, or will it be all three groups in Yemen? Because we're actually embroiled in a current war in two countries, and I'm not sure where we stand on that right now.

[Agnosticsherbet]

4. It will make it easier to end the civil war.

[TwilightGardener]

5. Funny, because the Syrian civil war hasn't been ended yet.

We haven't really blocked Iran and Russia from propping up and arming Assad. But we are arming/training rebels there. Now we're the ones propping up the essentially-nonexistent "pro-SA/US" government of Yemen against Iranian backed rebels. Plus, of course, our war in Iraq/Syria against ISIS. What's one more quagmire?

[Agnosticsherbet]

6. No major state in the region is involved in ending the Syrian Civil War.

The Saudi's are activly invovled in fighting the Houthis and installing a friendly, Suni government.

This is part of the Suni Shia conflict that has been going in for 1300 years.

[TwilightGardener]

8. SA, Turkey, Jordan and Qatar did actually try to overthrow Assad with

their own rebels--some of which became ISIS, some of which turned over US weapons and supply warehouses to ISIS, and enabled ISIS to take over large parts of the country. That seems to have resulted in a dangerous stalemate in Syria and helped launch Iraq 3.0 (in which we're sort of fighting alongside Iran, BTW). Now we are assisting SA to fight the Houthis, we are helping them select targets, etc.--and as of now, we're stopping their weapons shipments. If there's an incident, what can this blow up into? That's my concern--what interests do we really have at stake in Yemen?

[jwirr]

7. A war where everyone is fighting everyone does not seem solvable to me.

[bigtree]

9. that's not going to affect the Iran talks at all

...no siree!