Greater Middle East
Yemen war fuels dope-for-guns trade
Both sides in Yemen's bitter Sunni-Shi'ite divide—equally intolerant of hashish-smokers and khat-chewers—are turning to the dope trade to fund their arsenals.
Tag: Yemen
Iran
Netanyahu’s doublethink
Netanyahu's speech before Congress was mostly controversial over its perceived meddling in US politics—not its incessant barrage of lies, distortions and double standards.
Greater Middle East
Yemen’s Houthi rebels: Iran’s proxies?
Claims that the Houthi uprising in Yemen is an Iranian plot ignore that the Houthis' brand of Shia is heretical to Iran's ayatollahs—and that Yemen's Shi'ites have real grievances.
Watching the Shadows
Obama’s sixth year: a World War 4 Report scorecard
World War 4 Report offers its annual annotated assessment of Obama's moves in dismantling, continuing or escalating the apparatus of the Global War on Terrorism.
Greater Middle East
Jihadis declare open season on school children
The Taliban massacre of children at a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, was shortly followed by a deadly Qaeda attack on a schoolbus stopped at a Houthi rebel checkpoint in Yemen.
Greater Middle East
Yemen: Saudis suspend aid as Houthi power grows
A failed US commando raid on al-Qaeda in Yemen comes as Saudi Arabia has suspended aid to the country in response to the growing power of Shi'ite Houthi militants.
Greater Middle East
Saudis crack down on Yemeni smuggling pipeline
Border Guard patrols along Saudi Arabia's rugged mountain frontier with Yemen report mounting interceptions of hashish, weapons and other contraband.
Watching the Shadows
Judge dismisses Yemen drone strike lawsuit
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought against Obama administration officials for the 2011 drone strikes that killed three US citizens in Yemen.
Greater Middle East
Yemen: autonomy or separatism?
A presidential panel in Yemen released a plan to transform the country into a "federal state of six regions"—rejected by southern separatists as insufficient.
Greater Middle East
Yemen: war comes to capital
A suicide attack on the defense ministry thrust Yemen briefly into the news—as an invisible sectarian war rages across much of the countryside.
Greater Middle East
Syria war portends Middle East ‘balkanization’?
Elements of Washington wonkdom are calling for the break-up of Syria into ethno-sectarian mini-states, and see the separatist contagion spreading to the rest of the Middle East.
Greater Middle East
Yemen: US terror alert enflaming conflict?
The closing of the US embassy in Yemen has coinicided with drone strikes and clashes in Marib province, and a gun-battle between rival factions in the capital Sanaa.