(Bloomberg) Eli Lake - The Houthi rebels in Yemen lack the drones, missiles or expertise to attack infrastructure inside Saudi Arabia. A commander of Hizbullah, a subsidiary of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, told two George Washington University analysts in 2016: "Who do you think fires Tochka missiles into Saudi Arabia? It's not the Houthis in their sandals, it's us." Iran pretends to seek peace as it makes war. Iranian diplomacy depends on its adversaries treating the aggression of its proxies as distinct from its statecraft. U.S. intelligence agencies have mapped the precise locations of Iranian bases and commanders in Yemen and the Middle East. If Trump wants to respond militarily without attacking Iranian territory, he has many targets outside the country. During and after the negotiations for the nuclear deal, Iran armed and trained its proxies in Syria and later in Yemen. The attack on Saudi Arabia shows just how important it is that any future deal commit the Iranian regime to ending its adventures in the Middle East.
2019-09-16 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive