- World News
Saudi Arabia sent fighter jets and artillery bombardments across the border into northern Yemen Thursday in a military incursion apparently aimed at helping its troubled southern neighbor control an escalating Shiite rebellion, Arab diplomats and the rebels said.
The Saudis — owners of a sophisticated air force they rarely use — have been increasingly worried that extremism and instability in Yemen could spill over to their country, the world's largest oil exporter. The offensive came two days after the killing of a Saudi soldier, blamed on the rebels.
Yemen denied any military action by Saudi Arabia inside its borders. But Yemen's president is a key ally of the Saudis, making it highly unlikely the kingdom would have launched the offensive without tacit Yemeni agreement. A U.S. government official said the Yemenis were not involved militarily in the fighting. The official spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The offensive immediately raised concerns of another proxy war in the Middle East between Iran and Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally. Shiite Iran is believed to favor the rebels in Yemen while Saudi Arabia, which is Sunni, is Iran's fiercest regional rival. The same dynamic has played out in various forms in Lebanon, where Iran supports the Shiite militant Hezbollah and Saudi Arabia favors a U.S.-backed faction, and in Iraq, where Saudi Arabia and Iran have thrown support to conflicting sides in the Sunni-Shiite struggle.
Saudi political analysts say that the rebels are trying to breed instability to turn the issue into a regional one between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
“The recent seizure of an Iranian boat carrying weapons destined for Yemeni rebels is a primary example,” said noted political analyst Dr. Ali Al Atiyyah.
Meanwhile, the Iranian owned Arabic language news channel Al Alam was dropped by Saudi-hosted ArabSat and Egyptian-owned Nilesad, in a move that is widely seen as politically motivated. Egypt’s Middle East News Agency said the decision was because of contractual violations, without elaborating. Al Alam has followed the Yemeni government’s war with Shi’ite rebels in north Yemen, reporting regularly on statements by the rebels who have accused Saudi Arabia of backing the government in Sana’a.
Saudi Arabia and Egypt are close allies of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has said individuals in Iran are funding the rebels but stopped short of accusing the government.
