Political Islam… and Iran

It is striking that, amid the attacks launched by the Houthis against Saudi Arabia from Yemeni territory, so many people fail to mention Iran or what the “Islamic Republic” is doing on the ground. The apparent aim is to obscure who is responsible, as though there could be such a thing as the Houthis without Iran’s “Revolutionary Guards”… or as though the point were to ignore Yemen’s transformation into a “theatre of Iranian influence”, much as Lebanon was before 2023.

Tehran has made no secret, particularly since it took control of Sanaa on September 21, 2014, of the fact that it had come to control four Arab capitals: Sanaa, Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut. Tehran still controls Sanaa and Baghdad today. It has lost Damascus for good, but is fighting to maintain its foothold in Beirut by terrorizing the Lebanese. Hezbollah uses its weapons, including the explosives it employed in the recent past to carry out assassinations. These range from the attempted assassination of Marwan Hamadeh to the assassination of Lokman Slim, including the killings of Rafik Hariri and his companions, Samir Kassir, Gebran Tueni, Pierre Amine Gemayel, Wissam al-Hassan and other honorable Lebanese…

First and foremost, when discussing events in Yemen and their repercussions across the Gulf region and beyond, things must be called by their names. In other words, Iran now considers that, through its presence in Yemen, the “Islamic Republic” has become part of the Arabian Peninsula. It is therefore natural to draw a link between the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb, the gateway to the Red Sea, as two critically important straits controlled by Iran.

From this perspective, one can understand Iran’s reaction to efforts by the forces of Yemen’s “legitimate government” to prevent the Houthis from controlling Bab el-Mandeb. That reaction has included repeated attacks on Saudi Arabia, which supports the “legitimate government”. Iran is going to extraordinary lengths to control Bab el-Mandeb. This determination explains the pressure the Houthis are exerting in their campaign targeting the city of Taiz. It is no secret that control of Taiz protects the Houthi forces in Mokha and opens the way for an advance toward Aden…

It is difficult to separate Iran from the attacks targeting the kingdom. To overlook this connection is to turn a blind eye to a reality that cannot be escaped. While some Lebanese politicians have left Iran’s name out, deliberately or otherwise, what deserves attention is the near-consensus among those associated with political Islam across the Arab world to overlook Iran.

The Muslim Brotherhood and those in its orbit have no shortage of arguments for ignoring Iran, as though they were bound to it by an unholy alliance because it is at war with the United States and Israel… and with the West more broadly. In Yemen itself, the Muslim Brotherhood has always been, in one way or another, an undeclared ally of the Houthis. Everything the Brotherhood has done through the Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Al-Islah) has worked to the Houthis’ advantage.

This began in 2011 with efforts to remove Ali Abdullah Saleh and the regime he had built, and extended to the refusal to defend Sanaa in 2014. At the time, the Muslim Brotherhood had thousands of armed men in Sanaa who stood by and watched the Houthis take control of the Yemeni capital. Why did the Muslim Brotherhood not defend Sanaa? Was that not a puzzling stance?

Only a few weeks ago, it became clear that nothing had changed in how Al-Islah dealt with the forces commanded by Tariq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, which controlled Mokha. Tariq’s forces had to withdraw after finding no one to cover their rear and because the air cover they needed was lacking at a stage when the Houthi offensive intensified…

The bottom line is that no distinction can be drawn between Sunni and Shia political Islam when it comes to Iran’s conduct in the region. There are a few exceptions, but what cannot be brushed aside is the collusion between political Islam in general and Iran in its conduct since 1979, when the shah’s regime was brought to an end and the “Islamic Republic” was established. The clearest evidence remains Hamas’s bet on Iran and Iran’s bet on Hamas. The financial resources of political Islam were hardly absent from this mutual wager, which led to the “Al-Aqsa Flood”… and to this major upheaval in the region. That upheaval also transformed Israel, which in turn paid the price for having, at one stage, turned a blind eye to money being channeled to Hamas on the grounds that it would ensure that the Palestinian divide continued indefinitely…