Thursday, February 02, 2017

Arabia Felix

From USA National Security Advisor Michael Flynn's "Iran on notice" statement --

Recent Iranian actions, including a provocative ballistic missile launch and an attack against a Saudi naval vessel conducted by Iran-supported Houthi militants ...

Thus we seem to be back to the "so sophisticated only Iran could have done it" school of detective work. Here's the official Saudi description via Saudi Press Agency of the attack on the naval vessel. It doesn't sound like it needed much Iranian support -- it was 3 small boats, probably packed with explosives, one of which got lucky (by its standards) and hit a Saudi frigate. Two crewmen were killed, but the ship was able to carry on. The method of attack actually owes more to the Al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole -- an assault whose significance (in terms of signaling a new and more dangerous Al Qaeda) was missed at the time. 

Yes, Iran is doing a lot of damage in Syria under the cover of progress within the nuclear deal. But it's not doing every bad thing in the Arab World.

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