Researcher ORCID Identifier

0000-0003-1533-1972

Graduation Year

2022

Date of Submission

4-2022

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Government

Reader 1

Professor Hicham Bou Nassif

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Abstract

The Yemeni Civil War (YCW) is one of the longest-running conflicts in the planet. As such, it is a conflict that has already caused a great deal of damage be it in terms of economic output, loss of lives, and foreign relations. The YCW was originally a conflict between two political factions between Yemen, namely the Hadi faction and the Houthi faction. As the conflict, progressed, however, other countries in the region such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Iran, have started supporting their respective political factions. This effectively turned the YCW into a full-blown proxy war between regional powers in the Middle Eastern region. The objective of this paper was to examine the role of Iran in the Yemeni Civil War. This was done by assessing both Iran’s motivations for participating in the conflict, and the actual records of its actions in it, based on no less than verified reports, among other supposedly credible sources. This analysis was done in connection to Iran’s regional hegemonic ambitions. Based on the rather large collection of sources that I examined, Iran clearly supports the Houthi faction. This support comes in the form of economic, political, and military assistance and partnerships. However, it is important to note that Iran is not directly involved in the conflict. It does not have any ground forces, naval forces, and air forces that are directly deployed in Yemen fighting the Hadi faction’s forces or any of the Houthis’ adversaries.

As far as the possibility of fully stopping Iran’s rise towards becoming a regional power, I concluded that the only viable way for an external adversary to effectively counteract Iran’s rise towards becoming a regional hegemon is to neutralize Iran’s current economic, military, and geopolitical strategy. This is theoretically possible, but it would come at a great and unbearable cost, even for a great power such as the United States.

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