"An Old Hand is at Work in Yemen's Bloody Cvil War"--by Robert Fisk

[KoKo]

Yemen is not Syria. But America’s skewed comprehension of the Middle East has now produced a remarkably similar scenario
by Robert Fisk

It’s all about the Saudis. No matter how complex the new Yemeni civil war may appear – nor how powerful the Houthi rebels have become in the capital of Sanaa – it’s the Zaidi sect of Shiism which the Houthis represent that frightens the Sunni Wahabi monarchy of Saudi Arabia, and not without reason.

For more than five years, there has been armed conflict between Saudi forces and the Houthis, who at one point captured a low mountain range inside the Saudi border. The Saudis blame the usual suspects: Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah. The Houthis blame the usual suspects: the Sunnis of Yemen and their Saudi supporters along – you guessed it – with the United States.

But like every crisis in the Middle East, the Yemen conflict, which has followed almost seamlessly from the civil war that brought Nasser’s Egyptian army into conflict with the Yemeni royal family - which was supported by the Saudis - is a little more nuanced than news dispatches might suggest. Indeed, Yemen’s first independent ruler was a Shia Zaidi – not a Sunni - who extended his territory over much of northern Yemen between the world wars.

The Imam Yahya was head of the Zaidi sect, whose beliefs and worship have almost as much in common with Sunni Islam as they do with Shiism, but he struggled against the Saudis when they seized Asir and Najran from what Yahya called “historic Yemen”.

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More of the background Sunni/ Shia relationship in Yemen & the Saudi's at.....

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/an-old-hand-is-at-work-in-yemens-bloody-civil-war-9993454.html

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Interesting how the Saudi's who bankrolled

9/11 want it both ways. Bottom line it must be all about the Oil.

[bemildred]

2. +1.

Good to see Mr. Fisk. He is right on with this.