Yemen is America’s Next Battleground

The unprecedented presence of Western reporters and media representatives in Sana’a in the past few days has fueled rumors that America’s military will soon interfere in Yemen and that the U.S. is formulating an operational plan. The hotels and inns of Sana’a are packed with foreign reporters and journalists.

According to reports and the “Al-Quds Al-Arabi” newspaper, international analysts are concerned because of the wide scale presence of foreign media in this country in addition to the rising security concerns, especially considering that the foreign media are not allowed to operate in the northern and southern parts of Yemen due to security reasons.

International observers believe the heavy presence of American and British reporters could be a sign that Yemen is going to be America’s next war zone in the region.

Some political analysts believe that, considering the recent events and America’s claim of fighting Al Qaeda, the threat in Yemen is not enough to justify this media rush to Sana’a.

Fighting Terrorism: Reality or Just a Claim?

The Global Research website has issued a report revealing America’s intention to control the Bab-el-Mandeb area to support its efforts to fight Al-Qaeda. The report says: After the September 11 attacks at the beginning of this decade, America sent its troops to Afghanistan with the excuse of fighting terrorism, and now it is using a failed plot to blow up a Northwest airlines flight as the new excuse for fighting terrorism.

Global Research adds: The arrest of a Nigerian man named Abdulmutalleb, accused of trying to blow up a passenger aircraft, and the efforts made by CNN and The New York Times to connect him with Al Qaeda in Yemen, raises concerns that this country is going to be America’s next battleground. However, looking closely, you can see that this country has vast unexplored oil resources and geopolitical importance that reveals the secret plans of the Pentagon and the CIA behind fighting Al Qaeda in Yemen.

The world has witnessed America’s increasing military interference in Yemen, which is bound to Saudi Arabia in the North, the Red Sea in the West, and the Gulf of Aden in the South. This country also has access to Somalia, which has been highlighted in the news recently. On top of the vast unexplored oil reserves, the Pentagon and the CIA are intending to militarize the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, which is one of the most strategic oil shipping routes in the world.

The Bab-el-Mandeb strait is the waterway between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East and is the route connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean. Closing down this route would cut the access of oil tankers from the Persian Gulf to the Suez Canal and the oil terminals in the Mediterranean, forcing them to change their routes.

According to an assessment done by the American Ministry of Energy in 2006, 3.3 million barrels of oil per day passes through this strait heading toward Europe, America, and Asia.