Discussing Yemen Chaos on Fox and Friends Friday Morning

I’ll be on Fox and Friends at 8:40 am EST tomorrow, March 27th, discussing the collapse of Yemen and what it means for the United States. Hope you can tune in. In short, Yemen was already a major terrorist hotbed. And now that there is no functioning central government, things promise to spin completely out of control very quickly. A few things to keep in mind:

–ISIS will undoubtedly look to capitalize and establish a foothold–it has already claimed responsibility for a pair of deadly mosque bombings in Yemen last week.

–Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the AQ branch that has been most active in plotting against the U.S. (including the Underwear Bomber plot in 2009, the Cargo Plane Plot in 2010, and Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hassan’s correspondence with Yemen-based AQ cleric Anwar al-Awlaki) promises to have a major resurgence in Yemen. Look for the country to serve as a staging ground and launching pad for yet more attempted attacks against America.

–The chaos and instability brought on by the lack of a central government–and the fight against Shia Houthi rebels–may make Yemen a new magnet for the global jihadist movement and foreign fighters, just as Syria has been over the past few years. Indeed, Yemen may very well become a new battleground for the massive Sunni/Shia conflict that has gripped Iraq, Syria and Lebanon in recent years–with Iran-backed Shia Houthis battling various Sunni jihadist groups for supremacy.

–Yemen is now careening towards total lawlessness. And it lies right across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia, another lawless, terrorist hotbed. Look for Sunni jihadist fighters to increasingly transit between these two countries, taking advantage of all the chaos.

–The big winners here are the Iranians–they now have a major foothold in Yemen through the Houthis which they can use to menace their archrival Saudi Arabia (and its oil fields). Iran now effectively controls four Arab capitals (Beirut, Sanaa, Baghdad and Damascus) through its proxies and is growing in strength throughout the region every day. The Iranians are quite literally on the march. And the Obama administration’s push for a horrible nuke deal will only embolden Iran further.

–The Yemen chaos is another troubling sign that the United States, under President Obama, is evacuating the region and essentially leaving it to the jihadists and Iran. Rest assured, Israel and our Arab allies have gotten the memo and are furious/alarmed about the ramifications.