"Washington believes Iran is working with Shi'ite
Muslim rebels in northern Yemen and secessionists in the country's south to
expand its influence at the expense of Yemen's Gulf neighbors, the U.S. envoy to
Sanaa was quoted as saying on Sunday. The pan-Arab daily al-Hayat cited Gerald Feierstein, in an interview in
London, as accusing Lebanon's Hezbollah and Hamas of helping their backers in
Shi'ite Iran at the expense of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a bloc in
which Sunni-led oil giant Saudi Arabia's influence is dominant. "The Iranians want to build influence in Yemen... both internally and more
broadly in the region by establishing a foothold in the Arabian Peninsula," the
paper quoted Feierstein as saying in remarks published in Arabic."
