Hakim ‎Almasmari  
Publisher & Editor in ‎Chief   ‎
Yemen Post Staff 
2 May 2014
Speaking at the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research in Abu Dhabi earlier ‎this week, Khaled Fattah, a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Centre, ‎warned in his lecture, against the ever-growing influence of Iran on Yemen, stressing that ‎ultimately Tehran seeks to control the fate of the Arabian Peninsula altogether.
Adamant Iran has become Yemen and the GCC countries’ biggest threat in terms of ‎hegemonic political ambitions, Fattah urged all Gulf countries to recognize that Yemen ‎has become the front line of a new political power grab in the region.
“Any threats facing Yemen’s national security either from Iran or others will be directly ‎reflected on the GCC security … helping Yemen be strong should be the first, the most ‎necessary step taken by the GCC countries before discussing Yemen’s accession into the ‎Gulf Cooperation Council,” he told his audience.
While many experts and analyst before Fattah have expressed such concerns ‎over Tehran’ so-called agenda for Yemen, this renewed call for actions come at a time ‎when the impoverished nation found itself facing an aggravated dual dissident threat, ‎both north and south of the republic, from factions which have been rumoured to have ‎received financial and military support from Iran: the Houthis (northern Shi’ite group) ‎and al-Harak (southern secessionist movement).
To support his argument, Fattah theorized that Yemen’s current unrest can actually ‎traced back to the very groups Iran has been so keen to support and prop up.
He noted, ‎‎”The instability and social and security unrest in Yemen at the moment should be blamed ‎on tensions in northern, eastern and southern areas including the acts of the Houthis ‎Group and the Southern Separatist Movement (Harak).”‎