Armies of Liberation

I thought the Iraqi MP was joking when he first announced the Houthis should have an office in Iraq as retaliation for Yemen’s support of the Iraqi insurgency, both al Qaeda and Baathist… Hamas and Hezbollah both have offices in Sana’a.

There has been a heck of a lot of logistical, financial and moral support for the Iraqi insurgency coming from Yemen to Iraq, with the knowledge and often support of the Yemeni authorities, and its been apparent for years. (The relationship between Yemen and Syria is quite strong, making Yemen’s current flap with Iran all the more interesting.)

Its not just Yemeni fighters who train or transit Yemen en route to Iraq but a variety of nationalities. Al Douri is just one of many of top Iraqi Baathist who at one time or another was operating from Yemen to target the Iraqi government. Others include Saddams nephew (wanted by Interpol for financing and directing the fighters in Mosul and northern Iraq). And there are many former Iraqi military commanders in the Yemeni military.

At the same time, the Houthi rebellion has been in issue with Iraq’s Shiite political leaders and community with Ayatollah Sistani commenting in 2005 about the Yemeni government’s brutal massacres (as they are again) and Moqtada al Sadr condemning the Yemeni govt’s human rights violations in 2007 and warning against the use of chemical weapons. The Houthi rebellion is a domestic political conflict, with overtones that are more ethnic than sectarian. But the flagrant targeting of civilians as well as the Yemeni government’s habitual characterization of the rebels as deviants is drawing moral support for the rebels from the Shiite community internationally. Zaidis are a strain of Shiism quite distinct from that practiced in Iraq and Iran, with many subsets, the Believing Youth were an offshoot of mainstream Zaidism, and the Houthis are an off shoot of the Believing Youth and they have morphed considerably since 2004. But now the war is internationalizing fast, with nations picking sides and some internal fracturing in the region along those lines. And at the end of the day, theres still 100,000 war refugees without food.

al Watan Home – Iraqi MP said Janan al-Obeidi that the presence of the Office of the movement Houthis in the city of Najaf does not mean that supporting the Shiite insurgency in Yemen. Obeidi and expressed surprise at the call on the Yemeni government for the Iraqi Ambassador in Sanaa in protest at the Iraqi on the fighting in Saada.

نائبة عراقية.. Iraqi woman .. وجود مكتب للحوثية في النجف ليس تدخلا في شئون اليمن The presence of the Office of the Hotheip in Najaf, is not an interference in the affairs of Yemen
الأربعاء, 02-سبتمبر-2009 الأربعاء, 02 – September -2009
الوطن – قالت النائبة العراقية جنان العبيدي أن وجود مكتب للحركة الحوثية في مدينة النجف لا يعني أن المرجعية الشيعية تدعم العنف المسلح في اليمن. Home – Iraqi MP said Janan al-Obeidi that the presence of the Office of the movement Houthis in the city of Najaf does not mean that supporting the Shiite insurgency in Yemen.
وعبرت العبيدي عن دهشتها إزاء استدعاء الحكومة اليمنية للسفير العراقي في صنعاء احتجاجا على تصريحات عراقية بشأن المعارك في صعدة. Obeidi and expressed surprise at the call on the Yemeni government for the Iraqi Ambassador in Sanaa in protest at the Iraqi on the fighting in Saada.
واستبعدت العبيدي النائبة عن كتلة الائتلاف العراقي الموحد : أن يكون هناك تدخل عراقي في الأزمة بين الحكومة اليمنية والحوثيين. Ruled out al-Obeidi, an MP for the United Iraqi Alliance bloc: that there is interference in the Iraqi crisis between the Yemeni government and the Huthis. ونفت تدخل العراق بالشأن اليمني أو في الشأن الداخلي لأية دولة أخرى، على حد قولها، مضيفة أن وزارة الخارجية العراقية ستتولى توضيح الموضوع للحكومة اليمنية. Iraq has denied involvement or the Yemeni affairs in the internal affairs of any other country, she said, adding that the Iraqi Foreign Ministry will explain the matter to the Yemeni government.

في ذات السياق قال النائب المستقل في مجلس النواب العراقي وائل عبد اللطيف ان على الحكومة العراقية استضافة المعارضة اليمنية كما تحتضن الاطراف المعارضة للحكومة العراقية،لافتا الى “ضرورة ان تفتح الحكومة العراقية ايضا مقرا للحوثيين اليمنيين في بغداد كرد فعل على استضافة اليمن لعزت الدوري احد اقطاب حزب البعث المحظور المطلوب للحكومة العراقية”. In the same context, “independent MP in the Iraqi Council of Representatives and Wael Abdul Latif said the Iraqi government to host the Yemeni opposition parties, the opposition is also home to the Iraqi government, noting” the need to open the Iraqi government has also headquarters of the Yemeni Alhouthein in Baghdad in response to Yemen’s hosting of a pole of Izzat al-Douri outlawed Baath party required for the Iraqi government. ”

واضاف “العراق ساكت على تصريفات اليمن بحقه منذ عام 2003 حتى الان ، واليوم اليمن يأوي عزت الدوري وقيادات حزب البعث ،والكثير من الشخصيات المطلوبة للقضاء العراقي . “Iraq is silent on the discharges of Yemen against him since 2003 until now, and today home to Yemen Izzat al-Douri and the leaders of the Baath Party, and many of the characters required for the elimination of Iraq.

وانتقد عبد اللطيف مواقف بعض الدول العربية التي وصفها بانها “تتصرف مع العراق بسلبية كاليمن والسعودية وسوريا ودول أخرى،والذين يحاربون العراق حتى بقطع المياه عنه، بالإضافة الى فتاوى شيوخ بعض الدول التي تبيح إراقت الدم العراقي”. Abdul Latif criticized the positions of some Arab countries which he described as “acting with Iraq passively as Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Syria and other countries, who are fighting Iraq until it cut off water, as well as opinions of some States Senate which allows the shed Iraqi blood.”

وكان رئيس العلاقات الخارجية في مجلس النواب العراقي همام حمودي، قد طالب بفتح مقر للحوثيين في العاصمة العراقية بغداد ردا على “احتضان اليمن عددا من أعضاء حزب البعث المنحل. The head of external relations in the Iraqi Council of Representatives Hammam Hammoudi, had demanded the opening of the headquarters Alhouthein in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, in response to “embrace Yemen a number of former Baath Party members.

وكانت وزارة الخارجية اليمنية استدعت سفير العراق بصنعاء طلال العبيدي، وسلمته رسالة موجهة إلى حكومة المالكي، تتعلق بأحداث التمرد بصعدة، والموقف العراقي الرسمي والإعلامي منها. The Yemeni foreign ministry summoned Iraq’s ambassador to Sana’a Talal al-Obeidi, and handed him a letter addressed to the Maliki government, relating to the events of the rebellion in Saada, and the official Iraqi position and information from them.