Previous recent blogs have discussed the almost secret war being fought between Saudi Arabia and Iran along the Yemenite-Saudi border. The western media have all but blacked out news of this growing war. It began with warfare between the “Believing Youth,” a Shiite Islamic group well-armed and supported by Iran against the Sunni Islamic Saudi border forces and military. The Saudi military has used tanks, warplanes, phosphorus bombs, etc. vs. the Iranian proxies, but the Iranian-backed forces apparently succeeded in seizing some Saudi territory anyway. The Saudis have called in Jordanian (Sunni) special forces to assist them, and Iran is continuing to smuggle supplies to its proxy forces via ships (some of which have been suck by Saudi forces).
It now appears that this war is beginning to widen further. The first link below reports that the USA has used its air force drones to attack “Al Queda” forces in Yemen. The second link below is a YouTube video from the Russian media which quickly showed and publicized the damage done by the U.S. drones. It is possible that the U.S. drones attacked “Al Queda” forces, but it is also possible that the USA attacked the Iranian-backed proxy forces fighting against Saudi and Jordanian forces. The fact that Russian media quickly had access to a video of the damage caused by U.S. drones indicates to me which side of this conflict Russia is on. Russia is, no doubt, on the side of the forces backed by Russia’s ally, Iran.
In an earlier blog, I expressed my viewpoint that if the Saudis were unable to defeat the Iranian-backed proxy forces, it would embolden Iran to start taking military action on the northern part of Saudi Arabia as well. Iran wants to overthrow all the Sunni Arab governments and replace them with Iranian-backed radical governments, so Iran can be expected to probe for weaknesses to see if the time it right for them to launch a wider war. The third link reports that Iranian army troops crossed into Iraq and seized an Iraqi oil facility, leaving the Iranian flag flying over the facility. This involved a small number of Iranian army troops, but it was clearly a probing action by Iran on the “northern front” to see if there would be any meaningful military response by Iraq, Saudi Arabia or any Sunni Arab nation. So far, there has been no response. This will only encourage Iran into thinking the Sunni Arab nations are weak and that the time is ripe for Iran to expand military confrontations. The USA’s willingness to use its air force drones to attack targets in Yemen may have been an initial signal to Iran that the USA will stand by idly when Iran’s proxy forces are waging war. Even if the U.S. drones attacked Al Queda forces, it is still a signal to Iran because Al Queda and Iran’s proxy forces have a common goal: the destabilization of the Sunni Yemenite government which is friendly to Saudi Arabia.
The Sunni Arab-Shiite Iranian fighting which has developed into open warfare along the Saudi-Yemenite border has drawn in Jordan and the USA and has now spread to an initial skirmish or provocation along the Iraqi-Iranian border along the Persian Gulf. The final link below reports that the Saudis are now frantically trying to build a barbed-wire fence along its 1,600 kilometer border with Yemen to stop the flow of “thousands” of Shiite infiltrators (i.e. Iranian-backed rebels) who are coming across the border into Saudi Arabia. The rising intensity of warfare between Sunni and Shiite forces in Yemen raises the possibility that there could be an open Sunni-Shiite war in the Persian Gulf region. A brutal war such as this occurred in the 1980s between Iraq and Iran. Iran has already made Syria its ally, has taken over most of Lebanon via Hezbollah, has taken over Gaza via Hamas and is actively waging a war to overthrow the Sunni government in Yemen. At some point the Sunni governments in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Turkey and the Sunni regions of Iraq will realize that they either must fight back against Iran to save themselves or submit to a gradually-spreading new Iranian/Persian/Shiite empire over their nations. If such a war breaks out, it is hard to see how the USA could stay out of it. If the USA is to have any credibility at all in the world, it will have to intervene on the side of the Sunnis.
Jesus foretold “wars and rumors of wars” would characterize the growing instability of the latter days before his return. Add the chance of an open Sunni-Shiite war to the list of “rumors of wars.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/18/launched-missile-strikes-al-qaeda-yemen-sources-say/?test=latestnews
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E85mb3KM2uk
http://www.rttnews.com/ArticleView.aspx?Id=1161726&SMap=1
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2009/me_saudis0966_12_15.asp
