Saudi navy blockades north Yemen coast

[David]

AP


CAIRO – Saudi Arabia on Tuesday imposed a naval blockade on the Red Sea coast of northern Yemen to combat Shiite rebels along its border, an adviser to the government said, in the latest escalation of fighting in the southern Arabian peninsula.

The Saudi move comes as Iran, the region's dominant Shiite power accused by the Arabs of backing the rebels, warned neighboring countries not to interfere in Yemen's internal affairs.

The Saudi offensive has raised concerns of another proxy war in the Middle East between Iran and Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally. Shiite Iran is believed to favor the rebels in Yemen while Saudi Arabia, which is Sunni, is Iran's fiercest regional rival.

The Shiite rebels in northern Yemen, known as Hawthis, have been fighting the government for the past five years but in recent months the violence has flared up and even crossed the border into Saudi Arabia. The kingdom has responded with several days of airstrikes against the rebels, which continued Tuesday.

The Saudi adviser said the kingdom's warships had been ordered to search any suspected ship sailing near the Yemeni coast. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya satellite television also reported the blockade.

Also Tuesday, Prince Khaled bin Sultan, the Saudi assistant defense minister, said the rebels must "withdraw dozens of kilometers" inside Yemen before the Saudi army would halt its assault.

Both Yemen and Saudi Arabia have been accusing Iran of sending weapons and money to the Shiite rebels. Iran denies the charge and even warned against outside involvement in the impoverished country.

"The regional countries and especially the neighboring countries, we recommend seriously they not interfere in the internal issues of Yemen and instead try to restore stability in Yemen," Iranian Foreign Minister Manochehr Mottaki said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Saudi defense expert Anwar Ashki said the Saudi army has tightened its control of the border area but has no plans to enter into Yemen, despite Saudi airstrikes on rebel arms positions.

"We can say the whole area is now under control and the Saudi border is now quiet," said Ashki, who heads the Middle East Strategic and Legal research center based in the Saudi city of Jiddah. Ashki said the Saudi military operation was totally coordinated with Yemen.

The same dynamic of an Iran-Saudi proxy war has played out in various forms in Lebanon, where Iran supports the Shiite militant Hezbollah and Saudi Arabia favors a U.S.-backed faction, and in Iraq, where Saudi Arabia and Iran have thrown support to conflicting sides in the Sunni-Shiite struggle.

For their part, the Hawthis have denied being backed by any of the regional players.

"We have no connection with any foreign side," said Yemeni rebel leader Abdel-Maliki al-Hawthi, in an audio statement sent to news agencies Tuesday.

The rebels also confirmed that Saudi air strikes were continuing Tuesday, saying new villages had been hit deep inside Yemen, killing two women.

Yemen has been embroiled in a sporadic five-year conflict with Shiite rebels in the northern Saada province. The Shiites accuse authorities of neglecting their needs and of allying with hard-line Sunni fundamentalists. Fighting has intensified since August, displacing tens of thousands of people and limited their access to humanitarian aid.