Islamic Republic Exporting it's Pan-Shi'ia Militarism To Yemen

Yemen

It looks like the Islamic Republic is going around the Old Caliphestan and sprinkling magic dust. This time, it has landed them in hot waters with Yemen. Creating enemies which would only lead to further isolatisation is the IR' s speciality. The Iraqi SCRI is also jumping ship and distancing itself from Iran. More on Yemen below the fold:

Yemen said on Saturday it was recalling its ambassadors to Iran and Libya over what it sees as their support for Shi'ite Muslim rebels involved in bloody clashes with government forces. Yemeni officials have accused Iran and Libya of backing rebels led by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi in the northern province of Saada. The two countries have denied the allegation. "The government will consult with the two ambassadors on the developments in Saada," Yemeni Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi told Reuters.

The rebel deny receiving Iranian or Libyan support. Meanwhile, a rebel leader welcomed remarks by Qirbi in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday that the government would consider talks with the rebels if they lay down their guns. "This call is in the right direction, and there is no reason to launch this huge war against us," Yahya al-Houthi, an exiled brother of the rebel leader, said in a statement issued in Germany and faxed to reporters in Yemen. "We and our supporters are ready to obey the state provided that the state ... carries out its responsibilities towards the citizens." Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands have fled their homes due to the heavy clashes between the rebels, from the Zaydi branch of Shi'ite Islam, and government forces. The government of Sunni-dominated Yemen accuses the rebels of seeking to oust its secular administration and install Islamist rule.

The rebels say they are defending their villages against what they call government aggression. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered the army in January to crack down on Houthi and his group, whom the government says preaches violence against the United States. The conflict has raged on and off since 2004. The flare-up began when the rebels attacked government forces who set up a checkpoint deeper inside Saada. Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism after the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities. Houthi's backers are not linked to al Qaeda.

Read more!

Follow the (Saudi) money

Tiger Hawk: "If you are who your donors are, then we now know who Jimmy Carter is. Harvard University, which is known neither for its moral subtlety nor its cavalier attitude toward gifts, managed to locate principles that were beyond a man who claims more for his own "morality" than any three other former presidents."

I respected and supported The Carter Center Conflict Resolution Center until I read this two years ago. No longer, I will trust anything that comes out of his mouth.

Read more!

Iran deports thousands of Afghans

BBC: More than 36,000 Afghans have been deported from Iran in the past 10 days, the UN refugee agency says.

The move has virtually cleared the south-eastern Iranian border town of Zabol of its Afghan population.

Iran says it has collected 50,000 Afghans for deportation, and argues it is the right of every country to send home illegal workers.

Iran is estimated to have more than a million illegal Afghan workers, and slightly fewer registered refugees.

Although the numbers seem to have slowed down a bit in the past few days, the sheer scale and speed of the deportations has caused problems...more Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi told the state-run news agency that 50,000 illegal Afghans have been collected for deportation in the past 10 days.

Read more!