Yemen crisis threatens Obama Iran nuclear talks, further clouds Middle East policy

Yemen crisis threatens Obama Iran nuclear talks, further clouds Middle East policy

“There has been a central incoherence about U.S. policy in the region for decades, but it’s been on steroids in the last few years,” Mrs. Mann Leverett said during an interview Thursday on MSNBC.

There was speculation that the administration may be trying to win Saudi acquiescence for an Iran nuclear deal by supporting Riyadh’s plan to roll back the Houthi rebels’ gains in Yemen, on Saudi Arabia’s southern border.

Obama administration officials offered only guarded comments Thursday. Asked during an interview on CNN whether U.S. support for the Saudi-led campaign will affect the nuclear negotiations, White House spokesman Josh Earnest responded: “It shouldn’t.”

Senior administration officials, including Secretary of State John F. Kerry, have pleaded for patience on the nuclear negotiations. But Mr. Earnest stressed Thursday that “we continue to have concerns about support for terrorism activities around the globe,” as well as “concerns about the way Iran has taken steps that are destabilizing to the broader region.”

Some analysts called it absurd to deny a connection between the nuclear negotiations and the crisis in Yemen. The lining-up of the region’s Sunni powers against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen wouldn’t be occurring if Iranian meddling in the nation had not surged over the past year, they said. Tehran has been emboldened by Washington’s conciliatory posture in the negotiations, critics say.

While the nuclear talks have been playing out over the past year, the administration has been unwilling to “push back against aggressive Iranian behavior,” said Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Messy alliances

Others say the administration’s policies track the messy breakdown of alliances in the region.

“Yes, Iran is active on the international stage,” said Suzanne Maloney, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “But you could make the same argument about how Iran acted years ago during the George W. Bush era. I think what’s occurring now has more to do with regional developments and Tehran’s opportunistic approach to unrest than it does with any concessions given to Iran in the nuclear negotiations.”

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