Attempts to legitimize Ameirca’s involvement in Yemen, that remains a crucial regional hub from the strategical point of view, have been made for a long time by the White House. After all, a military victory over Yemen would allow the US to contain China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, along with taking control over the most important Middle Eastern trade and energy routes.
The civil war in Yemen is the direct result of a classic military coup orchestrated by the US, which resulted in Shia rebels going to war against the Yemeni President Mansour Hadi, which is being supported by the Sunni population and al-Qaeda militants. Just like Ukraine, Yemen has suffered two coups in short concession, in 2011 and 2015. The first resulted in the toppling of the popular President Ali Abdullah Saleh , while the second removed Mansour Hadi from power.
As early as in January 2015, it became apparent that the Houthis were capable of establishing control over the whole country. Back then the President and the Houthis reached a preliminary ceasefire agreement and decided to revise the text of the constitution, transforming Yemen into a federal state, that would have all population groups equally represented in the government, including the Houthis. However, this decision did satisfy Washington, which resulted in Hadi demanding his resignation shortly after the agreement was signed, along with the members his government.
Shortly afterwards, the White House decided to put its “counter-terrorist operation” against the Yemeni al-Qaeda on hold, in a bid to counter the Houthis. That’s how the Obama administration got in the same boat with Yemeni Sunni tribes and the terrorists that Washington has allegedly been fighting over fifteen years, wasting more than 1.5 trillion dollars from the federal budget in the process.
In late March 2015, Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes against the Houthis, following the unofficial US request, but soon the fighting reached Saudi borders, while the situation in Yemen quickly deteriorated to a true political and economic drama.
The stakes in this war remain extremely high, since anyone who controls Yemen, control the Bab-el-Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden, through which oil is being exported to Europe and Asia.
It’s no secret that Washington was pretty contended 150 thousand Saudi soldiers and 100 fighters have been brought under fire to fight for Washington’s control over the major logistical artery of the Arabian Peninsula. The Saudi battle force was assisted by 85 combat military jets provided by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco and Sudan.
The Saudi royal family is well aware of the fact that the Shia rebels may block both the Strait of Hormuz and and the Strait of Bab el Mandeb, putting the Kingdom in a pretty peculiar position. However, since Saudi soldiers are hardly of any good on the battlefield, the Riaydh-led coalition has been making one mistake after another that were resulting in a significant numbers of civilians killed.
Ultimately, the growing dissatisfaction of the international community with Riyadh’s Yemen could easily resulted in a demand to put an end to Saudi military campaign in Yemen, which was not a part of Washington’s plan.
The White House was quick to comprehend the fact that under the present circumstances any zealous to publicly defend Saudi Arabia in the Yemeni conflict could result in a severe loss of credibility, that’s why Washington’s think tanks have decided to stage a provocation right out of CIA’s book of tricks to grant the US a pretext for the direct military aggression against Yemen.
As a result, at least twice in the past week anonymous artists that, as a matter of fact, have been officially rejected by the Houthis, launched misslies in the direction of USS destroyer Mason. A media campaign, that followed these strikes was aimed at persuading the international community that this was the “Houthis response to the Saudi funeral attack in Sana’a, that resulted in 140 people killed and another 500 more injured.” It must be pointed out that the anonymous artists were carefully instrcuted by the Pentagon that the missiles should inflict no damage to the US destroyer and those instructions were carefully followed.
As a result, on Wednesday, after the second alleged attempt to hit the USS Mason, Pentagon announced that it has the “official” right to “answer” those attacks with three Tomahawk cruise missiles being launched against radar stations in Yemen. The targets for those strikes were chosen pretty carefully since, though it’s clear that those radar stations had nothing to do with the alleged attacks against the US destroyer, they could potentially jeopardize the upcoming US air strikes against Yemen.
The US president confirmed that he ordered airstrikes to be launched against Yemen, which should allegedly constiute the “proportional use of force to protect US troops and ships, as well as the freedom of navigation on this important sea route.”
How many more wars the sitting US President and a Nobel Peace Prize laureat would start before his term will be over? With this rate of “peaceful activities” he’s running the risk of leaving no countries to ivade for his warmongering successor – Hillary Clinton. Although, certainly, it would be handy for the Nobel Committee to prepare a new Peace Prize in advance before Hillary arrives.
Jean Périer is an independent researcher and analyst and a renowned expert on the Near and Middle East, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”
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