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Sword In The Sand
From the Middle East Gazette
Blue Force Briefing (Saudi Arabia)
It appears that the Yemeni claims to the oil rich Marib border area have finally pushed the
Saudis too far. For years the Yemeni government has been provoking the Saudis over this
sensitive issue, the final straw being their granting of drilling rights in the disputed region to
various foreign oil companies (including several Russian concerns). This Russian
connection must not be overlooked. For several years the Russians, chafing under
American global dominance, have been re-establishing links with their old client states
wherever possible. They have been supplying an ever increasing amount of support to
Yemen, possibly to offset their loss of influence in the northern part of the Persian Gulf. It is
rumored, that should the Yemeni government prevail in its claims along the Saudi border
they will grant the Russians naval basing rights at Aden (finally giving them what they have
long craved - a warm water port).
We must also not forget the Yemeni support given to Saddam Hussein during the invasion
of Kuwait. That this made them the outcasts of the Arab world seems to have made them
only more determined to pursue their claims on Saudi Arabian territory. They have
recklessly increased expenditure on their armed forces, despite the fact that they have long
been unable to meet the repayment schedules and some say there is almost an air of
desperation about this military adventure.
Despite this, the start of the conflict seems to have been carefully orchestrated by the
Yemeni government. First there was their open support of fundamentalists hostile to the
Saudi regime. This was swiftly followed by the show trials in Aden where hundreds of
dissidents were rounded up and made to testify to being part of some far fetched Saudi plot.
Then there was the government statement that Yemeni actions would be seen as ‘the signal
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