As Osi just posted in a different thread, the Iranian-backed (puppet) Houthis who have been destabilising Yemen are now on the receiving end of bombing raids by Saudis and others.
Iran has certainly taken advantage of the ISIS situation against its attempts to create a Sunni Islamic State (an Islamic Empire). Iran has happily been on the other side, battling ISIS together with the rest...
...however, Iran has its own agenda of creating a Shiite version of the Islamic State (Republic - an Islamic Empire), so the efforts of all in their common battles against ISIS have been playing into Iran's hands.
There has been a great degree of destabilising in the region going on - sponsored by Iran.
As we can see, Iran's puppet (Houthis) have done a job on Yemen.
Iran directly (via their work with Assad in Syria) and via their other puppet (Hezbollah) has been very busy in Lebanon (and Syria), although in Israel, they have a completely different enemy. Iran has however used this battle against Israel as another approach in attempting to 'rally' the collective Islamic (Shiite and Sunni) solidarity against a common enemy in Israel, all the while, sewing their seeds in Lebanon.
However, the Sunnis are well aware of the sneaky Iran are and the force they represent and so here we are.
Iran is potentially the Shiite equivalent of ISIS - maybe not visibly as radical, however, behind the scenes, Iran is extremely dangerous and certainly destabilising.
Here are a couple of interesting viewpoints on Iran - one from 2013 and in relation to Hezbollah (their puppet in Lebanon) and the other, from a few days ago and with reference to the Houthis (their puppet in Yemen) as well as what ran have been doing in Iraq while everyone has been fighting ISIS.
The 2013 article was definitely 'spot on' in identifying the Iranian methodology of divide and conquer in attempting to see a Shiite dominated Islamic Empire.
7 August 2013
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/08/nasrallah-speech-quds-day-iran-muslim-solidarity.html#
There is no doubt that the Islamic revolution in Iran exploited the Palestinian cause to increase its influence within the Arab region. It created Hezbollah in Lebanon in the early 1980s, after having supported the Fatah movement. Then it built a strategic relationship with Hamas as the Palestinian Islamic resistance. Moreover, Iran had raised its tone in its official political discourse, addressing Israel as a “cancerous tumor that must be removed.” In brief, the most important pillar of the Iranian strategy to extend its influence in the Middle East and to gain acceptability among the Arab peoples is its declaration of its extreme support for the Palestinian cause and its manifest hostility towards the Jewish state.
...
The conflict between Sunnis and Shiites on the identity of Iraq provoked the Arab street against Iran, which supported the Shiites in Iraq. Moreover, Hezbollah taking control of some of Beirut’s neighborhoods in 2008, and the expulsion of Sunni militias backed by Saudi Arabia, led the Arab circles to view Nasrallah as a mere Iranian tool whose mission was to weaken the Arab Sunnis.
On the other hand, Nasrallah’s declaration of Hezbollah’s participation in the war in Qusair alongside the Alawite regime against the armed opposition affiliated with the Sunni Muslim majority in Syria was the final blow that undermined the credibility of Iran and its ally Hezbollah as to the exclusive objective of Hezbollah, i.e., resistance against Israel. Instead they became seen as a Persian-Shiite project seeking to end the Arab-Muslim project.
24 March 2015
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-24/u-s-leaves-yemen-iran-stays
To understand how the hurried evacuation of U.S. special operations forces from Yemen is connected to Iran's regional strategy, look no further than Atheel al-Nujaifi, the Sunni governor of Iraq's Nineveh Province.
On Sunday, Nujaifi sent a letter to U.S. leaders warning that his country was at a tipping point with regard to Iranian influence. As U.S. forces wait on the sidelines in an Iranian-led campaign to liberate Tikrit, Nujaifi said he worried that his country was being lost to Iran.
In other words, what has just happened in Yemen -- where an Iranian-armed and advised militia has overthrown a pro-American government -- could happen soon in Iraq.
...
Nujaifi, whose province includes Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul, addressed his letter to Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and asked that it be placed into the record for a hearing this week on the administration's strategy against the Islamic State. The Iraqi governor also sent copies to President Barack Obama, House Speaker John Boehner, Secretary of State John Kerry and John Allen, the retired Marine general who is U.S. envoy to the coalition against the Islamic State.
Royce told me that he agrees with Nujaifi that the administration has failed to challenge Iran's efforts to expand throughout the Middle East. "The fact that the governor is compelled to reach out directly to us in Congress speaks volumes about the sway that Iran holds over critical positions in the government in Baghdad," he said.
Nujaifi wrote that Iran "has essentially taken over the fight in Iraq against ISIS." He added, "But the threat goes even deeper -- there is a grave and immediate threat that Iran is taking over decisive points in the government of Iraq itself."
...
"We're seeing today what every Gulf ambassador predicted Iran would do, we're seeing Iran destabilize the region."
U.S. allies in the Middle East -- from Israel to Saudi Arabia -- are certainly worried about Iran's nuclear program. But as they watch events unfold in Iraq and Yemen, they must also wonder whether an agreement from such an aggressive country will be worth the paper it's written on.
