The
last thing Saudi Arabia and its Western allies want is a
self-sustaining, economically viable, militarily strong, and
anti-imperialist Yemen at the bottom of the Arabian Peninsula,
controlling the Red Sea and its strategic waterways. Yemen’s
geographic placement in regards to the flow of world capital cannot
be stressed enough.
by
Randi Nord
Part
3 - Yemen’s growing revolutionary anti-imperialist movement
threatens U.S.-Saudi regional hegemony
Despite
Saudi Arabia’s receipt of heaping military and intelligence support
from the United States and other Western allies such as the United
Kingdom, France, Canada, and (previously) Germany, Yemen’s
resistance movement has only grown stronger.
Ansarullah
now controls the capital Sana’a, most of Yemen’s northern
provinces, as well as over 100 miles of territory beyond the Saudi
border. Here, Yemeni Special Forces, with the Army and Popular
Committees, expanded operations in retaliation for Saudi Arabia’s
devastating airstrike campaign.
Yemen’s
Sana’a-based Defense Ministry has also vastly expanded military
capabilities. Now, Yemen can domestically manufacture long-range
ballistic missiles, naval missiles, anti-aircraft weapons, and
reconnaissance drones. While the official narrative insists these
parts come from Iran, both Tehran and Sana’a deny this is the case.
Not only that, but documents obtained from Foreign Policy say the
evidence is inconclusive. Prior to the war, Sana’a under Hadi and
Saleh’s leadership was dependent on other countries — like the
United States — for military equipment and support. As a key ally
of George Bush Jr., the late President Saleh received at least $400
million worth of military aid. There is absolutely no shortage of
weapons already inside Yemen.
The last
thing Saudi Arabia and their Western allies want is a
self-sustaining, economically viable, militarily strong, and
anti-imperialist Yemen at the bottom of the Arabian Peninsula,
controlling the Red Sea and its strategic waterways. The importance
of Yemen’s geographic placement in regards to the flow of world
capital cannot be stressed enough.
The Bab
el-Mandeb Strait is a crucial choke point: nearly 59 billion barrels
of petroleum and other liquid products pass through here each day as
ships make their way to the Suez Canal and on to Europe. That’s
nearly 61 percent of the world total. Whoever controls this portion
of the Red Sea could potentially disrupt the flow of world capital
and global trade.
And of
course the fervor of a popular revolutionary movement isn’t
something Riyadh wants flowing over its border, where Saudi Arabia is
suppressing and bombing a decades-long uprising in the Qatif
province.
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