"Egypt with Pakistan Jordan and Sudan ready to..." Topic

… send troops in Yemen to fight ISIS and al-Qaeda.

"Egypt said Thursday, March 26, 2015, that it was prepared to send troops into Yemen as part of a Saudi-led campaign against the Iranian-backed Houthi movement, signaling the possibility of a protracted ground war on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

Some few days ago, Saudi Arabian forces, joined by nine other countries, have launched a military operation in Yemen against Shiite Houthi rebels. According to Ambassador Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir, the military operation in Yemen started at 7 p.m. EST (11 p.m. GMT), Wednesday, March 27, 2015.

Saudi Arabia said more than 10 countries, including five Gulf monarchies, had joined the coalition to prevent the fall of Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi…"
Full article here
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Amicalement
Armand

Does not compute.

The Houthis are anti-AQ and being Shia, are vehemently anti-Daesh.

But then it does compute with saudis being anti shia/ Iran. Dropping the mask?

I suspect all the Sunni nations are far more worried about Iran, with its nuke weapons program, and support for guerrillas in other countries, than they are about ISIS.

The Houthis and their Iranian patrons overextended themselves in Yemen and are rightly about to get their rear ends handed to them.

I'm mildly surprised that the sunnis have put together a decent coalition so quickly to counter the shia incursions into their backyard, even though I shouldn't be since it was a bold and foolhardy move by Iran to take on the sunnis and isolate themselves like that geographically.

Not one of those countries has a military worth much. My money is still on the Yemenis as long as they can get supplies, either from Iran or captured from the Sunnis when they flee. Just remember the last time the Saudis and Egyptians invaded Yemen were complete disasters.

Re: Iranian overextension. This could be a deliberate feint on Iran's part. We've no idea how much resources they invested into the Houthis but I suspect "very little beyond some extra weapons and senior guidance". I bet the outcome so far has greatly exceeded their expectations. Drawing in a bunch of Sunni militaries to the fight ties down their manpower and leaves them not easily able to pivot to another sector of the region (such as northern Iraq), where the Iranians are likely to make their Main Effort.

Colonel Patrick Lang served as the Defense attache of the US embassy in North Yemen in the early 1980s. He writes on his site:

"There are certain peoples who are instinctively good at fighting. The Pushtuns, Somalis, Sikhs and Yemeni Zaidi tribesmen are among them. Others are not so good at fighting or joyful at the prospect of combat; Saudi hirelings of the Al-Saud "country" of Saudi Arabia, Egyptian peasant conscripts, and Sunni Yemenis of the south.

The Zaidi mountain tribesmen defeated the Egyptian Army fifty years ago. There is a large Egyptian military cemetery in San'a. The road down from the mountains to the port of Hodeida is still littered with destroyed Egyptian Army vehicles that were "killed" in guerrilla ambushes."

The Zaidi Houthis are not Iranian Puppets

Here are some remarks by Alain Chouet who was a senior French Intelligence analyst with a particular interest in political Islam. He remains very well informed.

He confirms what the Colonel has been saying – which, of course, is no surprise.

"You've never seen in the past any evidence of the Iranian support to the Yemeni shias because there was none.

First because those shias (Zaidis) are very different and far from the Iranian mullah's orthodoxy.

They believe that Imam Ali's posterity stops with his 4th grandson (Zin al-Abidin) and not with the 12th (Mohammad al-Qaïm, the hidden Imam).

Heretics……

More than that and more seriously, Tehran was very comfortable with the former President Ali Abdallah Saleh who had for 30 years very bad relations with the Saudis.

It was enough for them.

Things changed at the end of 2011 when Saleh had to resign under the pressure of the street (please read : the pressure of sunni fundamentalists chiefs of tribes supported and activated by Riyadh).

His successor Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was totally unable to rule the country.

He opened wide the doors of the south Yemen to the Sunni extremists supported by the Saudis and Al-Qaïda.

In the North, he turned the traditional balance of power between the Sunni and the Zaïdi chiefs of tribes (50/50) into a 90/10.

This triggered the discontent and upheaval of the Zaïdis with Mister Houthi as their leader.

But it is more a social and economic problem than a religious confrontation.

Of course, the Iranians – and most probably the former president Ali Abdallah Saleh and his clan – surfed on the movement in order to undermine the Saudi position and influence in the country.

Why wouldn't they ?"

I read about present day Middle East and can't stop but thinking about Germany in the Thirty Years War. It's a mess that defies any traditional narrative of them vs us. It's not surprising that Western nations are at a loss about what to do with the whole region.

Agree with you Antonio.

Amicalement
Armand

I thought the Jordanian army was composed of Bedou and were very good, at least in the past. Has that changed?

I'll believe it when I see the Saudis, Jordanians, etc. roll armor/mech force across their borders to fight a ground war. Against the various players … which there are many and sometimes it gets confusing. For example, Daesh is enemy to all, and they are Sunni … The Persians/Shia don't get along with many of the Sunni. And on any give day … many of the non-Daesh Sunni factions don't get along … like the Kurds, who are Sunni. And … They all have to do more than just air strikes …