Yemen Foes Square Off As Fear Of War Heightens, Saudi-Iran Rivalry Grow

Yemen’s top factions are squaring off for a showdown after months of skirmishes, turning respectively to neighboring Saudi Arabia and its regional rival Iran for help in what may become all-out war. Reuters report:

"With President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi seeking a comeback from the port city of Aden while the Shi’ite Houthi movement controls the capital Sanaa, rival administrations are trading bellicose rhetoric as fighting intensifies and factions commandeer airfields for the next stage of the struggle.
Somewhat on the sidelines, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Islamic State are waiting to exploit what some fear could become Yemen’s worst conflict since a 1994 civil war. “For years Yemen has defied all the odds and proved wrong those who said it was on the brink of civil war and about to collapse,” Farea al-Muslimi, a researcher with the Carnegie Middle East Center said. “But we may have run out of miracles.”
Yemeni Foreign Minister Riyadh Yaseen called on Monday for Gulf Arab help to prevent the Houthis’ getting air control. “We have expressed to the Gulf Cooperation Council, the United Nations as well as the international community that there should be a no-fly zone, and the use of military aircraft should be prevented at the airports controlled by the Houthis,” he told the newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat.
United Nations mediator Jamal Benomar said on Sunday that Yemen had been pushed “towards the edge of civil war” that he believed neither the Houthis nor Hadi could win."