Should Syrians choose to support Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the rest of the Gulf, it would come as no surprise. For years, Iran has waged its wars alongside Lebanese, Iraqi, Afghan, and Pakistani groups. For years, it has operated directly in Yemen through Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and advisers, recruiting foreign fighters who are currently battling alongside the Houthis across the country.
Alongside Iran’s multinational army, Tehran’s strategy is based on controlling the corners of the region and subjugating its states. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, wrote last week that everyone must accept Iran’s project and its seven-point plan, which secures Tehran’s hegemony over what he termed “West Asia,” spanning from the southern Red Sea to the northeastern Mediterranean.
Even if his threats are part of psychological and propaganda warfare, controlling Yemen and Iraq remains at the core of its strategy to expand its regional hegemony in a way that threatens its entire neighborhood.
From this perspective, the war in Yemen can be read as a regional conflict rather than an intra-Yemeni one. All of Iran’s wars over the past three decades have been part of an interconnected project, managed through Afghan, Pakistani, and Iraqi proxies that fought on its behalf in Syria and Iraq, and are now doing so in Yemen.
