Zero Hedge — Houthis Say It's Not Over - Saudi Oil "Still Within Range"; Iraq Denies Its Territory Used

While US officials were quick out of the gate to allege an Iranian attack on Saudi Aramco facilities launched from Iraq early Saturday, a theory which the WSJ said was focus of an ongoing US-Saudi investigation, Iraq's government issued a firm denial on Sunday, which followed Iran's own denial that condemned Washington's "maximum lies"....

But crucially the Houthis have defiantly announced it's not over: "The rebel group said its weapons could reach anywhere in Saudi Arabia. Saturday’s strikes were carried out by aircraft equipped with a new type of engine, the Houthi rebel group said," Bloomberg reports.

Whatever the source this is not only a catastrophe for the Saudi leadership that began a war of choice with Yemen, but also the US military-industrial complex whose best weapons acquired in volume still could not counter an asymmetrical attack that cost very little in terms of criteria militaries use to measure investment and return.

Zero Hedge
Houthis Say It's Not Over - Saudi Oil "Still Within Range"; Iraq Denies Its Territory Used
Tyler Durden

See also

Moon of Alabama
Damage At Saudi Oil Plant Points To Well Targeted Swarm Attack

My own view: This is a shot across the bow.

Moon of Alabama U.S. Grants Approval For Genocide In Yemen

Another crime against humanity soon to be added to those already committed against Yemenis.

Moon of Alabama
U.S. Grants Approval For Genocide In Yemen

b

Moon of Alabama — Lebanon - Hariri's Resignation - The Opening Shot Of The Saudi War On Hizbullah

More twists and turns in the snake pit. Here we go again.

Yesterday [Lebanese Prime Minister] Hariri was visited in Beirut by Ali Velayati, a top advisor of the supreme leader Khamenei of Iran. The Saudis did not like either. Thamer's plan was set into motion. They sent a private jet and hauled Hariri to Riyadh. There the Saudi clown prince Mohammad bin Salman gave Hariri his resignation statement (written by Thamer?) to be read by him on Saudi TV. 

Irony alert: The Lebanese PM (with a Saudi passport) resigns on order of Saudi Arabia, in Saudi Arabia, on Saudi Arabian TV. In his Saudi written resignation statement (excerpts) he accuses Iran of foreign meddling in Lebanese politics. 

(Hariri also suddenly claims that there was an assassination planned against him in Lebanon. This is nonsense. The Lebanese internal security organization says it has no knowledge of such a plot. Hariri needs an excuse to stay away from Lebanon and from the wrath of his followers. Saudi media are trying to create some fantastic story from that assassination claim. But there is nothing evident to back it up.)

Moon of Alabama
Lebanon - Hariri's Resignation - The Opening Shot Of The Saudi War On Hizbullah

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See also

Fort Russ
"US and Saudi Arabia forced the Lebanese PM to resign in an attempt to counter Hezbollah" - Iranian official
Breakingnews.sy - - translated by Samer Hussein

Also at Fort Russ:

Expert: Hariri's resignation is a sign that Saudis and U.S-Israel are pursuing a disastrous 'Plan B'

Analysis by Marwa Osman, Lecturer at the Lebanese International University and Maaref University and former host of the political show “The Middle East Stream”

The Western version:

Reuters
Lebanon PM Hariri resigns, assails Iran and Hezbollah
Angus McDowall, Tom Perry, Sarah Dadouch

Also

Israel is operating militarily within Syria.

Israel’s military said on Friday it was ready to protect a frontier village in Syria held by the Syrian government, where Damascus said jihadist rebels exploded a car killing at least nine people.

The statement was an unusually explicit Israeli pledge to intervene in the war in Syria, where Israeli officials are voicing deeper alarm at the role of Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which are fighting alongside the Syrian government.


The Israeli air force says it has struck arms convoys of the Syrian military and Hezbollah nearly 100 times in recent years. Its most recent strike was on Wednesday according to the Syrian government.

Reuters

Israeli military says ready to protect Druze village in Syria

Pepe Escobar — A coup in the House of Saud?

Gives "MBS" new meaning. It's no longer mortgage backed security but Mohammad bin Salman.

But just as MBS were involved in the global financial crisis that began with the housing bubble in the US; so too, Mohammad in Salman is poised to initiate a global political crisis. Pepe Escobar explains.

Asia Times
A coup in the House of Saud?

Pepe Escobar

Moon of Alabama — U.S. Torture, A Saudi Coup And ISIS Crimes - "By, With And Through Allies"

The U.S. military and/or the CIA outsourced parts of their ongoing torture campaign in Yemen to the United Arab Emirates, reports AP. Some "interrogations" are done in the presence of U.S. personal and on U.S. ships:

The thuggery and war crimes continue. Much more in the post.

Moon of Alabama
U.S. Torture, A Saudi Coup And ISIS Crimes - "By, With And Through Allies"

b

LobeLog — foreign policy

Letter to Trump: Don’t Go to War in Yemen

April 4, 2017

Dear President Trump,

We, the undersigned non-governmental organizations, have learned that the White House is expected to sign off on the Pentagon’s request for the United States to support the Saudi- and Emirati-led offensive to take control of the seaport and city of al-Hudaydah, which is currently controlled by the Houthi-Saleh alliance. It is our understanding that a major attack on al-Hudaydah is therefore imminent. In addition to providing support for the coalition in the forms of “surveillance, intelligence, refueling and operational planning,” your administration is also reportedly considering direct US military engagement against the Houthis as part of this offensive. We urge you to withhold American support for any offensive against al-Hudaydah.

Speaking in Washington last week, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, clearly said that it is the UN’s position that “no military operations should be undertaken” in al-Hudaydah. The International Rescue Committee warned, “any disruption of these port facilities would have a catastrophic impact on the people of Yemen – denying food and medicine to civilians already suffering immeasurably.”

Seventy percent of imports and humanitarian aid enter the country through al-Hudaydah. Escalating the conflict in this part of the country will cut off that lifeline and threaten the lives of millions of Yemeni civilians, particularly the 7.3 million already on the brink of famine.

Should the coalition move forward with the offensive, thousands of civilians are likely to be killed, injured, and displaced. The UN reports that the Saudi-led coalition’s efforts to capture smaller cities on the Red Sea coast have already displaced more than 48,000 civilians.

US participation in this offensive not only risks further US complicity in the coalition’s violations of international humanitarian law and possible war crimes, but also risks embroiling the US in a costly military campaign with little to no chance of strategic victory, and exacerbating security vacuums that extremist groups like al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) are eager to fill. US and coalition escalation against the Houthis is also likely to increase Iranian influence in Yemen. Iran views the rebel movement as a cheap ally in its drive to indirectly confront Saudi Arabia. While Iran has little to lose from the US escalating military involvement in Yemen, America’s entrapment in Yemen’s civil war would benefit Iran substantially.

The planned offensive will provide limited strategic benefits for the coalition and erode the possibility of a political settlement, while imposing a potentially unbearable burden on the Yemeni people. We urge you to withhold support for the offensive and pressure the coalition to prevent the offensive from going forward.

Sincerely,

American Friends Service Committee
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)
Arab Center for the Promotion of Human Rights (ACPHR)
Arab Rights Watch Association (ARWA)
Center for International Policy
CODEPINK
Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM)
Daily Kos
Fellowship of Reconciliation
Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
Global Progressive Hub
The Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti
Institute of Policy Studies
New Internationalism Project
The Interfaith Peace Network of WNY
Just Foreign Policy
Knowdrones.com
Massachusetts Peace Action
Nonviolence International
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Pax Christi International
Pax Christi USA
Peace Action
Peace Action New York State
Peace Direct
People Demanding Action
Progressive Democrats of America
Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED)
Saferworld
September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
STAND: The Student-Led Movement to End Mass Atrocities
United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ)
US Labor Against the War
Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Wasatch Coalition for Peace and Justice
Win Without War
WNY Peace Center
Women’s Action for New Directions
Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom US Section
Yemen Peace Project (YPP)

Reuters — Commando dies in U.S. raid in Yemen, first military op OK'd by Trump

A U.S. commando died and three others were wounded a deadly dawn raid on the al Qaeda militant group in southern Yemen on Sunday, which was the first military operation authorized by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The U.S. military said 14 militants died in the attack on a powerful al Qaeda branch that has been a frequent target of U.S. drone strikes. Medics at the scene, however, said around 30 people, including 10 women and children, were killed....

Reuters
Commando dies in U.S. raid in Yemen, first military op OK'd by Trump

Mohammed Ghobari and Phil Stewart | Sanaa/Washington

Rebecca Gordon — In Yemen, Yet Another Undeclared U.S. War

On how many countries is U.S. ordnance falling at the moment? Some put the total at six; others, seven. For the record, those seven would be Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and, oh yes, Yemen.

The United States has been directing drone strikes against what it calls al-Qaeda targets in Yemen since 2002, but our military involvement in that country increased dramatically in 2015 when U.S. ally Saudi Arabia inserted itself into a civil war there. Since then, the United States has been supplying intelligence and mid-air refueling for Saudi bombers (many of them American-made F-15s sold to that country). The State Department has also approved sales to the Saudis of $1.29 billion worth of bombs — “smart” and otherwise — together with $1.15 billion worth of tanks, and half a billion dollars of ammunition. And that, in total, is only a small part of the $115 billion total in military sales the United States has offered Saudi Arabia since President Obama took power in 2009.

Why are American bombs being dropped on Yemen by American-trained pilots from American-made planes?….

The Saudi-led coalition includes Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain. Between March 2015 and the end of August 2016, according to the Yemen Data Project, an independent, nonpartisan group of academics and human rights organizations, the coalition launched more than 8,600 air strikes. At least a third of them struck civilian targets, including, the Guardian reports, “school buildings, hospitals, markets, mosques and economic infrastructure.”…

Why is Saudi Arabia, along with its allies, aided by the United States and, to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom, fighting in Yemen?…

So, once again, why do the Saudis (and their Sunni Gulf State allies) care so much about the roiling internal politics and conflicts of their desperately poor neighbor to the south? It’s true that the Houthis have managed to lob some rockets into Saudi Arabia and conduct a few cross-border raids, but they hardly represent an existential threat to that country.
The Saudis firmly believe, however, that Iran represents such a threat. As Saudi diplomatic documents described in the New York Times suggest, that country has “a near obsession with Iran.” They see the hand of that Shi’a nation everywhere, and certainly everywhere that Shi’a minorities have challenged Sunni or secular rulers, including Iraq.

There seems to be little evidence that Iran supported the Houthis (who represent a minority variant of Shi’a Islam) in any serious way — at least until the Saudis got into the act. Even now, according to a report in the Washington Post, the Houthis “are not Iranian puppets.” Their fight is local and the support they get from Iran remains “limited and far from sufficient to make more than a marginal difference to the balance of forces in Yemen, a country awash with weapons. There is therefore no supporting evidence to the claim that Iran has bought itself any significant measure of influence over Houthi decision-making.”

So to return to where we began: why exactly has Washington supported the Saudi war in Yemen so fully and with such clout? The best guess is that it’s a make-up present to Saudi Arabia, a gesture to help heal the rift that opened when the Obama administration concluded its July 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran. Under that agreement’s terms, Iran vowed “that it will under no circumstances ever seek, develop, or acquire any nuclear weapons” in return for the United States lifting years of economic sanctions.

The US has no direct national interest in Yemen.

Lobe Log
In Yemen, Yet Another Undeclared U.S. War

Rebecca Gordon

Saudi Propaganda

More propaganda.

The Saudis are claiming that the Houthis were targeting the Kaaba, after the Saudis experienced global outrage over targeting Houthi civilians.

Why would the Houthis target Mecca? To scare fellow Muslims from undertaking the hajj? In order to reduce Saudi income from pilgrims? It makes absolutely no zero sense.

Why would the Saudi accuse the Houthis of targeting Mecca. Makes all the sense in the world as propaganda.

And remember that recently the Houthis were accused of targeting a US ship. The US struck the Houthis in retaliation. Later the US admitted that it had no firm evidence of the attack, and the incident may been the result of a US Navy mistake. This was after the outrage at the Saudis target civilians was also directed at the US for arming them and doing just about everything else but pull the trigger.

Eurasia Review

Saudi Arabia: Global Outrage Over Houthi Missile Attack Targeting Mecca
Arab News

The Houthi reply.

The Yemeni Houthi army's spokesman on Friday denied Saudi allegation of targeting the holy city of Mecca with a ballistic missile, noting that it targeted a Saudi airport in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, in a statement carried by Houthi-controlled state Saba News Agency.

Brigadier General Sharaf Luqman said that Thursday's ballistic missile attack "has hit the target" with 100 percent accuracy, stressing that the target was inside the King Abdel Aziz Airport in Jeddah, west of Mecca.

He slammed the allegation as "a media war and misleading of public opinion," affirming that his army fighters are "very careful to spare civilian areas, particularly the Islamic holy sites, from any attack."

Saudi state news agency SPA reported Thursday that a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis from Yemeni northern province of Saada was intercepted 65 km from Mecca.

Xinhuanet

Yemen's Houthis deny targeting Mecca with missile

Does anyone else find it curious that America's enemies reported to be constantly targeting civilians intentionally, while when America or its allies are caught hitting civilians, it is always a mistake.

David Swanson — Will the Gulf of Tonkin Fit into the Red Sea?

Whitewashing war crimes. What else is new?

Foreign Policy Journal
Will the Gulf of Tonkin Fit into the Red Sea?
David Swanson, director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org

Paul R. Pillar — US Escalates War Role in Yemen

Backgrounder on doing more stupid stuff. 

Pillar argues that the US has no national interest in Yemen. In spite of this US policy there is being driven by the Saudis, and the US is supplying the KSA with weapons and intelligence.

The US and its Western allies have a simplistic view of the Middle East, whereas the dynamics are driven by local and regional interests that have nothing to do with US interests. The US interests in the Middle East are energy and Israel. Anything not directly related to those interests involve embroiling the US in unnecessary conflicts of choice.

Consortium News
US Escalates War Role in Yemen

Paul R. Pillar, former CIA veteran analyst

Moon of Alabama — Alleged "Attack" On U.S. Ships To Justify Continued War On Yemen

Gulf of Tonkin redux, since it worked so well?

Moon of Alabama
Alleged "Attack" On U.S. Ships To Justify Continued War On Yemen

Also

Sic Semper Tyrannis
Who done what?
Col. W. Patrick Lang, US Army (ret.), former military intelligence officer at the US Defense Intelligence Agency

Nadia Prupis — New Documents Show US Knew Helping Saudis in Yemen Could Be War Crime

Officials doubted Saudi military could target Houthi militants without hurting civilians or destroying infrastructure, Reuters reports

Common Dreams
New Documents Show US Knew Helping Saudis in Yemen Could Be War Crime
Nadia Prupis, staff writer

Voltaire Network — DynCorp mercenaries replace Academi mercenaries in Yemen

In Yemen, the Academi mercenaries (ex-Blackwater) have been killed one after the other by the coalition of Houthis and soldiers loyal to President Saleh. They have been replaced by new personnel supplied by DynCorp.

This private army will be paid for by the United Arab Emirates, to the tune of 3 billion dollars. DynCorp is the property of the investment fund Cerberus, directed by the Israëli Steve Feinberg and the ex-Vice-President of the USA, Dan Quayle.

You didn't think that the Saudis fight their own wars themselves, did you?

Voltaire Network
DynCorp mercenaries replace Academi mercenaries in Yemen
Translation by Pete Kimberley

Daniel Lazare — The Collision Course in Syria

After Bush's folly in Iraq, Obama's folly in Syria and it far from over yet in both Iraq and Syria with both the future costs on all sides and the ultimate outcome uncertain.

A quarter of a million people would eventually die as a consequence of Obama’s miscalculation, 7.6 million would be displaced, and another four million would be driven abroad, all this in a country of just 22 million prior to the onset of civil war.

To put this in perspective, it is as if 3.6 million Americans had died as a result of a foreign-financed civil war, 110 million had been driven out of their homes, and another 58 million had been forced to flee abroad to Canada, Mexico or whatever other country would take them, where they would have no choice but to beg or perhaps sell ballpoint pens to passers-by in hopes of scratching out a living.

Instead of democracy, the U.S.-led push to overthrow Assad put Syria on the path to catastrophe. Obama could have hit the pause button at any point once it became clear where the effort was going.…

Daniel Lazare outlines how Obama got in bed with the devil.

Daniel Lazare catalogues how this is now spinning out of control.

Consortium News
The Collision Course in Syria
Daniel Lazare

See also

The “War on Terror” – now more than 14 years long – has trapped the U.S. and other nations in the “dark side” of human behavior, a dilemma that is both moral and practical because the continued use of brutal methods has only made the crisis worse, as Nicolas J S Davies explains.

In the Dark on the ‘Dark Side’
Nicolas J S Davies

Andrea Shalal — US Approves Sale Of Smart Bombs To Saudi Arabia

KSA has used up its supply on Yemen.

Oh, and there is more.

Saudi Arabia, one of the largest buyers of U.S. weapons, was approved in September for a potential second sale of 600 Patriot-PAC-3 air defense missiles made by Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), a deal valued at $5.4 billion.

Last month, the U.S. government also approved the sale to Saudi Arabia of up to four Littoral Combat Ships made by Lockheed for $11.25 billion.

Reuters

US Approves Sale Of Smart Bombs To Saudi Arabia

Andrea Shalal

Pepe Escobar — Bomb Iran? Not now: bomb Yemen

‘Operation Decisive Storm’ – the Pentagon-style House of Saud glorifying of its ghastly ‘Bomb Yemen’ show - could be summed up in a single paragraph.

The wealthiest Arab nation – the House of Saud petro-hacienda – supported by other GCC petro-rackets and also the wealthy “West”, has launched an – illegal – bombing/war/kinetic operation against the poorest Arab nation in the name of “democracy.”

And this absurdity is just the beginning.....

RT
Bomb Iran? Not now: bomb Yemen
Pepe Escobar

Bill Van Auken — Obama’s criminal war against Yemen

WSWS is a Trotskyite site so the rhetoric is heavy by the facts and analysis worth taking into account for an alternative to the official US position. Yemen is now a pawn in the proxy war between the US and its Israeli and Sunni allies in MENA and Shiites whom the US views as Iran and its allies in the region. The Houthis of Yemen are Shiites.

WSWS
Obama’s criminal war against Yemen
Bill Van Auken
ht Bob in the comments

Kristina Rus — The Yemeni puzzle in the Russian-American stand-off

More about geopolitics and geostrategy in MENA rather than Yemen. This is a very complicated region with a long history and tentacles extending beyond the region, e.g., involving Russia, the rest of Eurasia, and even China. Throw the US into the mix and thing get even more complex and uncertain owing to emergence of unforeseen challenges due to entangled interests that are sometimes even contradictory for some of the players. Juggling with knives.

And, of course, with oil in the background.

Fort Russ
The Yemeni puzzle in the Russian-American stand-off
Kristina Rus

Caleb Maupin — Revolutionary Yemen Faces Wall Street-Saudi Attack

What's really happening in Yemen. It's more complicated than the US media is reporting according to Maupin — part of Arab Spring and related to Occupy. Before getting into the situation in Yemen, first, he reviews Saudi Arabi as a key US ally.

While he US talks a good game of supporting democracy, the reality is that US foreign policy is based on geopolicy and geostrategy that is grounded in controlling territory, sea lanes, airspace, and vital resources like energy, which are considered essential to "national security" and "national interests." Why else would the US be supporting repressive, authoritarian and totalitarian Saudi Arabia? It's certainly not to support democracy.

New Eastern Outlook
Revolutionary Yemen Faces Wall Street-Saudi Attack

Caleb Maupin, a political analyst and activist based in New York; studied political science at Baldwin-Wallace College and was inspired and involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”