By Lloyd Levy
LONDON, England — The Ghost of Neville Chamberlain?
The situation in Yemen has not really attracted the attention it deserves in the mainstream media. However it is incredibly serious, for it’s potential strategic implications.
Yemen controls the southern entrance to the entire Red Sea, and hence the traffic through the Suez Canal. It is a point of enormous, even critical, strategic interest to the “West.” It also controls all access to Eilat from Asia, which is of major long-term strategic interest for Israel.
The choke point is a narrow passage called the Bab el Mandeb. Iran’s proxies have apparently taken over the area, while the “West” has been negotiating with Iran over the nuclear issue.
Already Iran dominates the Straits of Hormuz, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. So it now potentially dominates all maritime shipping throughout the Middle East, including vital oil transit.
I simply cannot understand why NATO or other Western forces have not immediately taken control of the situation. Instead they appear to have stood back and left it to Saudi Arabia and Egypt to try to stop this encirclement.
Britain especially has historical links with Aden (now Southern Yemen), and even as late as the 1960s fought a long running campaign against tribal insurgents in the area. I remember the exploits of Colonel “Mad Mitch” , who was a bit of a celebrity for his daring leading British forces in Aden. Yet during the current turmoil, I do not think I have seen any mention in the mainstream media of our historical association, nor of the seriousness of the situation.
This issue shows clearly that the “West” is no longer the dominant force in the World. The sad fact is that Britain has run its armed forces down to such an extent, that we probably cannot do much nowadays, even if we wanted to. The USA under the current Administration does not seem to wish to get involved in any more campaigns in the Middle East. Public opinion in all Western countries has had enough after Iraq and Afghanistan
Conspiracy theorists may even wonder if Iran has been handed control of the Middle East deliberately by the “West.” After all, the USA airforce is helping Iran in its battle against jihadists in Iraq, and has apparently removed another Iranian proxy, Hezbollah , from its list of terrorist organisations . The threats to boycott Israel and force it to withdraw to suicide borders, may also be seen by some people as a means to discourage Israel from acting against Iran.
I don’t know if this theory is correct, but if it is, then the ghost of Neville Chamberlain still haunts the corridors of power.
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Levy is a freelance writer who divides his time between London and Eilat, Israel. Your comment may be sent to lloyd.levy@sdjewishworld.com, or posted on this website, per the instructions below.
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