Hot: Saudi Arabia Begins Bombing Operations on Yemen

Wow. A new front in the Middle East war has just opened. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has just begun bombing operations on Yemen targeted against Yemen 'rebels'.

From the New York Times: (bold mine)

Saudi Arabia announced on Wednesday night that it had begun military operations in Yemen, launching airstrikes in coordination with a coalition of 10 nations.

The strikes came as Yemen was hurtling closer to civil war after months of turmoil, as fighters and army units allied with the Houthi movement threatened to overrun the southern port of Aden, where the besieged president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, has gone into hiding.

Yemen shares a long border with Saudi Arabia, a major American ally, and the Saudis had been reported to be massing forces on the Yemen frontier as Mr. Mansour’s last redoubt in Aden looked increasingly imperiled.

The rapid advances by the president’s opponents included the seizure of a military air base and an aerial assault on his home. There were unconfirmed reports that the president had fled the country by boat for Djibouti, the tiny Horn of Africa nation across the Gulf of Aden.

The region’s most impoverished country, Yemen has been a central theater of the American fight against Al Qaeda, and its possible collapse presents complex challenges to the Obama administration as it struggles to deal with instability and radical extremism in the Middle East.

Along with Syria, Iraq and Libya, Yemen is now the fourth state to veer toward political disintegration in the aftermath of the Arab Spring revolts that first erupted four years ago.

By Wednesday morning, Houthi forces had seized Al Anad air base, which until recently had been used by American counterterrorism forces, about 35 miles from Mr. Hadi’s refuge in Aden, the country’s second-largest city.

If current developments represents “political disintegration in the aftermath of the Arab Spring revolts that first erupted four years ago”, then how much more will a sustained below $50 oil add to the current strains?

How will current developments impact both the Middle East's domestic and regional politics?

Interestingly, US president Obama once hailed Yemen's government as a model for fighting extremism. Apparently the imperialist strategy garbed as the "war on terror" has backfired and collapsed.

Yet more interesting developments from the said news…

The Houthis, a minority religious group from northern Yemen, practice a variant of Shiite Islam and receive support from Iran.

More questions. Will this proxy war lead to a tit for tat with Iran? Will this foment an expanded theater of conflict between the US backed by her allies against the Russia-China alliance? (As side note: Russia and Iran recently signed a defense pact)

Aside from politics, how will an expanded war frontier and low oil prices impact the economies of Middle East nations? 

How will an expansion of regional political strains impact Philippine OFWs and remittances?

Will the endless printing of money and zero bound rates by global central banks defuse such tensions to continually send stocks perpetually higher?  Or will inflationism aggravate on the tensions?

Very interesting.