Part 2: General Soleimani of Iran: Rebuilding the Persian Empire?

Part 2: Is Iran's General Soleimani attempting to re-establish the Persian Empire? Or in modern language the Shia Crescent (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen). Let's take a look.



Yemen

Newsweek has a great write-up about the power of Iran in the Middle East. Some interesting points:

1. It should be noted first that the actions of Saudi Arabia via its blockade of Yemen is causing mass starvation.

2. The recent long-range missile attack by Houthi rebels on the Riyadh airport was just one of 87 such attacks.

3. US policy makers would love to see Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey align against Iran; however, the Kurds have thrown a wrench into that as Iran and Turkey hold common interest in terms of preventing the Kurds from having an independent nation-state. And some various degrees of independence is a goal that Kurds have in both Iraq and Syria.

4. The Houthi's may be getting weapons from Iran via a sneaky way:

Iranian ships transferred the weapons to small wooden dhows at the top of the Persian Gulf, where they faced less scrutiny. From there, the dhows moved down the Gulf to Oman, where the weapons were unloaded and moved overland to the Houthis . . .

5. On a side note the article notes that there are 350,000 Lebanese working in Saudi Arabia. If they were kicked out of the country, that would cut off $3 billion in remittances. Under that scenario, several regional analysts said, Hezbollah would need to provoke another confrontation with Israel to shift blame away from itself for the country’s economic woes.

Yep, if bad economic conditions occur, go to war.

In terms of Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, I don't know how likely that is or how immediate that is. Kicking out 350,000 Lebanese would hurt Lebanon, but it would also hurt Saudi Arabia. These 350,000 Lebanese are obviously working (or at least a high percentage of them as I guess some of these 350,000 might be family members of workers). Then again, perhaps this is one reason why Saudi Arabia is giving women more rights. Perhaps it is a way for Saudi women to take on roles that would allow the government to punish Hezbollah. If that is one potential outcome of women's rights, it would still be a gradual shift with great potential for cultural upheaval.

US Push Back?

Of course, the US can't just sit by and let Soleimani gain power in the Middle East. Via The Guardian:

[CIA director] Mike Pompeo . . . said he sent the letter to Gen Qassem Soleimani, a leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and elite Quds Force, but the general did not read it. “I sent a note. I sent it because he had indicated that forces under his control might in fact threaten US interests in Iraq . . ."

I couldn't help but notice that the letter was sent to Soleimani and not to the Supreme Leader nor the President. Was this done on purpose? Is there an attempt to create conflict between various leaders in Iran? Maybe cause the Supreme Leader or the President to think that Soleimani is getting too powerful? Create some jealousy?