Yemen Faces Increased Iranian Involvement; The US Sends Troops After AQAP.

DUBAI -Iran's Ja'fari Shi'ite theocracy now is involved in both the northern and southern parts of Yemen, a deeply impoverished country hit by the Arab Spring of revolutions and facing tribal, sectarian and secessionist wars. The involvement is executed by the Quds Force, the external arm of Iran's ruling Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In Yemen's north-western province of Sa'da, the Quds Force is guiding the Zaidi Shi'ite militia group of the Houthi clan which wants to establish a Zaidi emirate as one of Iran's "planned satellites in the Arabian Peninsula" - as one Arab Gulf (GCC) critic of the theocracy puts it.

In South Yemen (which until the May 1990 unification with the North used to be a Marxist republic), the Quds Force is guiding al-Hirak (in Arabic meaning movement) which wants to secede from the North. Al-Hirak is a broad coalition of mainly Sunni/Shafe'i militants who include Marxist as well as right-wing groups. But in South Yemen, the Sunni/Neo-Salafi jihadis (holy warriors) of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is increasingly active and now controls major parts of some of that region's provinces.

It is not yet clear whether the Quds Force has anything to do with AQAP, as the Neo-Salafi group regards all Shi'ites as heretics. However, there are un-confirmed reports of a tactical alliance between the IRGC and some units of al-Qaeda Central (AQC) which is based in Pakistan's tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan. The unit which is said to be co-operating with the IRGC has been reported to be based on the Iranian side of the border with Iraq's north-eastern province of Diyala.

Iran leads an axis of anti-US/anti-Israel forces in the Greater Middle East (GME). Iran's main ally is the Alawite/Ba'thist regime of Bashar al-Assad of Syria which now faces a civil war as a result of an Arab Spring revolution there which began on March 15, 2011. This axis depends heavily on the theocracy's Shi'ite unit Hizbullah which now controls Lebanon's government. Various media reports emphasise that Iran and Assad's regime share all their geo-political cards including links to al-Qaeda.

A report in the British daily The Guardian on May 10 revealed that Iran and Assad's regime were both involved in getting al-Hirak to become part of the Tehran-led axis. The Guardian also noted Iran's involvement with the Houthis in north-western Yemen (see overleaf).

Talking to the Saudi-owned pan-Arab TV network al-Arabiya on May 11, opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) member Bassam Is-haq said the May 10 blasts in Damascus which killed 55 people and wounded hundreds were the work of the Assad regime's intelligence services. He pointed to a recently released Wikileaks cable dated February 2010 in which Syrian General Intelligence chief Ali Mamluk told a top US diplomat Assad's regime had infiltrated al-Qaeda and that, as a result, Washington should reward Damascus by giving it a preferential status in return for co-operation against the Neo-Salafi "terrorist" group. Al-Arabiya on May 11 quoted Iraqi Shi'ite theologian Iyad Jamal ud-Din as saying Iran's theocracy had got Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maleki and Assad to have special links involving both the Ba'thists and al-Qaeda (see news20IrnIrqWuF-May14-12 and rim5IrqSistaniMay14-12).

There are indications that AQAP has some form of co-operation with the IRGC. One of the latter indications is given by Saudi analysts. But Western media reports deny that such co-operation exists. The US, meanwhile, has begun sending troops to South Yemen to help San'a' government forces fight AQAP (see below).

The Guardian's report on May 10 focused on one a Hirak militant which it called "Jamajem" (in Arabic meaning sculls) who, it said, bears the self-important nom de guerre of "the Guevara of South Yemen". The paper's report began as follows: "No one knows whether the gunmen are jihadis, separatists - or both- Jemajem is a young, dark-eyed militant leader Based in the impoverished port of Aden, he belongs to the Hirak group of activists, who have been calling for South Yemen to be allowed to secede from the North for half a decade".

The Guardian said: "Shortly after the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, was [slated to be] toppled last November in the Arab Spring, Jemajem was approached by an intermediary working on behalf of what the man described as a friendly country' known for its international support for revolutionary causes. Jemajem was frustrated: although Saleh had gone, the separatists had not achieved any of their demands. But help was at hand, the man told him. Was he interested? Of course I was', said Jemajem. I would take money from the devil if he could help my nation. A drowning man will hang on to a straw'.

"His encounter with what turned out to be the Iranians is remarkable in itself, but it illuminates the much bigger tale of foreign interference in Yemen When the Iranians approached him, Jemajem was asked to gather a group of Hirak activists and a week later they were flown to Damascus, where they met two officials from the Iranian embassy. According to Jemajem and other activists who travelled with him, the officials told the Yemeni delegation that they would support demands for federalism within Yemen, but not the separate state that Hirak was calling for. I told them the people want independence', said Jemajem. It's not me who decides; my people will condemn me if I agree to federalism'.

"Days later the Iranians came back and told the Yemenis they would have to go to Tehran to meet more senior officials. They arranged for the 15 Yeminis to fly to Tehran without visas on an IranAir flight. There was no one else on the plane, the activists said, and when they landed they were whisked through security without their passports being stamped. From then on, they were treated more like detainees than negotiating partners, the Yeminis said. They were taken by bus to a hotel and only allowed to leave under escort, to go to meetings with Iranian officials. All the officials we met used aliases', said a female member of the delegation who did not want to be named. They didn't tell us who they worked for but they asked us many questions'.

"The meetings were held in ministries, but they were not told which ones, and the Iranians often spoke to them in near-perfect Arabic. They said Iran would invest in infrastructurein the south', said Jemajem. They said they would build a hospital and pay salaries to the activists. They said they would give me - personally - a few million dollars in the beginning to start paying salaries. Most importantly, they said they would send us weapons and train people', he said".

The Guardian continued: "The Iranians were looking for a foothold in the [Arabian] Peninsula, according to a senior Hirak activist who did not want to be named. Iran and Saudi Arabia have interfered in the affairs of Yemen for years, but their meddling had been exacerbated by the Arab Spring. The Sunni monarchies, such as the Saudis and Qataris, are supporting the Sunnis in Syria and turning a blind eye to the Shia of Bahrain, and the Iranians are looking for a foothold in the region to pressure the Saudis and to be close to the straits of Bab al-Mandab in case there is war with the Americans', he said.

The narrow strait, where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden off Yemen's south-western tip, is a conduit for all shipping going through the Suez canal, and about 30% of the world's oil passes. Yemen also shares a long and porous border with Saudi Arabia, which stretches through mountains and desert, and across which guns, qat and Islamic militants are smuggled into the Wahhabi kingdom.

The paper added: "Young men were leaving quietly to train in Iran". It quoted a senior activist as saying: "They leave in small numbers. I don't think the Iranians are training an army there - we don't need military training. I think they are recruiting them to be future intelligence agents here. But why do you need to recruit an agent in a revolution? Help the revolution and the whole people will come and help you'".

Recently it emerged that an AQAP bomber involved in a plot to attack a US jet was working with Saudi intelligence and the CIA. The double agent was also linked to a drone strike on May 6 which killed Fahd al-Quso, a leader of AQAP who was behind the October 2000 attack on USS Cole in Aden.