Muhammad Sadiq Al-Husseini interviewed by Al-Mayadeen

Following is a translation of an interview with Mohammad Sadiq Al-Husseini, an Iranian political analyst, by Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen television, posted on Youtube on 25 September.

Muhammad Sadiq Al-Husseini: Between the Strait of Hormoz and the Strait of Bab Al-Mandab, a lot of water is now flowing.

Presenter: These transformations, and in order to focus on the issue, there are many who say that it was Iran who perpetrated this coup that took place in Yemen.

Al-Husseini: This is not true.

Presenter: And there are also some newspapers that said yesterday that Iran did it in collaboration with the current Yemeni president. And there are those who say no, not all.

Al-Husseini: The Wahhabis oppressing the Yemeni character – culturally, intellectually, politically and spiritually, as well as time wise – is what has created a new Yemen. This is not something that only I say. Saudi writer Adnan Farham Al-Maliki, who is well known, was the one who said that Wisal and Safat have demeaned the Yemeni character in recent years, and these are two satellite television stations that used to attack Zaidi thought and Yemeni culture, which is both Zaidi and Shafi’i, prompting Yemenis to feel at one point that they should return to Yemen and that the rise of Yemen will emanate from the decline of Saudi Arabia. And now they have discovered that they can…

Presenter: What will Iran benefit from what happened in Yemen?

Al-Husseini: Yemen will now be a part of the resistance axis. Now we have Sanaa next to Baghdad, which have both joined the tripartite Damascus scene.

Presenter: But so far, it is the supporters of the Houthi who are taking part in…

Al-Husseini: Yemenis, not just the Houthis. Now, the whole of Yemen ended up in Damascus and in Tehran as well as in [Beirut’s] southern district and in Baghdad. Who are the Houthis? They are nothing now but a small part. It is true that they are the spearhead who are leading Yemen now … the Strait of Bab Al-Mandab together with the Strait of Hormoz are now tightening the grip over the Red Sea, over the Israelis in the Suez Canal and…

Presenter: But will Saudi Arabia stand by watching silently? Because [when you talk about] Bab Al-Mandab that would involve restricting it and restricting the export of its oil.

Al-Husseini: Saudi Arabia now is a tribe on the verge of extinction. The Saudi ruler is a representative of a tribe that is becoming extinct. This is what senior commentators are saying. It is over.

Presenter: We just have two and half minutes or less to go. So, we must [wrap up]. Stemming from Yemen, everyone is saying that Yemen has altered the map of the entire region.

Al-Husseini: Yes, all of it.

Presenter: How and in the interests of whom? In two minutes [please]? Let’s conclude with this.

Al-Husseini: Yemen … Yemen today … the master of Yemen is Mr Abd Al-Malik Al-Houthi. Consequently, he will be the master of the Arabian Peninsula. The moment he is the master of Yemen, he is the master of the Arabian Peninsula. Abd Al-Aziz bin Abd Al-Rahman Al-Saud used to say that the poverty of Yemen brings you glory and the glory of Yemen will bring you poverty. [This is what he said] when he built the Saudi state in 1923. Now, the equation is reversed. Now, the one who is mighty is the Yemeni and the one who is poor is the Saudi. This is not in financial terms or in terms of weaponry and international ties, but in terms of creating geopolitics and making history. We are now in a state of transformation. There has been a third world war.

Presenter: There is an American report that says Yemen will rule the entire region by 2015.

Al-Husseini: Yes, yes. The world now … it begins at the gates of Damascus. What has changed the global map is the steadfastness of the Syrian people and of the Arab Syrian army as well as of Hezbollah and the Iranians in the Levant when they prevented the fall of the gates of Damascus on 3 September 2013. [US President Barack] Obama drank the glass of poison three times: at the gates of Damascus, at the walls of Gaza and in the outskirts of Baghdad. Today he drinks the fourth glass in Sanaa. This is a war…

Presenter: Will he just watch?

Al-Husseini: No, he will not just watch. He has already created the Baghdad Pact. He is trying to come with a new series of measures. And he is trying to come back to the region in a new uniform with new ways and new tactics. But this time it is just too late. There is no return to the region whether by Obama or by anybody other than Obama.

Presenter: Who will return?

Al-Husseini: We are the new sultans of the Red Sea; we are the new sultans of the gulf. We, [I mean] the axis of resistance: Tehran, Damascus, the [southern] district [of Beirut], Baghdad and Sanaa. We are the ones who will create the map of the region and we are also the sultans of the Red Sea. Remember Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hezbollah and the master of the resistance, when he said around two year ago, I think, that: “We are now coming out for you from the Mediterranean. We have not yet come out for you from the Red Sea.”

Presenter: The Iranian strategic writer and researcher, Dr Muhammad Sadiq Al-Husseini, thank you very much for this interview and for all the information you have given us, of course in your own way. Thank you.