The Houthis in Yemen hate Al Qaeda, but they're very friendly with Iran

The Houthis, Shiite Muslim rebels who announced that they were taking control of Yemen's government last week, don't seem much like natural allies of the United States.

One of their favorite slogans is “Death to America, death to Israel, damn the Jews.” U.S. officials say they've received money, weapons and training from Iran. An Iranian official boasted recently that thanks to the Houthis, Yemen's capital is now “in the hands of Iran,” along with those of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Should we be worried that the enemy of our enemy Al Qaeda is also friends with our other enemies -- adversaries, anyway -- in Tehran? -  

And yet, last week, Obama administration officials were scrambling to contact Houthi leaders and assure them that the United States doesn't consider them an enemy. “We're talking with everybody,” an official told me — “everybody who will talk with us.” The Houthis' top leaders haven't been willing to meet so far, but the Americans are working on it.

Why so much eagerness for a working relationship with a group that wants less U.S. influence in its homeland, not more? Because the Houthis and their allies are now in charge in Yemen, one of the main battlegrounds in the long U.S. war against Al Qaeda. And the Houthis hate Al Qaeda.

U.S. officials consider the Al Qaeda branch in Yemen a bigger threat than any other terrorist group because of its penchant for long-distance attacks against Americans. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the group is known, has made several attempts to explode bombs on U.S. airliners, although none has succeeded.

The Houthis are Shiite Muslims and Al Qaeda is rigorously Sunni, but the antipathy isn't mainly sectarian; it's an old-fashioned struggle over territory and power. The Houthis have ruled most of northwestern Yemen for centuries, and they've been alarmed by Al Qaeda's incursions to their south. The two factions have already fought battles on the ground. One of the Houthis' complaints against the Yemeni government they just overthrew was that it wasn't putting enough force into the battle against Al Qaeda. Last week, Al Qaeda issued a statement accusing the Houthis — a little prematurely, perhaps — of being “faithful partners of the United States.”

In other words, for the U.S., the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But what about the Houthis' Iran problem? Should we be worried that the enemy of our enemy Al Qaeda is also friends with our other enemies — adversaries, anyway — in Tehran?

“Iran is on the march,” Sen. John S. McCain (R-Ariz.) warned last week . “In Yemen, it's not AQAP that's taken over the government, it's the Houthis.” McCain said the solution was “more boots on the ground” — not a U.S. invasion force, but special operations forces.

Obama administration officials insist that those fears are overblown. The Houthis “get support from Iran, but they're not controlled by Iran,” one official told me last week.

Doyle McManus- Los Angeles Times