Word: houthis
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Meanwhile, the Sana'a government is in the middle of another ferocious war, against its Houthi minority, Yemeni followers of the Zaydi sect of Shi'ite Islam. That introduces the shadow - both real and imagined - of the primary Shi'a power in the region, Iran, which is happy to take credit even if its actual influence may still be negligible. When Iran is mentioned, however, both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, the predominant Sunni power in the region, start quaking. And al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, no friend to any of the parties, is happy to sow destabilization...
...director of Yemen's Political Development Forum. But, he adds: "It's a matter of political decision - how much they will win, and how much they will lose." Sana'a has recently focused more of its attention on the rebel separatist movement in the south and on the recent Houthi uprising in the north than it has on al-Qaeda...
Indeed through the backlash that followed, the attacks have started to look like more of a boon than a bust for Yemen's al-Qaeda revival, as well as for other opponents of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime. Iran - which Yemen accuses of backing the Shi'ite Houthi rebellion in the north - headlined the attacks on its state-sponsored Press TV with: "Obama ordered deadly blitz on Yemen...
Indeed, while Iran has been publicly linked to militant groups Hizballah and Hamas, as well as Shi'ite militias in Iraq, its Houthi link is tenuous. Zaydi Shi'ism is distinct from the "Twelver" Shi'ism practiced in Iran, and Houthi demands have centered on rights and resources, something Princeton University Yemen expert Gregory Johnson says is rooted in Houthi feelings of marginalization following the 1962 Yemeni revolution. Observers are also quick to point out that Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh is himself a Zaydi...
...most immediate flash point in tensions between Iran and its Arab neighbors is Yemen, one of the regions poorest and most unstable countries, where Shi'ite Houthi rebels in the north launched attacks in neighboring Saudi Arabia last month, sparking an air strike by Saudi jets on Houthi territory. U.S. officials say they have no proof that Iran is involved in the Yemen conflict, but deeply suspicious gulf states, including Yemen, are sure Tehran is stoking a potentially explosive war. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh told TIME last month that the rebels "want to follow the system of Iran...