The Trump Administration has announced a policy change that looks like it could be a major turning point in US policy toward Yemen, announcing that they no longer consider the Shi’ite Houthi movement in Yemen to be a proxy of the Iranian government.
That stance is one initially pushed by the Saudi government to justify the Yemen War, and the US was only too willing to mirror it. This was in spite of the Houthis having substantial ideological differences with Iran, little direct contact, and not being the same type of Shi’ites.
The US did not explain their change in stance, but it may reflect Saudi Arabia’s ongoing peace talks with the Houthis, as the US couldn’t possibly support a peace deal that involved an actual Iranian-linked faction.
That said, arguing that the Yemen War has something to do with Iran was the only real justification the US had offered to get involved in the conflict in the first place, and if the Saudis don’t manage to resolve the conflict diplomatically, it’ll be all the harder for the US to justify its continued involvement in the war.
I imagine the foreign policy people in Iran educating the newcomers.
“The US accuses us of controlling the Houthis in Yemen. So in order to stop this we need to send them help. Not much, something symbolic is enough. Then the accusations will stop.”
“The US accuses us of working on nuclear bombs. Therefore we should build up excess nuclear capabilities as if we were thinking of building nuclear bombs, and this we then negotiate away.”
Don’t worry young Padawan, we don’t understand it either.
This marks a shift in “thinking” alright, but not for the right reasons. Iran has never cultivated proxies in the manner of the western forces to begin with anyway, so it’s just another temporary verbiage shift that has little to no actual impact in overall strategic posture or thinking in the region.
U.S. policy was taken from Netanyahu’s speech before U.S. Congress, whn he gave everyone stink eye, and declared, ‘Iran has taken over 4 Arab capitals’. That’s all our morons needed to hear.
This just changes the trash talk we engage in all the time in demonizing whoever.
The point of Yemen war is? US stake in it is?
Can we ever get around to it?
Same as it ever was : Profits for MIC…
“Iran clearly does not speak for the Houthis, nor has the best interests of the Yemeni people at heart,” said Brian Hook, U.S. Special Representative for Iran, at a press briefing later that day. “Iran is trying to prolong Yemen’s civil war to project power.”
In September, Hook had written about Iran “controlling and deploying” the Houthis as a “terror front.”
In just three short months Iran went from “controlling and deploying” the Houthis as a “terror front” to not even speaking for them. That alone should get them kicked out of the top spot for the “state sponsors of terror” bullsh*t that has been crammed down our throats for the last 40 years by people like Hook.
Gotta love it. Trump vetoes the resolution that would have brought the conflict to an end sooner, then his team comes out and states ““Iran is trying to prolong Yemen’s civil war to project power.” Oneday shrines will be erected to the prophet Orwell…probably by mutant peoples descendant from the survivors of Washington’s nuclear ‘miscalculation.’
I appreciate the Trump administration’s announcement but I doubt there will be any policy change. Our embrace of all things Saudi Arabia – including its atrocities – is inexorably linked to the Petrodollar agreement with the Gulf States to trade oil in USDollars only.
So while we may have no reason to oppose the Houthis – and reason to support them like promoting democracy and human rights – we will continue to enable SA to massacre them at will.