American expert: The armistice enabled Iran to manage the Yemen file in a way that is more beneficial to its goals
English - Saturday 10 December 2022 الساعة 03:44 pm
Aden, NewsYemen, exclusive:
Irina Zuckerman, an American expert specializing in national security affairs and terrorist movements, said that Iran continues to provide the Houthi militia - the Iranian arm in Yemen - with advanced weapons, pointing to the missile fuel shipments that were intercepted on their way to the country.
In an exclusive interview with NewsYemen, Zuckerman said there are several things noteworthy about Iran's ongoing efforts to supply the Houthis with advanced weapons, including intercepted missile fuel shipments on their way to Yemen.
She added, "Since the end of the truce, the Houthis have intensified their attacks inside Yemen, also targeting the vicinity of the Red Sea, which poses a threat to international maritime security and energy trade, amid the ongoing global energy crisis and inflation."
Meanwhile, Iran continued to target oil tankers (such as the Greek ships that were seized in May and were recently released, and a tanker linked to an Israeli billionaire that was attacked), plan assassinations in Western countries, and expand its scope in various ways, according to the American expert.
Zuckerman believed that "all this leads to the inevitable conclusion that Iran has the financial and logistical means to continue its terrorist operations."
She attributed this to multiple reasons, including the exaggeration of the scope and scale of civil unrest in Iran to a large extent by the international media and, to some extent, Iran itself, and said: "In fact, the numbers on the streets are lower than similar events in November 2019."
She indicated that most of the riots occurred in remote areas; The numbers of demonstrators in major Iranian cities are relatively small and mostly made up of young people.
"There are individual acts of courage on a daily basis, but in a country of 80 million people, many of whom depend heavily on state bureaucracy, this is a drop in the ocean," she added.
I consider that the fact that nearly 15,000 people have been arrested and more than 300 killed shows that Iran still maintains control and there is no institutional shake-up or any sign of the army, the IRGC or other security institutions siding with the protesters and against the regime. There is no sign of true unity nor leadership.
She continued, "Ethnic minorities have been disproportionately targeted with deadly forces, and some of the more important ethnicities such as the Azerbaijani Turks have played a minimal role in the unrest, although their participation could have been a game-changer."
While these events forced Iran to respond to the growing global outrage in the media, it did not have to spend significant resources, nor was it subjected to significant additional sanctions related to the unrest, according to the American expert.
She stated that most of the recent sanctions against Iran have been related to the sale of drones to Russia, but despite this, Iranian officials maintain international platforms and have not generally been forced out of most international gatherings or events.
The American expert pointed out that the Iranian propaganda machine in the West continues to maintain a strong voice in academic circles, pressure groups and the media. Iran also expanded its influence through Qatar, which closed the doors to journalists critical of Iran and its proxies in Western media stations.
There have been minimal international signs of support, buoyed by concern about Iran's killer planes in Ukraine, but in practice, no effort to prevent Iran from doing more harm.
The American expert, Irina Zuckerman, concluded by saying that "with the Gulf states playing an increasing role behind the scenes in Yemen, Iran, which has benefited greatly from its dealings with Russia and the new economic fronts in Central Asia, is returning to managing the Yemen issue in a strategic way that is more beneficial to its current goals."
