(Bloomberg) -- The Saudi decision to lead a military coalition against Houthi rebels in Yemen, ostensibly a response to a neighboring government’s appeal for help, is also driven by a deep fear among Gulf officials that their states are being encircled by Iran.

Anwar Gargash, the U.A.E. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, expressed it this way in an interview with Bloomberg: “With the military coup by the Houthi militias, Iran thought it had the strategic opening that it wanted in Yemen. Iran has scored some major victories in Iraq and in Lebanon and is trying to consolidate influence in Syria.”

Others argue that Iran’s role in Yemen is relatively minor, that events there are essentially of a domestic nature in which the Shiite-linked Houthis have allied with an ousted president.

Either way, Yemen has become the latest proxy battleground between Saudi Arabia, the center of Sunni Islam, and Shiite Iran.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, accuses Iran of fomenting unrest in Bahrain and among its own Shiite minority in the oil-rich Eastern Province, while Iran and its allies accuse the Saudis of sponsoring Sunni extremists. The two powers have also clashed over Syria, although both are fighting against Islamic State.

David Fuller's view

This is probably the most incisive article that I have seen on this subject recently.  I commend it to you.  While Chas Freeman was certainly interesting in his article which I posted yesterday, not least in terms of the long history, I am not sure that he even mentioned the Sunni-Shia religious war which is centuries old. 

I certainly mean no offense to any of our subscribers with Middle Eastern backgrounds.  However, it seems to me that countries which are still waging religious wars, rather than competing to provide the best technologies and medical breakthroughs in the 21^st Century, are backward, regressive societies whatever their past glories. 

Moreover, this is not due to impoverishment because many of these countries have had immense oil wealth for decades.  This was too infrequently used to develop genuine schools and universities, and diverse corporations which would have enabled their populations to prosper.  Instead, the masses were subsidised and controlled, which undermined their independence and ambition.   

Now the oil revenue has fallen, thanks to Western technology, and could only be temporarily returned to the $100 plus levels per barrel by the destruction of many Middle Eastern oil facilities.  This would be in no one’s long-term interests.