The “Shia crescent” that Iran is attempting to establish, securing the regional hegemony of the Islamic Republic, would include the Houthis in Yemen, the Kataib Hezbollah militia in Iraq, the Alawite-led (Alawites belong to Shi’a Islam) army in Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Sunni Arabs, both in the Gulf and in Egypt (which is suffering from a loss of Suez traffic and income) would be delighted if the Americans decided to destroy the Houthis militarily, by attacking them in their bases in Yemen, destroying their caches of weapons, and killing thousands of their fighters. More on the Houthi threat in particular can be found here: “Will the US Task Force Undo Years of Neglecting the Houthi Threat?,” by Yaakov Lappin, JNS, January 7, 2024:
Iran’s Alborz warship has entered the Red Sea after passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait [at the lower end of the Red Sea] , an Iranian news agency reported on Jan. 1. In its report, Tasnim, which is said to be close to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), did not specify the details of the Alborz’s mission but linked the move to Israel’s war against Hamas….
What could the Alborz warship do to the Israelis? Could the ship shell Eilat, without being vulnerable to destruction by Israeli airstrikes? Hasn’t Iran learned a lesson from the current war in Gaza, that the Israelis are through with half-measures, and would welcome the excuse to send not ships, but its air force, to do to Yemen what the IAF has done to Gaza?
And if the American and British naval task force is by now ready and waiting in the Red Sea, might those ships decide to engage the Alborz if it appears to be threatening Western ships, without waiting for an actual attack? Sinking the Alborz might provide a salutary lesson to the Iranians, reminding them that for all of their huffing and puffing, they are still far from being a Great Power.
IDF Col. (res.) Shaul Shay, a lecturer at Reichman University in Herzliya and a senior research associate at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism, noted that the strong connection between Iran and the Houthis goes back to 2014, when the Houthis conquered the Yemenite capital of Sana’a, and from there began expanding to other parts of the country, almost seizing Aden as well….
Unfortunately, said Shay, at this stage, the United States and Western Europe began to blame Saudi Arabia for the war in Yemen and its many civilian casualties, while failing to recognize that this was a strategic battle for the fate of the Middle East….
The American and European powers blamed Saudi Arabia for causing too many civilian casualties in Yemen, and did not come in on the side of the Saudis when they might still have crushed the Houthis. They failed to understand that this was not only a Yemeni civil war, but a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with both sides using proxies. Its outcome — still uncertain — will decide which of these two countries will dominate the region. For all of their many faults, the Saudis are not determined to wipe out Israel, unlike Iran. Nor do they regard the United States as “the Great Satan.” Nor are the Saudis aggressively seeking to create a “Sunni crescent” to unite the Islamic world against the Infidels, as Iran has been trying to do with its “Shi’a crescent.”
Under Iran’s direction, the Houthis have gone beyond Yemen in their attacks. They have been bombarding Saudi cities, and Saudi military sites, for almost a decade. And the Houthis have served as cover, blamed for attacks on Saudi oil fields, that were actually carried out by Iran. Such attacks could potentially cut oil production drastically and raise oil prices sky-high, with devastating effects on the world economy. Iran doesn’t want to be blamed for this; the Houthis serve as a convenient cut-out.
Knocking Houthi drones and missiles out of the sky is not enough, according to Shaul Shay. The recent “precision” air strikes are not enough, either. The Americans should take the occasion, the next time there is an attack by Houthi drones on ships in the Red Sea that causes any damage, no matter how limited, to do what it has so disastrously failed to do until now: send waves of airplanes over the Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen to blast to smithereens UAV and missile warehouses, army barracks, and Houthi boats. It’s not something either the Houthis, or their Iranian backers, ever thought would happen. Now it’s time to prove them wrong. That will make a deep impression in Tehran.
dad says
make a deep impression in Tehran,. Then this stops
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Actually no! Neither we nor the Brits nor the Israelis should lift a finger against the Houthis. Let the onus of that be on the sunni Arabs, & let Egypt & the Saudis put together a force to combat the Houthis & Iran. Let their money & manpower be put into that exercise!
Old Dog says
The United States should act like the great power it once was and do exactly what the author describes and not depend on surrogates to do what is necessary. Unfortunately, the Biden regime lacks the strategic vision and competence.