Iran Hails Shia Victory in Yemen

The Yemeni government and Shia rebel forces reached a peace deal on September 21, ending days of violence that left at least a dozen dead and led to the resignation of the country’s prime minister. Speaking to Iranian military commanders on Monday prior to travelling to New York for the UN General Assembly, President Hassan Rouhani praised Yemen’s Huthi insurgents and said that although the situation in Sanaa remained volatile, events of the last few days amounted to a Shia victory — one in which Iran had played a crucial role. 

Other prominent politicians voiced their support for the rebels too, including Tehran MP Alireza Zakani, who said that the advancing revolution would undoubtedly spread to Saudi Arabia next. Quoting a political analyst, he said that Iran now controls three Arab capitals —Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut — soon to be followed by Sanaa.

This type of commentary not only angers the Yemeni government but also incites consternation from the international community. The majority of world leaders attending the UN meeting this week will hope to encounter an Iranian delegation amenable to discussion, moderation and potential compromise. Any suggestions of a Shia stronghold will undoubtedly contradict this and strengthen Iran’s reputation as isolationist.  

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei — Islam’s great world leader for many Shiite Muslims— has voiced his support for Shia insurgencies in Yemen and Bahrain and their clashes with Sunni-led governments. Historically, the Islamic Republic has viewed Yemen as one of the region’s important Shia cornerstones, vital for its vision of uniting all Shias in the region. After governments were toppled in Tunisia and Egypt during the uprisings of 2011, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of the Basij paramilitary force, called for the Islamic Republic to play an active role in Yemen and Bahrain. So it is no surprise that Yemeni leaders translate such sentiments as threats, accusing Iran of supporting the insurgency through the smuggling of arms and money into the country. In 2007, Yemen withdrew its ambassador to Tehran, Jamal al-Salal, in protest of this type of financial and ideological meddling.

In 2012, the official website for the Yemeni Defence Ministry reported it had uncovered an Iranian spy ring in Yemen. According to the ministry, a number of Iranians entered the country posing as investors with plans to build factories in the country but whose real intention was to smuggle in military equipment. An inspection into cargo entering the country via the Gulf of Aden also uncovered arms thought to be destined for Shia insurgents.

In recent days, Houthi insurgents have occupied government headquarters, calling for recognition of their rights, extended territory and greater autonomy. On September 6, Yemeni president Abd-Rabbuh Mansur Hadi urged Iran to respect Yemen’s sovereignty, saying it should refrain from supporting Shia rebels or any other group, financially or otherwise. Despite assurances, Iran has been reluctant to actually change its policy towards Yemen.

A Grand Plan?

Iran’s intentions in Yemen are twofold, supporting its vision of Shia expansion and helping to resolve its own political struggle with Saudi Arabia, Iran’s oil-rich neighbor.

“Saudi Arabia views itself as Yemen’s natural guardian,” says Arshin Adib Moghaddam, Chair of the Centre for Iranian Studies at the London Middle East Institute, “at least in terms of security concerns and the Iranian influence.” Traditionally, it commands significant influence over Yemeni politics and tribal relations in the country. Moghaddam told IranWire  that many Saudi Arabian officials believe that Iran sees the Houthi insurgency as an opportunity to exert greater influence in the Arabian Peninsula. This reasoning is abetted by the fact that the reputation of Saudis in Yemen has deteriorated in recent years, in particular because of a change to labor laws in 2013 that led to large numbers of Yemeni workers losing their jobs and even being expelled from the country. Iran has been quick to use rifts between Saudi Arabia and Yemen to gain traction in its power struggle with the Saudi monarchy.

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran’s leaders have sought to bring Shia communities in the region into its sphere of influence. In the past decade, and particularly during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the increased power of the Revolutionary Guards, Tehran has increasingly focused on Yemen and especially the Houthi in the north of the country. Houthi insurgents, who refer to themselves as Ansarullah, or “Helpers of God,” take their name from their original leader, Hossein Badr al-Din Houthi, who was killed by the Yemeni military in 2004. Since then, Houthis have regularly mounted campaigns against both the Yemeni military and Salafist paramilitaries.

The insurgents are based primarily in the Yemeni province of Sa’ada, which borders Saudi Arabia. Houthis are Zaidi Shias, a school of Shi’ism that is almost exclusively Yemeni, making up about 30 per cent of Yemeni Muslims. Pro-Houthi television station Al-Maseera, based in a Shia-dominated area in southern Beirut, where Lebanon’s Hezbollah commands considerable influence, has carried widespread coverage of clashes.

According to Ali Maaroufi, an Al-Monitor columnist and analyst, relations have existed between the Yemeni Shias and Iran since the 8th century A.D, when a small Zaidi emirate was established in both countries. During the Safavid Empire (1501–1736), Shi’ism was established as the dominant religion of Iran. “The Zaidi Shia government was overthrown in the middle of the last century after nearly a thousand years,” Maaroufi tells IranWire, “but the Zaidis have kept their identity and social structure.” 

“Cultural relations between Iranian and Yemeni Shias started with the Islamic Revolution,” says Maaroufi. “Iranian preachers were sent to Yemen’s Shia areas, Yemeni students were dispatched to Qom seminary to study and the Iranian Embassy embarked on cultural activities. The goal was not only to establish communication between the two branches of the same faith, but it was also to address an emerging Shia identity in the Arabian peninsula in which Salafism was dominant,” he says, referring to a fundamentalist and extremist interpretation of Islam that some classify as Sunni and others rank as Wahabbism.

“Both sides in this relationship wanted to strengthen themselves vis-à-vis their religious competitors in the region,” says Maaroufi. Although many suspect Iran of being involved in the insurgency Maaroufi says no direct connection has been proven.  “There is no reliable evidence,” he says. 

Because it has been keen to support Shi’ism in the Middle East, Adib Moghaddam says, Iran “played an important role in ensuring that Yemen does not cease to exist as a nation-state. Even if Iranian diplomacy does not deserve such a pessimist evaluation, it has a reputation for playing a divisive role in Yemen and other places,” he says. 

Since the Islamic Revolution, Moghaddam says, the Iranian government’s “identity politics have led to sectarianism, whether the Iranian elite like it or not.” At the same time, he says “contrary to Saudi propaganda, Iran is not that influential among Yemeni Shi’a factions.”

Iran’s tendency towards expansionism continues to unnerve the West, leading to greater suspicion and a potential breakdown in constructive discussions. So Rouhani’s statement, made just as he is poised to address the United Nations on Thursday, will go some way to strengthen pessimism towards Iran’s intentions in the region. Certainly, for many, it will be seen as a direct contradiction to recent comments from Rouhani, including a post on Twitter that expressed hope that discussions in New York would provide an “opportunity to take steps towards a World Against Violence & Extremism.”