In its December 21, 2017 editorial, the Iranian daily Kayhan, the mouthpiece of the Iranian regime, outlines a new strategy for the Houthi war against Saudi Arabia and its allies, based on the principle that missile attacks on Sanaa will be met with Houthi missile attacks on Riyadh and the UAE. The editorial states that 'the vast number of [foreign] investors in the UAE is what makes this miniscule state into one of the richest in the world' and that attacks on it will therefore undermine its economy by scaring away the investors. The editorial specifically mentions the palace of the Emir of Dubai, Muhammad Bin Rashid Aal Maktoum, as a target for missile attacks.
The following are translated excerpts from the editorial:[1]
"On Tuesday, [December 19, 2017], the Houthi revolutionaries in Yemen fired a second ballistic into Riyadh, the heart of Saudi Arabia. As Al-Jazeera and Reuters reported, citing "some eyewitnesses," the claims of the Yemen revolutionaries are accurate and this missile hit the Al-Yamama royal palace. Riyadh announced that its defense systems had destroyed the Burkan missile in the sky, and forbade to publish any information about this on social and other media. In the first hours after the incident, Aal Sa'ud [the Saudi royal family] and America said that the missile [had been provided by] Iran...
"The Al-Yamama palace in Riyadh, in the west of the city, is the official seat of the [Saudi] royal court. It is also the Aal Sa'ud [family's] royal court of justice. The [missile] was fired at it exactly one day after CIA Director Mike Pompeo visited Riyadh and met with the Saudi king and other officials at this palace.
"[How impressive that] on the 1000th day of the Saudi attacks on Yemen, the Yemeni revolutionaries managed to plan such an accurate operation within less than 24 hours of the CIA director's visit in Riyadh. This [conveys] a very important message, that the Yemen war has entered a new phase. In other words, the 'hit and run' phase has now ended even for the Saudi coalition. From now on, it will not be just Saudi Arabia shelling Yemeni cities; the Yemen revolutionaries can [now] shell Saudi cities as well. As their leader 'Abd Al-Malik Al-Houthi said: 'Today, our ballistic missiles reach the palaces of the enemies of the Yemeni nation. The more Saudi Arabia exacerbates its crimes against Yemen, the more means we will have to fight these crimes. You bomb our presidential palaces in Sanaa, and we in Sanaa will attack your palaces. You bomb Sanaa and we bomb Riyadh and Abu Dhabi...
"In [the course of] this unequal war, the Yemen revolutionaries realized that the only way to fight the cruel attacks of the Saudi coalition is to fire missiles into the heart of the Saudi coalition countries. The vast number of [foreign] investors in the UAE is what makes this miniscule state into one of the richest in the world. [Investors] are naturally afraid of missiles. [So] when [the Houthi militia] Ansar Allah fires missiles into Dubai and Abu Dhabi, it attacks the security of these countries. Without investments and security, the UAE will be on a par with today's Yemen.
"The future developments in Yemen are not difficult to foresee. By merely following the [current] developments and the threats of the Yemen revolutionaries, and checking what percentage of these threats has been realized, we can assess the validity of these threats and decide whether to take them seriously or not. This [kind of reasoning] allowed us to accurately predict the firing of missiles at the UAE and Riyadh on past occasions. Examining the latest threats and developments, we assessed that Ansar Allah would attack Riyadh once again, and this prediction was neatly realized last Tuesday.
"Following the latest missile attack on the Al-Yamama palace, the leader of the Yemeni Ansar Allah, the spokesman of the Yemeni army and several other Yemeni senior officials threatened that other royal palaces in other backward Arab countries should expect similar attacks. Since the Yemen revolutionaries' threats have [proved to be] very valid, we take these threats seriously. It cannot be ruled out that in the coming days we will hear [a report saying]: 'The Houthis have fired a Burkan H missile and hit the palace of [the Emir of Dubai,] Muhammad bin Rashid Aal Maktoum.
[1] Kayhan (Iran), December 21, 2017.
