ARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2021 2

In this Feb 3, 2018 fi le photo, a militiaman allied to Yemen’s internationally-recognized government walks through the Awwam Temple, also known as the Mahram Bilqis, in Marib, Yemen. (AP) Ancient oasis becomes war front Battle for Marib key to Iran, US tension

he battle for an ancient desert city in war-torn Yemen has become terrorist organization) list, unfortunately, appears to have been misin- Ta key to understanding wider tensions now infl aming the Middle terpreted by the Houthis,” the Saudi government said in a statement to East and the challenges facing any efforts by President Joe Biden’s The Associated Press. “This misreading of the measure has led them, administration to shift US troops out of the region. with support from the Iranian regime, to increase hostilities.” Fighting has been raging in the mountains outside of Marib as Since the war began, the Houthis have launched over 550 bomb- Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who hold Yemen’s capital of Sanaa, laden drones and more than 350 ballistic missiles toward Saudi Ara- attempt to seize the city, which is crucial to the country’s energy sup- bia, the kingdom said. While that has caused damage, injuries and at plies. least one death, the war in Yemen reportedly has seen over 130,000 Saudi Arabia, which has led a military coalition since 2015 back- people killed. Saudi Arabia repeatedly has been criticized internation- ing Sanaa’s exiled government, has launched airstrike after airstrike ally for airstrikes killing civilians and embargoes exacerbating hunger to blunt the Houthi advance toward Marib. The Houthis have retali- in a nation on the brink of famine. ated with drone and missile attacks deep inside Saudi Arabia, roiling And though Biden has pulled back support, US-made aircraft and global oil markets. munitions sold to Saudi Arabia still target Yemen. Iran’s Supreme The battle for Marib likely will determine the outline of any politi- Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has linked arming the kingdom to cal settlement in Yemen’s second civil war since the 1990s. If seized America allowing the war to take place. by the Houthis, the rebels can press that advantage in negotiations and “I am asking this question to the Americans: Did you know what even continue further south. If Marib is held by Yemen’s internation- would happen to the Saudis on the day that you gave them green light ally recognized government, it will save perhaps its only stronghold to enter the Yemeni war?” Khamenei asked in a March 21 speech. as secessionists challenge its authority elsewhere. “Did you know that you are sending Saudi Arabia into a quagmire?” The fi ght is also squeezing a pressure point on the most powerful of America’s Gulf Arab allies and ensnarling any US return to Iran’s US weighs Mideast deployments nuclear deal. It’s even complicating the Biden administration’s ef- A 17-year-old boy holds his weapon at the dam in Marib, Yemen. (AP) Biden’s efforts to end US involvement in Yemen’s war come as his administration attempts to re-enter Iran’s nuclear deal with world forts to slowly shift the longtime mass US military deployments to For a while, beginning in the fall of 2019, Saudi Arabia reached a de- the Mideast to counter what it sees as the emerging threat of China powers. Indirect talks began Tuesday in Vienna. tente with the Houthis, said Ahmed Nagi, a non-resident Yemen expert “The Iranians are keen to trade in their Yemen card for something and Russia. at the Carnegie Middle East Center. Citing two Houthi offi cials familiar Losing Marib would be “the fi nal bullet in the head of the interna- more durable,” said al-Iryani, the Sanaa Center researcher. with the discussions, Nagi said a back channel agreement saw both the Such a deal might suit American interests. Biden’s Defense De- tionally recognized government,” said Abdulghani al-Iryani, a senior Saudis and the rebels refrain from attacking populated areas. researcher at the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies. “It will set the partment is looking at redeploying troops, particularly those in the stage for the dismemberment of the Yemeni state. You’re looking at But when the Houthis began to push again into Marib, the Saudis Mideast, amid what experts refer to as the “great powers confl ict” a generation of instability and humanitarian crisis. You also will look resumed a heavy bombing campaign. America faces with China and Russia. at a free-for-all theater for regional meddling.” For the Houthis, “they think they gain through war more than peace Pulling troops from the Mideast could bolster forces America may Located 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Sanaa, Marib sits on the talks,” Nagi said. For the Saudis, “if they lose Marib, they’ll have zero need elsewhere. However, doing so likely will be easier said than done. edge of the Arabian Peninsula’s Empty Quarter Desert at the foot of cards on the negotiating table.” In Yemen alone, every American president since George W. Bush the Sarawat Mountains running along the Red Sea. It’s believed to be Yemen caught in regional vise has launched drone strikes targeting al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsu- the home of the biblical Queen of Sheba, who gave King Solomon la, long considered by Washington to be the most dangerous offshoot The escalating confl ict around Marib coincides with major changes of the militant group. Biden himself has yet to launch any such strike, riches of spices and gold. In the Quran, it was the site of massive in US policy toward the war. President Donald Trump’s administra- fl ooding that accompanied the collapse of its ancient dam. though the group still operates in the country’s east. The disaster gripping the city today is entirely manmade. Over tion had declared the Houthis a “foreign terrorist organization,” fol- US troops remain in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Meanwhile, Gulf 800,000 refugees fl eeing the Houthi takeover of Sanaa in September lowing a campaign by Saudi Arabia supporting the move. Arab nations like Saudi Arabia rely on US forces stationed in their 2014 and the war that followed swelled the city’s population, accord- Biden rescinded the Houthi terrorist designation after entering of- countries as a counterweight to Iran. ing to the U.N. refugee agency. fi ce. He also announced the US would halt support for Saudi Arabia’s The US military sent troops to Saudi Arabia in 2019, deploying Taking Marib, or otherwise cutting it off, would represent a major offensive combat operations in Yemen, saying: “This war has to end.” anti-missile batteries amid tensions with Iran. However, American prize for the Houthis. It is home to oil and gas fi elds that interna- But fi ghting around Marib has only escalated even as the Saudis forces recently downsized that presence. tional fi rms including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Total SA have inter- recently offered a cease-fi re deal. Iran’s frustration over the Biden “The kingdom believes that the US presence in the region can help ests. Marib’s natural gas bottling plant produces cooking gas for the administration’s failure to swiftly lift sanctions has contributed to “an promote the region’s security and stability by supporting allies who nation of 29 million people. Its power plant once provided 40% of intensifi cation of attacks by groups in Iraq, and the same in Yemen,” face transnational threats that are primarily sponsored by the Iranian Yemen’s electricity. Marib’s modern dam is a key freshwater source said Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, an Iran scholar at Britain’s Royal United regime,” the Saudi government said. It did not comment specifi cally for a parched nation, though it was never fully developed even in Services Institute. on the redeployments. peacetime. “Iran is trying to deliver a message to the US,” Tabrizi said. “A Overall, American forces will remain in the Mideast as it remains When Saudi Arabia entered Yemen’s war in 2015 on the side of its message that the status quo is not sustainable.” crucial to global energy markets and includes major choke points at exiled government, the kingdom allied itself with the tribes of Marib, While experts debate how much control Iran exerts over the Hou- sea for trade worldwide, said Aaron Stein, the director of research at who long perceived Sanaa and the Houthis as disenfranchising them. this, the rebels increasingly launch bomb-laden drones previously the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute. What those Another major political power was Islah, a Sunni Islamist political par- linked to Tehran deep inside the kingdom. Those attacks included a forces look like, however, will change as the US weighs how to coun- ty that is Yemen’s branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. These disparate drone smashing into a parked commercial airliner and others targeting terbalance Iran through a return to the nuclear deal, he said. forces provided a lifeline for Yemen’s embattled exiled government, major oil facilities, temporarily shaking energy prices. “It doesn’t solve the Iranian issue,” Stein said. “It puts us in a place which already faces pressure from allied secessionists in the south. “The US administration’s removal of the Houthis from the (foreign to manage it, like we’re in hospice care.” (AP)

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