Yemen: Trapped between Iran, Saudi Arabia    |   April 15, 2013
at 2:38 PM SANAA, Yemen, April 15 (UPI) -- Yemen has been a
battleground between the West and al-Qaida for years. It's also
torn by what amounts to a three-way civil war.  Now it's
emerging as an arena in the religious-driven confrontation
between Iran and Saudi Arabia.  After years of internal conflict
and the enforced 2012 departure of longtime President Ali
Abdullah Saleh in a political deal with the Americans and the
Saudis, there was hope that one of the Arab world's poorest
nations was seeing a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
But once again Yemen, strategically located at the southwestern
tip of the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula and dominating key
shipping routes, is caught up in the deepening power struggle
between Shiite Iran and the Sunni monarchies of the Persian
Gulf.  These powers are exploiting deep tribal divisions and
fault lines within the armed forces for their own ends and
pushing the country into further torment and tu