Heavy clashes on Saudi-Yemeni border; Hadi government pleads for troops

[سيف الله]

Salaam

More grim news from the Middle East.

Heavy clashes on Saudi-Yemeni border; Hadi government pleads for troops

(Reuters) - Saudi troops clashed with Yemeni Houthi fighters on Tuesday in the heaviest exchange of cross-border fire since the start of a Saudi-led air offensive last week, while Yemen's foreign minister called for a rapid Arab intervention on the ground.

Saudi Arabia has been leading a coalition of Arab states since last Thursday in an air campaign against the Shi'ite Houthis, who emerged as the most powerful force in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country when they seized Yemen's capital last year.

The Saudis say their aim is to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who left the country last week. The Houthis are allied with Saudi Arabia's regional foe Iran, and backed by army units loyal to longtime ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was pushed out three years ago after "Arab Spring" demonstrations.

The conflict has brought civil war to a country already on the verge of chaos and forced Washington to evacuate its personnel from one of the main battlefields in the covert U.S. drone war against al Qaeda.

Residents and tribal sources in north Yemen reported artillery and rocket exchanges along several stretches of the Saudi border. Explosions and heavy gunfire were heard and Saudi helicopters flew overhead, they said.

In the southern port of Aden, Houthi fighters and allied army units pressed an offensive against forces loyal to Hadi, trying to capture the last remaining major stronghold of the absent president's forces.

At least 36 people were killed when Houthi forces shelled Hadi loyalists in Aden. Jets from the Saudi-led coalition bombed Houthi positions near the airport.

Further west, Houthi fighters entered a coastal military base overlooking the Red Sea's strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait, local officials said, when soldiers of the 17th Armoured Division opened the gates to the facility.

ENERGY GATEWAY

The Bab el-Mandeb shipping lane, which connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea, is a vital energy gateway for more than 3 million barrels of oil passing daily to Europe, Asia and the United States.

Hadi's rump government, now based in Saudi Arabia, called for Riyadh to escalate the air war into an invasion.

Asked by an interviewer on pan-Arab television channel al-Arabiya Hadath whether he sought an Arab ground intervention, Yemeni Foreign Minister Riyadh Yaseen responded: "Yes, we are asking for that, and as soon as possible, in order to save our infrastructure and save Yemenis under siege in many cities."

Saudi authorities say they have gathered troops along the border in preparation for any possible ground offensive, but have given no timetable to send them in. Pakistan has also said it is sending troops to support Saudi Arabia.

"There could be a limited ground operation, in specific areas, at specific times. But don't expect there to be an automatic resort to a ground operation," said Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition.

"I don't want us to concentrate on the land operation as if it is a 'must' ... if it is possible to achieve the goals through other means."

In the southern city of Dhalea, residents reported heavy fighting, with southern secessionist fighters trading artillery fire with Houthis backed up by army units loyal to Saleh.

Repeated air strikes hit Houthi and allied positions, including an ammunition store at a military base, which caused huge explosions. An eyewitness said nine southern fighters were killed, along with around 30 Houthi and allied fighters.

In the east of the country, on the border between Shabwa and Marib province, at least 15 Houthi gunmen and their allies were killed in a clash with tribal fighters, local sources said.

The Houthis are backed by military units still loyal to Saleh, himself a member of their Zaidi sect, who fought to crush the Houthis while in power but has now allied with them.

YEARS OF UNREST

Saudi Arabia has a history of wielding influence in its poorer neighbor and fought a brief and indecisive ground conflict against the Houthis in the border area in 2009 while supporting then-leader Saleh.

The civil war comes after years of unrest and disintegrating central authority in a country also dealing with tribal discontent and al Qaeda's most potent regional branch, as well as a southern secessionist movement.

Saleh's decision to ally with the Houthis tips the regional balance of power away from Saudi Arabia and toward Iran, a feud also being played out on battlefields in Syria and Iraq. The crisis is the first big foreign policy test for Saudi Arabia's new king, Salman, and the kin he has elevated to top posts.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian called the Saudi strikes a "strategic mistake". He said Tehran had a proposal to end the conflict and was trying to reach out to Riyadh. He gave no details.

"Iran and Saudi Arabia can cooperate to solve the Yemeni crisis," he said in Kuwait. "We recommend all parties in Yemen return to calm and dialogue."

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said the operation would continue until it restored security and unity to Yemen.

"We are not the ones calling for war. But if you bang the drums of war, we are ready for it," he told the kingdom's Shura Council advisory body.

While the strikes have not halted the Houthi advance, the Saudi-led coalition says it has succeeded in closing off Yemeni airspace to Houthi supporters and imposing a naval blockade.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said one of its planes had been prevented from delivering medical supplies in Sanaa, and called for "the urgent removal of obstacles to the delivery to Yemen of vital medical supplies needed to treat casualties".

It also called on all combatants to allow humanitarian workers to operate safely. A Yemeni Red Crescent volunteer was shot dead on Monday in Dhalea while evacuating wounded people.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/31/us-yemen-security-idUSKBN0MR0HE20150331

[Nájlá]

السّلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

What is happening in Yemen today, to put it in very simple terms is that Houthi rebels, Ali Saleh and Hadi are fighting for power, they did it for years now. Ali Saleh is the one who gave power to the houthis, making Iran stick their business in Yemen affairs and now Hadi ran way to Saudia for the same reason to get Saudi in Yemen affairs for the sake of power. Yemenis have lived for many years with zaidis and it has never been a problem until recently.

The 10 country coalition led by Saudi Is a big mistake, no one is paying the price here except for the innocent Yemenis. Who are already suffering from their leaders, first Saleh then Houthis. They are stuck in Yemen unable to travel out, even for those who have a citizenship else where. Yemen depends on food from the outside, with the no fly zone i can't imagine how hard life has become for Yemenis. So far so many innocents have been killed by the Saudi bombs, and also Houthis. I pray that Allah frees Yemen from both sides. And protect the innocent. Ameen

[سيف الله]

Salaam

Another update, more analysis.

US-Iran thaw spurred Saudi action on Yemen: experts

Dubai (AFP) - Wary of a rapprochement between Washington and arch-rival Iran, Saudi Arabia has taken matters into its own hands by leading an air war against Shiite rebels in Yemen, experts say.

The Huthi rebels, who Tehran denies arming, were close to seizing most of Yemen when Saudi Arabia sent warplanes into its southern neighbour, with which it shares a 1,800 kilometre (1,100 mile) border.

"America's indifference to Saudi concerns and -- the other side of that coin, America's increasing interest in co-opting Iran," are among the motives behind Riyadh's action, said Professor Anoush Ehteshami, Iran and Gulf expert at Britain's Durham University.

The air campaign began last week as marathon talks between Iran and world powers aimed at ensuring Tehran never develops a nuclear bomb entered a crucial phase.

"As the nuclear negotiations proceed, the Saudis become much more nervous about America taking its eye off the Arab world by focusing on Iran," said Ehteshami.

The campaign followed urgent calls for help by Yemen's embattled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, as the Huthis and allied troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh closed in on his refuge in the main southern city of Aden.

Hadi, who has since fled to Saudi Arabia, denounced the rebels as Iran's "puppets", while Riyadh accused Tehran of meddling in the internal affairs of the Gulf and Yemen.

On Tuesday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said that Yemen's security was "part and parcel" of the security of his kingdom and the rest of the Arab world.

- Saudi Arabia 'frustrated' with US -

The Huthis are not a new force in Yemen. They have fought the central government for a decade in their northern stronghold of Saada.

They also locked horns with Saudi Arabia in a previous conflict in 2009-2010.

The Huthis defeated powerful tribes in months of fighting before overrunning the capital in September, triggering condemnation -- but initially no action -- from Riyadh.

The prospect of the Huthis controlling the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, including stationing their forces at the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait, appears to have finally prodded Saudi Arabia into its unusual intervention.

"The Saudis have come to the hard conclusion that no one will come to their rescue if Iran manages to have a foothold in Yemen, (and) establish a kind of Yemeni Hezbollah... to practise coercive diplomacy with Riyadh," said Hassan Barari, professor of international relations at Qatar University.

Saudi Arabia is also "frustrated" by a perceived "American disengagement from the region," he said.

Barari cited the four-year conflict in Syria where Gulf monarchies feel let down by Washington's failure to help oust President Bashar al-Assad.

Jane Kinninmont, deputy head of Middle East and North Africa programme at London's Chatham House think tank, said Saudi Arabia "views the Huthis as little more than an Iranian proxy and wants to send Iran a clear message that it faces pushback from regional powers."

The unexpected military intervention also showed that Saudi Arabia's new leader, King Salman, is ready to take drastic action to protect his country's interests.

"Saudi Arabia is no longer in a preventive mode," said Ehteshami.

"The traditional perception of Saudi Arabia being a cautious, behind-the-scenes actor is increasingly outdated. Saudi Arabia now is more of a proactive actor in the region," he said.

- Setting aside differences -

Riyadh has formed the largest-ever coalition of Sunni Arab countries to fight the Huthis, bringing together most of the Gulf monarchies, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan and Egypt.

The alliance is also the first that openly operates away from the auspices of Washington or NATO, though a Gulf diplomatic official said that participants would like to have international cover.

"We are working to get a UN resolution like in Mali, post-action," the official said.

It is a "coalition of the minimum" common ground, according to Barari, under which "these countries can maintain their differences but when it comes to Iran they should cast aside these difference."

Ehteshami said the Arab monarchies and Egypt could form a long-lasting bloc that would "engage Turkey and Pakistan as the new Sunni periphery of the Arab axis."

He argued that Ankara and Riyadh have put aside their "divergent" positions over Egypt's crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, which Turkey opposed, and are "working very closely" to push Assad out and to combat Iran's influence in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Iran is left with few options beyond condemnation.

"Iran probably doesn't want to scupper the nuclear talks for the sake of Yemen, which is not a country that is central to Iranian interests," said Kinninmont.

Ehteshami believes Tehran will pursue a traditional strategy of using proxies to wield influence.

"The Huthis are the perfect proxy for them."

http://news.yahoo.com/us-iran-thaw-spurred-saudi-action-yemen-experts-162131000.html

[سيف الله]

Salaam

Interesting commentary on Saudi motivations. Agree, disagree?

What’s Really Behind the Saudi Attack on Yemen

Under its new king, Salman, Saudi Arabia is fighting four major struggles to reshape the Middle East. The common denominator is a quest for neighbors that will not challenge the Saudi monarchy or make alternative claims on religious and temporal authority, especially on a populist basis. The Saudi government is more pragmatic than usually recognized, and it can abide left-of-center nationalist regimes as long as they do not denounce Riyadh. But political Islam scares the geriatric royal family to no end if it is not under their control.

The Saudi intervention in Yemen, and its organization of key members of the Arab League into a coalition to support that military move, is unusually adventurous for the royal family, which likes to work behind the scenes and more subtly. The muscular character of the intervention is a sign of how frightened Riyadh is of the instability in Yemen. There, the tribal Houthi movement of Zaidi Shiites has allied with military units loyal to deposed president Ali Abdullah Saleh to topple the government of Saleh’s successor, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The Houthis have pledged to topple the Saudi throne; they chant “death to America” and have friendly relations with Iran. Nothing could be more threatening to the Saudis than a grassroots populist movement of this militant sort, and that it springs from a Shiite population makes it worse. The Saud dynasty is allied at home with the Wahhabi movement, which typically views Shiite Muslims as worse idolators than Hindus. Still, the late King Abdullah appointed two Shiites to his national Advisory Council, the embryonic Saudi parliament, and deployed the Ismaili Shiites of Najran against Yemen. It is not Shiite Islam that is the red line for the kingdom, but populist movements that talk dirty about the Saudi monarchy.

Another worry for King Salman, as for the United States, is that the Houthis’ attempt to rule all of Yemen despite being from a minority community (Zaidis are about a third of Yemen’s population) will create a power vacuum in the Sunni south of the country. There, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has long been active, with between 400 and 2,000 fighters. In 2011–12, AQAP attempted to take territory in Abyan province, but was defeated by the Yemeni army.

The real day-to-day ruler of Saudi Arabia may be the second deputy prime minister, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. Son of a long-serving minister of intelligence, Prince Mohammed was targeted by an AQAP suicide bomber in 2009. The Saudis not only want to force the Houthis into political negotiations and restore national consensus; they want to make sure that AQAP, a threat to the royal family, is defeated. The Houthi takeover of much of the country has impelled the United States to pull out its remaining Special Forces personnel and to mothball for now the drone program it was running against the AQAP leadership. The Saudi royal family could not have been pleased.

The aged billionaires of the Saud dynasty have been buffeted by potentially destabilizing gales since 2011. They depended on the relatively secular-minded, nationalist Egyptian officer corps for their security, to some extent (Pakistan and the United States also offered the kingdom security umbrellas). The overthrow of Hosni Mubarak and the rise to power in Egypt of the populist Muslim Brotherhood posed an existential crisis for the kingdom. The Muslim Brotherhood was seen by the Saudi royal family as rooted in the people and as disrespectful of the religious charisma of the king in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia thus colluded with the Egyptian officer corps in the July 2013 coup against then-President Mohamed Morsi. The Saudis have long memories. They remember that in 1815 Egypt invaded Arabia on behalf of the Ottoman sultan to crush the Wahhabis. They were worried that the Muslim Brotherhood, if it were able to consolidate its control in Egypt, could carry out or encourage similar attempts to undermine their power in the Arabian Peninsula.

In Syria, the Saudis backed the more fundamentalist factions of the Free Syrian Army, called Salafis, which have now organized themselves as the Islamic Front. The Islamic Front has not done very well in the fighting, though it controls some territory near the northern city of Aleppo. The Islamic Front differs from other Syrian rebel groups such as the Al Qaeda affiliate known as the Support Front (Jabhat al-Nusra) and Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) not ideologically but simply because Nusra and Daesh are not loyal to King Salman. The Saudis fear the latter two and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, and still hope their Islamic Front clients will prosper and turn Syria into a Salafi paradise that is firmly subordinate to the Saud dynasty. Riyadh also fears victory by the Damascus government of Bashar al-Assad, which is disproportionately drawn from Alawi Shiites and which is allied with Shiite Iran and with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

In Bahrain, the Saudis sent in some 1,000 troops to support the Sunni monarchy of the al-Khalifa in the face of protests by the island’s Shiite majority against their marginalization. Riyadh then prevailed on the United Arab Emirates to match that military commitment. That the masses demonstrating in the streets were Shiite no doubt annoyed the Saudis, but that they were a popular crowd drawn from the people, with no loyalty to Sunni monarchs, is what really frightened them.

The Houthis, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Alawite Baathists, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Shiite Wifaq Party in Bahrain have all felt the Saudi lash. Yet they bear little resemblance to one another ideologically or theologically. Two of them, the Brotherhood and AQAP, are strongly Sunni, though the Brotherhood is nowadays largely nonviolent. The Alawites are gnostics who are not usually recognized as Muslims, even by other sects of Shiism. The Zaidi Shiites of Yemen had been known for being close to the Sunnis and having good relations with them. The Bahrain Shiites belong to the conservative Akhbari school and hold that lay people can interpret religious texts for themselves—many have only pastors, rather than ayatollahs. What four of the five have in common is that they are populist movements of political Islam that challenge the status quo and challenge the Saudi monarchy and its claims of religious charisma deriving from support for Wahhabism and its rule over the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. In the case of Syria, the Alawites are the establishment, not rebels. But by allying with Iran, the Syrian Alawites have become associated in the eyes of some powerful Wahhabis with populist Shiite challenges to the regional status quo.

Saudi Arabia appears to have had its way in Egypt, where the officer corps is resurgent and the Muslim Brotherhood has been crushed, along with the progressive youth of the Tahrir movement. Likewise, the protest movement of the marginalized Shiite majority of Bahrain has been dealt with brutally by the Sunni monarchy, with Saudi help. But in Syria, the Saudi-backed faction has had no real success. And Yemen, rugged and inhospitable to outsiders, poses the greatest challenge of all. When the nationalist Egypt of Gamal Abdel Nasser intervened in another Yemeni civil war, in the 1960s, it became a quagmire for him and tied down his best troops, leading in part to his humiliating defeat in the 1967 war with Israel. If Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires, Yemen is the booby trap for foreign incursions. Will the geriatric billionaires of the Saudi royal family be able to avoid Nasser’s fate?

http://normanfinkelstein.com

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[afar]

hey guys iam stuck at how to make a thread ? can you guys help me. :)


my thread is about where to find the book of bokhara the book of islam i know their are 4 which are zabur, torah, injeel, and quran but bokhara is almost about islam and its about how one should live and stuff but i cant find .

[سيف الله]

Salaam

Another update

The Collapse of the Obama Doctrine: Yemen War as an Opportunity?

To suggest that the United States policies in Yemen was a ‘failure’ is an understatement. It implies that the US had at least attempted to succeed. But ‘succeed’ at what? The US drone war had no other objective aside from celebrating the elimination of whomever the US hit list designates as terrorist.

But now that a civil and a regional wars have broken out, the degree of US influence in Yemen has been exposed as limited, their war on Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, in the larger context of political, tribal and regional rivalry, as insignificant.

The failure, if we are to utilize the term, is of course, not just American, but involve most of US allies, who have ignored Yemen’s protracted misery – poverty, corruption, violence and the lack of any political horizon, until the country finally imploded. When the Houthis took over Sanaa last September, a foolish act by any account, only then did the situation in Yemen became urgent enough for intervention.

For a long time, the US seemed invulnerable to what even Yemen analysts admit is a intricate subject to understand, let alone attempt to explain in a straightforward manner. The US drones buzzed overhead independent from all of this. They ‘took out’ whomever they suspected was al-Qaeda affiliate. President Barack Obama was even revealed to have approved of a ‘secret kill list’, and agreed to consider counting casualties in such a way that “essentially designates all military-aged males in a strike zone as military combatants.”

In fact, a timeline of events that have befallen poverty-stricken Yemen shows a strange phenomenon, where US involvement in that country operates parallel to but separate from all other horrific events, violence, suffering and politicking. Sure, US shadowy war had augmented the suffering, demoralized the nation and undermined whatever political process underway, especially after the Yemeni version of the Arab Spring early 2011. However, the US paid little heed to Yemen’s fragile alliances and the fact that the country was on a fast track towards civil war, worse a regional war, direct or by proxy.

That responsibility of mending broken Yemen was left to the United Nations. But with regional rivalry between Iran and Gulf countries at its peak, UN envoys had little margin for meaningful negotiations. Despite repeated assurances that the ‘national dialogue’ was on its way to repair Yemen’s body politic, it all failed.

But the US continued with its war unabated, arming whomever it deemed an ally, exploiting regional differences, and promoting the power of al-Qaeda in ways that far exceeded their presence on the ground. It saw Yemen as a convenient ‘war on terror’, enough to give Obama the tough persona that American voters love about their presidents, without the high risk of military quagmires like the ones that his predecessor, George W. Bush, created in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It was hardly that simple. Even a ‘clean’ drone war activated from faraway places is rarely enough to guarantee results.

Set aside the moral responsibility of torturing an already wounded nation, the US seemed to lack understanding of how its actions frustrate and contribute to regional conflicts. Its exasperation of Iraq’s sectarian fault lines following the 2003 invasion, leading to a massive civil war few years later, was a lesson unlearnt. That ‘divide and conquer’ backfired badly. Empowered and brutal US-supported Shia government that took revenge on Sunni tribes and communities across Iraq following the war, met their match with the rise of a brutal so-called ‘Islamic State’ in more recent years, turning Iraq, and of course, Syria, into a savage battleground.

Gone are the days in which US policies alone dictated the course of history in the Middle East. The Iraq war was catastrophic at so many levels, lead amongst which is relegating direct military intervention as a way to achieve strategic and political ends.

The Obama doctrine was an attempt at combining use of US military influence (while scaling down on direct military intervention), on the one hand, and regional and international allies on the other, to sustain US ascendency in the region as much as possible.

What seemed like a relative success in Libya with the ousting of Muammar al-Qaddafi was too difficult to duplicate in Syria. The stakes there were simply too high. Regional rivals like Iran, and international rivals like Russia were too resistant to any open attempt at overthrowing the al-Assad regime. And with the rise of IS, al-Assad had suddenly be re-casted into a different role, becoming a buffer, although still designated as an enemy. John Kerry’s statement about willingness to engage Assad signaled a massive turnabout in US policies there.

Now, with a preliminary nuclear deal agreed upon by Iran and US and its allies, chances are the US, although will carry on with its saber-rattling (as Iran will surely do as well) there is little chance that Obama will enact any major shift in his regional policies. To the contrary, his administration is likely to retreat, further hide behind its allies to achieve whatever muddled objectives it may have at the chaotic moment.

For Iran, and to a lesser degree, the US, Yemen is maybe a suitable ground for a token war. In “Why it may suit Iran to let the Saudis win in Yemen“, Daniel Levy and Julien Barness-Decey argue that the current rivalry in Yemen has at its heart the nuclear talks between Iran and the West. Iran never ‘won’ Yemen to lose it anyway, and supporting the Houthis can only push Iran’s Arab enemies into a protracted conflict from which there is no easy escape.

Yet while indirect military involvement is consistent with the Obama war doctrine, the US could still stand to lose. Sure, Obama can counter his Republican critics – stalwart supporters of Israel, thus strongly opposing to any Iran deal – by military engaging Iran from a distance in a useless Yemen war. That said, if the US allies fail to achieve a quick victory, which unlikely anyway, the US would have one of two options: to disown its allies (who are already infuriated by the US double speak on Iran) or to get pulled into an unwinnable war that cannot be lost.

A loss for the Houthis would certainly bloody Iran’s nose, but not much more than that. It is the Arabs and their regional allies that risk a major loss due to their direct involvement. And since defeat ‘is not an option’ the Yemen quagmire is likely to prove more lengthy and lethal. In the first two weeks of war, over 500 Yemenis have been reportedly killed. This is just the beginning.

Of course, there is a way out. Iran and its Arab rivals must understand that political scenarios where one cancels out the other is impossible to achieve. Syria has been a paramount, although tragic example.

They must also keep in mind that the US, which is playing both parties against one another, is only interested in the region for economic and strategic reasons. Regardless of the hyped sectarian divides, Shia, Sunnis, and numerous other groups, crisscrossed, overlapped and co-existed in the Middle East for centuries. No war, no matter how destructive, and no alliance, no matter how large, can possibly change that historical inevitability.

https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/the-collapse-of-the-obama-doctrine-yemen-war-as-an-opportunity/

[سيف الله]

Salaam

Another comment piece.

Kingdom’s action will pay off

Since the beginning of airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen, the Kingdom has been stressing that the purpose of this operation is to restore Yemen's legitimate government that had been unseated by the insurgents who have destroyed civil institutions, attacked the country's legitimate leaders and threatened internal and regional peace.

Throughout its history, the Kingdom has always been keen to safeguard Yemen’s security and ensure its stability. It has contributed immensely to the welfare of its people by providing economic, educational and military assistance. Therefore, the Kingdom was pained to see the destruction and chaos created by Houthis in the neighboring country.

It was obvious from the outset that there was an unholy alliance between the Houthis, ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Iranian government that believed the Houthis were in control. Tehran began dealing with these gangs as if they were the real leaders of the country and reportedly signed agreements to arrange for weekly flights between Tehran and Sanaa for the transfer of Iranian military advisers to Yemen. This attitude of the Iranian government was contrary to diplomatic norms and smacked of an open support to the bloody coup that plunged the country into a spiral of violence and chaos, besides threatening the security of the Kingdom.

Saudi Arabia has made it clear from the beginning — and at the highest level — that it had sent messages and warnings to the government in Tehran to stop meddling in the internal affairs of Arab countries. Iranians were also asked to refrain from provoking sectarian strife and sending battalions of militia and misguided people to Iraq to establish Iranian hegemony there.

The Iranian regime also tried to improve its bargaining power with the United States in nuclear talks by stoking tension in the region and encouraging the Houthis to take control of sea ports through which the Gulf Cooperation Council countries export their oil to the outside world. Despite claims by the Iranian government and religious authorities to the contrary, maneuvers on the ground did not leave any doubt that Iran aimed to export its sectarian plans to the Arab region. A statement by the former head of the Iranian intelligence that Baghdad had become the second Iranian capital testifies to the Iran's hegemonic designs. In fact, Iran has exported criminal gangs to carry out killings, looting, destruction of property and ethnic and religious cleansing as documented by several reporters and international organizations in their reports on the atrocities committed by the Iranian militias in the Iraqi city of Tikrit. Iraq’s prime minister has also acknowledged these atrocities, but admitted that his army has failed to stop the violations committed by these militias led by the generals of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and clerics who are against Sunni Arabs.

The Iranian machination is aimed at distracting the attention of the impoverished Iranian people from domestic problems.The Iranian intentions were unfolded in a statement issued by a group calling itself “Hezbollah supporters” in which it spoke about the rise of the Shiite state and the conquest of holy sites.

Thus, Tehran no longer hides its malicious intentions against the Kingdom and the holy places and wants to use Houthis to create chaos and trouble.

Any attempt to cause harm to the land of the holy sites will be thwarted by the help of God. The sick minds that are planning such evil designs will be defeated thanks to God’s mercy and the steadfastness of the leadership of the Kingdom, its valiant armed forces and loyal people and support of all peace-loving people of the world.

http://www.arabnews.com/columns/news/730451

[MuslimInshallah]

Assalaamu alaikum,

I found this beautiful article in a Pakistani paper online (http://www.dawn.com/news/1174881/whe...our-tour-guide). It is written by a young Yemenese woman. It has gorgeous pictures of Yemen, and talks from the heart.

It is so easy to get bogged down in clever discussions and political wrangling. But it is important, it seems to me, that we remember the people who are affected. Because it is easy to forget about statistics of happenings far away that seem to have nothing to do with us.

These are real people. And their culture and land is beautiful. How can we possibly be ok with the killing and the devastation that a military campaign brings?

What good is coming, or will come, from this military campaign? Like Iraq, other countries have been messing in Yemen for many, many years. And it just gets more and more unstable. Perhaps, instead of supporting yet another armed struggle in this region, we should start seriously looking into what the local peoples are asking for? A little respect and self-restraint on the part of the powerful might have better and cheaper results than this escalation of destruction, I believe.


Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri (May Allah be pleased with him) reported:
Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "Whoever amongst you sees an evil, he must change it with his hand; if he is unable to do so, then with his tongue; and if he is unable to do so, then with his heart; and that is the weakest form of Faith".

[Muslim].


فالأول‏:‏ عن أبي سعيد الخدري رضي الله عنه قال‏:‏ سمعت رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم يقول‏:‏ ‏ "‏من رأى منكم منكرًا فليغيره بيده ، فإن لم يستطع فبلسانه، فإن لم يستطع فبقلبه وذلك أضعف الإيمان‏"‏ ‏(‏‏(‏رواه مسلم‏)‏‏)‏‏.‏

Arabic/English book reference

: Book 1, Hadith 184

If we feel we cannot even speak out about this, can we not, at least, feel the wrong in our hearts? Please read the article. Let it touch your heart.

May Allah, the Just, have Mercy on those who suffer in this world.

[Abz2000]

Search on net for bukhari pdf

[سيف الله]

Salaam

Another update

Yemen is the most extraordinary global terrorism campaign in history

Professor Noam Chomsky joins Afshin to discuss the major crisis in the West. From the ‘terror-generating’ drone strikes in Yemen which leads to Al Qaeda’s expansion to anti-neoliberal movements spreading through South America and even parts of Europe with the rise of Syriza and Podemos, could US hegemony be coming to an end? And with the ‘extraordinary demonisation’ of Russia over the Ukraine crisis, there’s a very real risk of ‘a conflict that could be terminal.’

[ardianto]

Organization of Islamic Cooperation urges Indonesia to be mediator for conflict in Yemen.

Hopefully Indonesia will take this duty.

[سيف الله]

Salaam

Another update

Yemeni refugees fleeing Saudi air strikes find peace but little else in Somaliland

‘It is driving people crazy,’ says one of hundreds arriving across the Gulf of Aden in Berbera. ‘The air raids are destroying more houses than the fighting’

It was just after midnight when the livestock ship carrying nearly 200 people fleeing Yemen’s civil war docked at the port in the Somaliland city of Berbera.

As aid workers set up registration tables in the light of Red Crescent ambulance headlights, the migrants slowly filed on to land across a plank the size of a door. Families sat in circles on the gravel, attending to crying children or staring blankly at the stacks of cargo containers surrounding them. They looked dazed and exhausted, but they were happy to be alive.

This was the fourth – and most crowded – shipload of refugees fleeing Yemen to reach Berbera since late March, when a Saudi Arabia-led coalition began a bombing campaign against Shia Houthi rebels who forced President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi into exile.

It is an exodus that seems unlikely to end any time soon, despite Saudi Arabia’s announcement on Tuesday night that it had ended its bombing campaign. Saudi warplanes launched new air strikes against rebel positions in Aden and Taez on Wednesday and aid workers have warned that the humanitarian situation in Yemen remains “catastrophic” after months of fighting.

International airports such as the one in Sana’a have been demolished, and fleeing overland is risky as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula continues to control swaths of territory in the east.

So far more than 2,000 people have made the journey across the Gulf of Aden to the coast of Somaliland, and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, expects that over the next six months as many as 100,000 more will follow.

“The reason people are coming here is because of the planes,” said Mohammed, 21, one of the boat’s passengers. “It is driving people crazy. The air raids are destroying more houses than the fighting.”

Another man pulled out his mobile phone and showed pictures of the destruction. One showed the body of a man lying on the street – charred beyond recognition except for its leg, which was just a stretch of clean white bone.

The current flow of refugees reverses an earlier migration across the Gulf of Aden which began in the late 1980s when civil war forced hundreds of thousands to flee Somalia.

Of the 246,000 refugees registered in Yemen, nearly 95% are Somali. Now many of these are trying to return home, some even making their way to Somalia’s capital city, Mogadishu, despite continuing attacks by the militant group al-Shabaab.

Somaliland – a self-declared independent state which is viewed by the international community as a territory within Somalia – has largely escaped civil war violence, but is not currently equipped to receive large numbers of refugees.

The new arrivals were accommodated in a warehouse where they described a Yemen that is sinking further into crisis every day. Food, water and electricity shortages are crippling humanitarian camps and major cities like Sana’a. Families are living in basements beneath their levelled houses, unable to purchase petrol, which this group says has reached $100 for 20 litres in some places, to escape to humanitarian camps.

Within the medical facilities that haven’t been reduced to rubble, people are dying because of a lack of necessary medicine. One young woman raised her voice in anger as she explained that more aid organisations appeared to be leaving Yemen than trying to get in.

Many had spent the last of their savings to pay the $100 passage for the journey from the port of Mocha and across the Gulf of Aden. “All my money is finished here,” said Miriam, 20, who had travelled alone.

UNHCR has said it will begin coordinating travel to Mogadishu and other locations as more migrants show up. For now, though, migrants must fend for themselves to find a way out of their temporary stay in Berbera, where reception facilities have yet to be completed.

The local government and aid organizations plan to expand their assistance as more refugees arrive. UNHCR has put in place additional toilets and improved access to water, to replace the single, dirty bathroom behind the warehouse.

Still, those like 14-year-old Safwan Hasan, who is accompanied by every member of his family, are happy to make a new home out of the old one they fled so many years ago.

“All the people [on the boat] were happy,” he said, “because they were coming to their second country.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...di-air-strikes

[سيف الله]

Salaam

Interesting

Israel reportedly offered Saudi its Iron Dome technology; Saudi rejected offer

Report says Israel conveyed the proposal via American diplomats as a means to combat Huthi rebels in Yemen

Saudi Arabia recently rejected an Israeli offer to provide it with Iron Dome rocket defense technology, a London-based Arab newspaper reported Saturday.

According to Rai al-Youm, Israel conveyed the proposal to Saudi officials last week via American diplomats stationed in Jordan, as a means to combat rocket attacks by Huthi rebels in neighboring Yemen.

The report stated that the Saudis turned down the offer for unspecified reasons.

There was no confirmation of the report by any official sources.

The Iron Dome system was jointly developed and funded with the United States. It first proved itself this past summer, intercepting and shooting down more than 700 rockets fired from Gaza by Hamas and its allies, 85-90 percent of the total rockets fired at Israeli population centers.

US Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee have recently backed the Israeli Government request for $621.6 million in 2015 for Israeli missile defense programs in general, including $351 million allocated specifically for Iron Dome.

“If we did not have it and the rockets were falling in Israel, killing people, then the Israeli army would have little choice but to enter Gaza on foot to get rid of the place where the rockets are coming from,” former Israeli defense minister Amir Peretz and architect of the Iron Dome program told The Washington Post on Tuesday.

The United Nations has revealed that at least 1,037 civilians have now been killed in Yemen since the end of March.

It has warned Saudi Arabia and its allies – which began a bombing campaign in Yemen eight weeks ago – as well as Huthi rebels and other militia groups to adhere to obligations under international law not to harm civilians.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) estimates that of the more than 1,000 dead, at least 130 are women and 234 children. A total of 2,453 civilians have been injured.

“There has also been massive destruction of civilian infrastructure, particularly in Aden and Sada’ah,” Cécile Pouilly, OHCHR spokesperson told reporters in Geneva.

Saudi Arabia in April announced an end to Operation Decisive Storm – under which it had pounded Sana’a and Huthi towns and cities in the north with air strikes.

But the war has continued, with Huthi making gains in the southern city of Aden and even attacking Saudi border posts in the north.

Saudi airstrikes have continued to pound Yemen in recent weeks, although a five-day humanitarian took place between 12 May and 17 May.

Violence resumed in Yemen this week, with airstrikes in Aden, Ibb, Sada’ah, Dhale, and Sana’a, OHCHR said.

http://normanfinkelstein.com/2015/05/25/saudis-to-launch-nuclear-program-royal-family-enrolls-in-intensive-course-to-learn-addition-and-subtraction-special-coaches-being-imported-from-sri-lanka-to-teach-multiplication-table/