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Frontliine explores the postulate that the current turmoil in the Middle East, particularly in Syria Iraq and Yemen, is a primarily a manifestation of a forty year power struggle between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
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00:00A CIDADE NO BRASIL
00:32A CIDADE NO BRASIL
01:04A CIDADE NO BRASIL
01:42Música
01:56On the edge of the Shia city of Najaf in southern Iraq
02:00is the world's largest cemetery, the Valley of Peace.
02:051,500 acres, 5 million bodies.
02:12The cemetery has been opened for over 1,700 years.
02:18Today, among the dead are the Shia martyrs killed in the sectarian war that has torn Iraq apart.
02:33At the nearby shrine of Imam Ali, the son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad,
02:39bodies of newly deceased fighters are carried past the tomb of Ali to receive his blessing.
02:48Some are Iraqi army.
02:51Others are members of private Shia militias backed and trained by Iran
02:55who've been fighting the Sunni extremists of al-Qaeda and ISIS.
03:13Today, both those militias and Iran have emerged as victors in Iraq.
03:27I was in Baghdad on the day that ISIS was driven out of Mosul.
03:32The crowd, mostly Shia, cheered for the victory.
03:48A victory against ISIS has been declared in the Iraqi city of Mosul.
03:54For Sunnis, this is what victory looks like.
03:57What was once the capital in Iraq of ISIS's caliphate now reduced to rubble around us here,
04:03the devastation of this city.
04:05In city after city, it is Iraq's Sunnis who have borne the brunt of the fight.
04:11These were the cities where some had at first welcomed ISIS,
04:15places like Tikrit, Beji, Tal Afar, and Ramadi.
04:32Ibrahim Asaj is Ramadi's mayor.
04:53Today, few have been able to return to their homes.
04:58Across Iraq, millions of Sunnis have been displaced.
05:03Tens of thousands are stuck in camps, like this one.
05:07Do you want to see both types?
05:08Are you saying ISIS fans?
05:10Some are still suspected of being ISIS sympathizers.
05:13Can you tell me, why are you here?
05:16I am here, because my wife is my wife.
05:18My wife is seven months old.
05:20My wife is seven months old.
05:20My wife is my wife.
05:22If I was my wife, let me help me.
05:24She says, you are my wife.
05:25But my wife, I don't have a problem.
05:27He doesn't see the way.
05:28He says, I'm here.
05:29He says, I'm here.
05:29I'm here.
05:30I'm here.
05:31She understands, Allah is everything else.
05:33I'm here.
05:34I have no case.
05:35I don't have a name.
05:35I just don't know them.
05:40My wife doesn't see them.
05:41They didn't tell them there.
05:45It's my fault.
05:51I don't know.
05:53We can't besoin of them more than that.
05:55Então, se nós não conseguirmos essas pessoas para o seu lugar,
06:00se nós não conseguirmos eles, se nós não conseguirmos eles,
06:02se nós não conseguirmos os sectarianism,
06:06então eu assurio que a civil war irá e irá expandir para o whole region.
06:12Olha isso.
06:15O que é apocalíptico?
06:18Em o West, hoje o sectarian conflito
06:21tem sido caracterizado como parte de uma guerra antiga dentro da Islã.
06:25Mas na terra, a realidade é mais complicada.
06:31Não há dúvida que o histórico entre os Sunnis e os Shias
06:38tem sido há desde o século 7.
06:44Mas a violência que estamos vendo hoje é novo.
06:48É moderno, política violência.
06:55É uma guerra de poder entre Irã e Saudi Arabia
06:59para a dominância do Middle East e do mundo muslim.
07:08Essa guerra de poder começou aqui, em Irã, quase 40 anos atrás,
07:13com Ayatollah Khomeini's revolução.
07:16Oh!
07:21Oh, oh oh oh…
07:27Oh, oh oh
07:49Khomeini's doctrine was based on Islamic law and the ultimate authority of the supreme
07:54leader, the rejection of western domination and the overthrow of the gulf monarchies,
08:04particularly the Saudi royal family.
08:09It also included the command to spread Islamic rule to other countries.
08:33Mohsen Rafikdust, a founding member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, believes
08:41they have a continuing duty to spread Khomeini's revolution.
08:44Iran is not going to go to Syria and Iraq.
08:57The first, Arabistan is going to go.
09:00The nation is going to put it to the ground and ground.
09:04We are going to go to Naji and they are going to give it to them.
09:12At a pro-government rally, it's clear that opposition to Saudi Arabia is central to their world view.
09:22So in the Iranian case, Saudi Arabia is an agent of the United States.
09:27It is there to keep a global order in which the U.S. dominates the world.
09:35And Saudi Arabia's control over Mecca and Medina, the two holiest shrine complexes in the Muslim world, is unacceptable.
09:46If you read Imam Khomeini's Last Will and Testament, if you listen to the sermons of the supreme leader who
09:53succeeded him, Ayatollah Khamenei, Saudi Arabia is a state that needs to be destroyed, a state that needs to be
10:01eradicated really.
10:11Iran is a hostile, belligerent, adventurous nation attempting to export revolution.
10:23The Saudi's insist that Iran is a hostile, belligerent, adventurous nation attempting to export revolution.
10:32around the region.
10:33How do you respond?
10:35Well, talk is cheap.
10:38Let's look at the actions.
10:41Saudis helped Saddam Hussein for eight years.
10:45Saudis helped al-Qaeda.
10:48Saudis created Daesh.
10:50Saudis created al-Nusrah.
10:53Saudis are funding terrorists who are operating in eastern Iran.
10:58So they started this sectarian message, not us.
11:03The Iranians look at you and they say, you've been busy supporting and exporting extremism.
11:11What's your response to that?
11:13Nonsense.
11:14The Iranians are the ones who are exporting terrorism.
11:18They're the ones who are stoking the fires of sectarianism.
11:22They're the ones who are violating international laws and norms and acceptable behavior.
11:27And they are the ones who have been on an aggressive path since 1979.
11:32Despite the fact that the United States and almost every other powerful nation supports Saudi Arabia actively and tries to
11:43undermine us actively,
11:47we are still the most influential power in the Middle East.
11:51That should tell you something.
11:55That should tell you that we have made the right choices and they've made the wrong choices.
12:05One of the most important choices Iran made has been in Syria,
12:10where war has raged for almost seven years.
12:28Today, over five million people have fled Syria.
12:34Millions more have been displaced.
12:37Hundreds of thousands killed.
12:43The last time I was in Syria, the ancient city of Aleppo was divided.
12:49East Aleppo was held by rebel forces.
12:55After a long, brutal siege, the Assad regime finally retook control in December 2016.
13:05Today, in East Aleppo, people are trying to resume their lives.
13:20I spoke with some regime supporters.
13:22So, how are you doing? How's your business?
13:39Who are your friends? Who is helping Syria?
13:44Iran, Russia, Iran, Syria.
13:52We asked people what Iran was doing here now, and they pointed us to this school.
13:59Next to portraits of President Assad and Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei,
14:04the sign reads Gaza School, a gift from the Islamic Republic of Iran.
14:16They are happy because they lived now maybe eight years.
14:21Six years of war.
14:22Now.
14:23And they're eight years old now.
14:24Now. Yes.
14:29This is the first school opened after the war.
14:33It was built by whom?
14:35The workers from Aleppo.
14:38But the money comes from the people of Iran to help us.
14:48I was told Iran has contributed to the rebuilding of 47 schools in the province.
14:55It seems to be part of a larger strategy.
15:05The Iranians are here for their interests.
15:08Nobody would send money and fighters and others for because they are a charity.
15:14They are here for their interests.
15:18I first met Anas Juley in Damascus in 2015,
15:22when he was leading a group of pro-democracy activists.
15:35The Iranian interest is obvious. Now we are seeing it.
15:39Iran mainly wants to be recognized from United States and the international community as a normal country.
15:47Not as a part of the access of evil, not as a country that is not part of the international
15:51community.
15:54From the start, Iran backed Assad.
15:58Syria has really been Iran's only continuous ally since the 1979 revolution.
16:07And when the uprisings began, the Iranian regime was determined to do all in their power,
16:14both financially and militarily, to prevent the Assad regime from collapsing.
16:24Back in 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring, protests began against the Assad regime.
16:33The first six to ten months of uprising, this was truly a civil uprising.
16:41That was motivated by the rest of the Arab uprising.
16:46The need for political participation, asking for freedom, reining in the security services of the Syrian regime.
16:59It was led by a fairly non-violent civil movement of students, laborers, villagers.
17:10Then I think what happened is a decision was made by the Assad regime that we are not going to
17:17negotiate.
17:30New deadly violence in Syria.
17:33Army and security forces fired on peaceful protestors.
17:37The government denies anyone was killed.
17:39Once the violence began, Iran sent in money, weapons and military advisers from the IRGC to help Assad crush the
17:48protests.
17:49Syria, violence and protests. Will the government there buckle?
17:53The official line, both here and in Iran, is that the uprising in 2011 was really a foreign plot.
18:02Was there never a popular revolution prior in the first month or weeks of the uprising?
18:09In fact, it has never been there. I'm living here. I know what happened.
18:15It was a prepared, prefabricated scenario of what will happen.
18:20Since the beginning, we have said that this is a war against Muslim fanatics.
18:29In fact, armed opposition to Assad grew gradually and was made up of many different groups backed by many countries.
18:38You had Saudi Arabia, who was an important patron.
18:41Qatar, who was an important patron.
18:44UAE, to a lesser extent, was a patron.
18:47You had Turkey, who was a patron.
18:48You had the United States, who was a patron.
18:50You had the EU, who was a patron.
18:53Everybody is giving money to different people.
18:56Everybody is giving different types of weapons to different groups.
19:03The Saudi Arabian government supported two hardline Sunni Islamist groups.
19:09You paid millions of dollars into groups like Arar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam.
19:14And who are Arar al-Sham and who is Jaysh al-Islami?
19:16They are Syrians.
19:18They are Syrians being killed by whom?
19:20They are being killed by Iranians.
19:22So, we are giving them the means to defend themselves.
19:28We support the Syrian people.
19:32The Iranians are killing the Syrian people.
19:35That's the difference between us.
19:41Saudi Arabia tried to play the Iranian playbook, which is, let's find groups which share sectarian identity with us and
19:51which are willing to fight and die for the cause.
19:55And the groups that they were able to find were Salafi groups.
20:02These are the groups that they could find, fund, share with them sectarian identity.
20:07And they were willing to fight to stand up to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, but also the Iranian proxy groups,
20:14be it Hezbollah or be it the Shia militia.
20:17Here's another militia.
20:21The Shia militia groups, backed by Iran, are hard to track down here.
20:27We'd been discouraged by Syrian officials in Damascus from visiting a famous Shia holy site.
20:33We decided to go anyway.
20:38This is the shrine of the Prophet Muhammad's granddaughter, Sayyida Zayna.
20:46We arrived on the day of Arbayin, where pilgrims mourn Zaynab's brother Hussein, the revered Shia figure who was brutally
20:54murdered in the 7th century.
21:09Worshippers ceremonially strike themselves for failing to save Hussein from martyrdom.
21:17What does it mean to you to be here?
21:36Among the pilgrims were Shia fighters recruited by Iran.
21:40This was why we were not supposed to film here.
21:45Okay, okay.
21:48They're Afghans. They don't want to be filmed.
21:54All right, so we just passed a group of Afghan volunteers, soldiers, who've come to fight in the Syrian war.
22:05There was the Fatimiyun Division, Afghan Shia trained by the IRGC.
22:13And all around town, there were posters of Iranian-backed Shia militia leaders from Iraq.
22:20Most significant here, among the pilgrims, Hezbollah fighters.
22:25Iran's proxy army from neighboring Lebanon.
22:35Supported by Iran since the early 1980s, Hezbollah has become a major political party and the most powerful military force
22:43in Lebanon.
22:46They were secretive about their involvement in Syria.
22:49Coming to the defense of Assad was politically controversial in Lebanon.
22:54But Syria is strategically important for their survival.
23:00Iran has basically been using Syria as a thoroughfare to arm and finance Hezbollah.
23:07And so, for that reason, I think both Iran and Hezbollah saw the potential fall of the Assad regime in
23:15Syria as an existential threat to them, certainly for Hezbollah.
23:22And Iran had a much larger regional ambition.
23:25A land route from Tehran all the way to the Mediterranean and the border with Israel.
23:31Iran has now secured a land corridor stretching from Tehran through Iraq and Syria all the way to Lebanon.
23:38To me, that's really the key to their foreign policy for Iran.
23:42A lot of what gives them any say in the region, any say with the United States, is that they
23:50are able to constantly put pressure on Israel and constantly threaten that they can attack Israel.
23:57It's an ideological goal, it's a political goal, but it's also a goal that they feel like they are slowly,
24:04gradually making progress on.
24:07Hezbollah is projecting Iranian influence across the Middle East by fighting in Syria alongside the Syrian military.
24:14Meanwhile, Iran continues to say they don't have a military presence in Syria and only provide advisers at the request
24:22of the Syrian government.
24:24Hezbollah has supplemented its knowledge of guerrilla warfare with conventional warfare and played a critical part in turning the war
24:31Assad's way.
24:32In the end, the war in Syria will be recorded as among the most brutal in modern times.
24:39An aerial attack in Syria's Aleppo province, using improvised munitions like these, the so-called barrel bombs.
24:55Assad has been guilty of horrific violence.
24:59Barrel bombs packed with nails and shrapnel.
25:04Chemical weapons.
25:06Whole cities have been under siege.
25:10An estimated half million dead.
25:13And the war is not yet over.
25:17Human beings inside Syria, on all sides, have suffered in the course of this war.
25:22You know, nearly 10 million people made homeless.
25:24Almost half the population of Syria having left their homes.
25:28You know, the sheer magnitude of what's happening in Syria...
25:30But the opposition has been unable to topple Assad.
25:35The Saudis believe the U.S. shares part of the blame.
25:40There was regional willingness to undertake action that U.S. and other countries were reluctant to lead in.
25:50But it would have required joint action by the United States.
25:55And when Mr. Obama began to talk about red lines, naturally the regional states thought that he was serious about
26:05it.
26:05He was stepping up.
26:06That he was stepping up.
26:08But we know what happened.
26:10Getting reports minutes ago that Russia has launched airstrikes in Syria.
26:17Two years later, when the Russians began aerial bombing, Iran sent in even more ground troops.
26:24And the war turned decisively in Assad's favor.
26:28Russia wants to keep Assad in, and working with Iran...
26:33Saudi support for the rebels has declined.
26:36There's going to be a power vacuum developing in Syria.
26:38The Saudis have withdrawn from Syria.
26:40If they are talking about vacuum, about filling power, they withdraw. Nobody told them to go out.
26:46They withdraw, and by de facto, the power who is here will fill the vacuum.
26:51And what does it mean to you that these outside players have been destroying your cities and are making decisions
26:59outside the country as to what happens?
27:01For us, it's a matter now to choose between the bad and the worst.
27:12Sadly, the interest of the average Syrian now is security.
27:16Just to be safe?
27:17Just to be safe.
27:20A way that they can send their children to schools.
27:23That they can provide food to their families.
27:27They can live safely.
27:31We are against the regime, the political power he is controlling the state, yes.
27:36But we can't leave the country. We can't afford not to work for this country.
27:42We can't. We can't. It's our destiny.
27:51What happens in Syria will go a long way in shaping the perception throughout the region of who is the
28:00winner in this contest.
28:03And right now, as of today, the winner in this contest in Syria is Iran.
28:10We have now an Iranian expeditionary force that includes Hezbollah, includes Shiite militias from Iraq, Shiite from Pakistan, Shiite from
28:23Afghanistan,
28:23that now can be deployed at Iran's wish and under Iran control.
28:30We can't. We can't. We can't.
28:39Confronted by Iran's expansion and nervous about America's commitment to the region, the Saudis made a show of force.
28:46In 2016, with a coalition of 34 mostly Sunni states, they staged a massive military exercise.
28:54They called it Northern Thunder.
29:00Everybody in the neighborhood knows the truth about Saudi Arabia.
29:03You know, it's a powerful, very well-financed, very economically important country.
29:08But there is a little bit of a hollow core there.
29:10And that's what makes the Saudi royal family so insecure.
29:18The coalition was driven by the new young Minister of Defense, Prince Mohammed bin Salman,
29:24who sat just behind his father, the aging King Salman.
29:29The prince also intended Northern Thunder to send a message to the Americans.
29:36The Americans had been feckless in Syria and had left them with a regional conflict on their border.
29:43And then to learn that the Obama administration might be making a kind of Nixon to China pivot in favor
29:48of Iran was infuriating and really disorienting, I think.
29:56The Saudis felt betrayed by Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, saying it would do nothing to curtail Iran's military adventures.
30:09Our concern was what is being done about Iran's nefarious activities in the region.
30:16And what did the Americans tell you?
30:18We are dealing with this. This is only strictly the nuclear talks.
30:22The view in the U.S. was that we deal with this separately.
30:26But the Iranians are making threatening moves in the Gulf.
30:30Are we supposed to sit there without any defenses? Of course not.
30:33Do you believe they have designs on Saudi Arabia itself?
30:37I hope not. But from their actions and from their attempts to destabilize and their attempts to cause mischief, that
30:48may not be the case.
30:54South of Saudi Arabia, bordering the strategic passage to the Suez Canal, is Yemen.
31:01Here, in the poorest country in the Middle East, is where Prince Mohammed bin Salman decided to draw a line
31:07against Iran.
31:12This is Saddam, in Yemen's far north, close to the Saudi border.
31:18It is the tribal stronghold of the Houthi rebels.
31:23The Houthis are from Yemen's Zaydi sect, an ancient offshoot of Shia Islam.
31:31It took us nine hours to get here last night.
31:33They estimated it would take us four, but with checkpoints and bad road and bridges that were blown out, it
31:38took us nine hours.
31:41This is a town that's seen an immense amount of destruction.
31:44There's a building right here that's been rocketed.
31:50Airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition have destroyed most of the city center.
31:54There's another destroyed building here.
31:57It's a hard war to cover.
32:00Outside media is rarely let in.
32:04We were the only American reporters allowed inside Houthi-controlled northern Yemen in all of 2017.
32:17In the old city, the marketplace had been bombed the previous year.
32:22We were the only people that were forced to die last night.
32:26We started to die last night.
32:29So what are you going to do now?
32:31We were forced to die last night.
32:33We were forced to die last night.
32:37We were forced to die last night.
32:48O que é isso?
32:51O que é isso?
32:52O que é isso?
32:54É isso.
32:55Missile strike right here on the...
32:59Everywhere we went, we saw and heard about the devastation from Saudi bombs.
33:04Por que eles bombam isso?
33:06Eles vão atrás de lá.
33:09...in os locais e no campo.
33:24Eles nos caem assim e morrer com os seus amigos.
33:32Como disse isso?
33:32Nós estamos alunos de vocês dentro do funeral.
33:33E eu estava tecido e vós.
33:36O que aconteceu?
33:38O que aconteceu?
33:40O que aconteceu?
33:41O que aconteceu com vocês?
33:42O que aconteceu com as pessoas?
33:46A guerra não é novo para a Yemen.
33:53O país tem sido rachada por civil wars
33:55por mais de 50 anos.
33:59Os rebeles avançam em Sana
34:01as a situação em Yemen deteriora mais.
34:07Mas em 2015,
34:09os Houthis sejam o capital.
34:10Os rebeles estão tomando o capital de Sana
34:13e avançam em 2-majority Sunni áreas.
34:17Although the Houthis
34:18had a relationship with Iran and Hezbollah,
34:20at this stage,
34:21there was little evidence
34:22of direct military support.
34:29The Saudi-backed president
34:31fled to Riyadh,
34:32where he was met
34:33at the airport by Prince Mohammed.
34:36The prince had made a crucial decision.
34:40Convinced that the Houthi rebellion
34:42represented a threat from Iran.
34:44He ordered a bombing campaign
34:46together with a coalition of Sunni states
34:48called Operation Decisive Storm.
34:51These Saudi fighter jets
34:52are on their way
34:53to attack rebel positions in Yemen.
34:58Saudi Arabia
34:59has long been known
35:00for getting Washington
35:01to fight its battles.
35:03Not this time.
35:06The Saudis didn't consult with us.
35:09They told us
35:11about 48 hours
35:12before they started the campaign.
35:14Chaos in Yemen
35:15has suddenly expanded
35:16into a dangerous regional...
35:18We were the closest of allies
35:20in the Middle East.
35:22And that decision
35:24shows how badly
35:25the relationship had unraveled,
35:27where they would take
35:28a military action again
35:29and without consulting us on it.
35:39The prince said
35:40the war was necessary
35:41because Iran's goal
35:42is to get to Mecca
35:44and, quote,
35:45we will not wait
35:46for a war on Saudi soil.
35:50I had met the prince
35:51in Riyadh last year.
35:53He didn't want to do
35:54an on-camera interview,
35:55but we had a long talk.
35:56He told me how he wanted
35:58to reform and modernize
36:00Saudi society.
36:01He dismissed the rivalry
36:03with Iran.
36:04But, he said,
36:06he would stop them
36:07once and for all
36:08in Yemen.
36:10I met with prince
36:11Mohammed bin Salman
36:12the other night
36:13and he told me, quote,
36:14there's no rivalry with Iran.
36:16This is Iranian propaganda.
36:18They are not worthy
36:19of our attention
36:21and not even number 20
36:23on our list of concerns.
36:25You buy that?
36:26Of course.
36:28Of course,
36:29because it's from...
36:30No, what we have
36:32with Iran is
36:33when you see rivalry
36:34as competition,
36:37we're not competing
36:38with Iran.
36:39We don't want
36:40to compete with Iran.
36:41We're just fighting
36:42a war against them
36:43in Yemen.
36:44We're not fighting
36:45a war against them
36:45in Yemen.
36:46We want them
36:47to get off our case.
36:48That's what we want.
36:50Yemen was taken over
36:51by a militia
36:53allied with Iran
36:54and Hezbollah
36:54that is now
36:55in possession
36:55of ballistic missiles.
36:57The Iranians
36:58have no business
36:58in Yemen.
37:02The spokesman
37:03for the Saudi-led
37:04military coalition
37:05at the time
37:05was General
37:06Ahmed Asiri.
37:08The Houthi,
37:09they hijack the country,
37:10they hijack the parliament,
37:12they seize the institution
37:14of the country,
37:15they imprison the president.
37:17We decide
37:17to protect
37:18our national security
37:20and to help
37:21the Yemeni government.
37:22So,
37:23you launch airstrikes?
37:24No,
37:25we launch
37:25a military operation.
37:27We don't want
37:28to emphasize
37:29in using
37:30this kind
37:30of sensitive
37:31for bombing,
37:32airstrike,
37:33we launch
37:34a military campaign.
37:37Whatever the general
37:39wants to call it,
37:40the bombing
37:41has been relentless.
37:43In October 2016,
37:45Saudi warplanes
37:46struck the Al-Kubra Hall
37:48in the capital,
37:48Sana'a.
37:50Hundreds of people,
37:51including some
37:52Houthi officials,
37:53were attending
37:53a funeral.
37:55Officials say
37:56at least 140 people
37:58were killed
37:58and hundreds more
38:00injured
38:00when the bombs
38:01fell on this funeral
38:02hall on Saturday
38:03afternoon,
38:04the single deadliest
38:05attack in its
38:0619-month war.
38:09The Saudis fired
38:10two American-made
38:11precision weapons
38:12as people ran
38:14back inside
38:15to save lives
38:16as the second
38:17missile hit.
38:37This man told me
38:3826 members
38:39of his family died.
38:51The Saudis say
38:53this was a mistake.
38:55They didn't intend
38:57to bomb a funeral.
39:00and they didn't intend
39:00I don't know
39:02what to say
39:03or what to say
39:04that it was
39:04on the Yemeni people.
39:24Abdullaseez bin Habtour
39:26is the Houthi-led government's prime minister.
39:47We have in March the market bombing in northern Yemen, and then in May we have the bombing of Sada
39:52and Mehran, and in October 2016, a Sana funeral bombing.
39:56People say the Saudis have not complied with generally accepted rules of warfare in terms of protecting civilian populations.
40:06The question is, why do these persist?
40:09No. Let me tell you something.
40:11When you conduct a military operation, mistake could happen.
40:15How many civilians have died as a result?
40:16No, we don't have numbers of civilian deaths of cause of the Yemeni government have this.
40:22What was their number?
40:23Ask the Yemeni government.
40:28But no one could give us accurate numbers.
40:31The UN last estimated 10,000 civilian dead, but that was over a year ago.
40:38Saudi Arabia's air campaign against Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen is setting off concerns for far-reaching regional war.
40:44The Saudis have always regarded Yemen as their backyard and as their ward, geopolitically but also economically.
40:53And what you're seeing with the Saudis in Yemen is the building their capacity to project force.
41:02And Yemen is, in fact, in some ways a training ground for them to be able to do that.
41:07Ultimately, not with the aim of, you know, destroying Yemen, but building up the capacity to be able to confront
41:14Iran should there ever be a war with Iran.
41:191,500 miles away in Tehran, officials blame the Saudis for Yemen's trouble.
41:24Well, what is the importance strategically of Yemen?
41:28What's your interest in Yemen?
41:29We know that Yemen is important for Saudi Arabia, and we never want to stab Saudi Arabia in the back.
41:37We send messages to them before Yemen erupted into this that Yemen is in turmoil.
41:44Let's work out something.
41:46And the only response we got, you know, what was the response?
41:50Arab world is none of your business.
41:52Yes.
41:53We try to solve this.
41:55We try to talk to the Saudis.
41:56The Saudis say Iran is involved in Iraq, Iran is involved in Syria, in Lebanon, in Bahrain, and in Yemen.
42:05And they fear, finally, the two final countries, Yemen and Bahrain, are not really there.
42:13But you're still involved, and you've chosen sides.
42:16Yes.
42:21A few hours outside Sana'a, we came upon a graduation ceremony for fighters about to set off for the
42:28front lines.
42:33Their slogans sounded like what I'd heard in Iran and with Hezbollah.
42:47While the Houthis continue to deny they're getting military help from Iran,
42:52analysts believe some has been getting through.
42:56What I think Iran is trying to do is to fund and support an insurgency in Yemen that,
43:03should it succeed, Yemen suddenly becomes an ally of Iran.
43:08But even if it fails, or it just lasts a long time,
43:11you have completely distracted your chief adversary, Saudi Arabia,
43:15from the war in Syria, from the war in Iraq.
43:21And how much is it costing Iran?
43:23It's hard to say.
43:25But it does not seem that it's costing them all that much.
43:29They're not able to give them enough for the Houthis to succeed.
43:32But what they are able to do, I think, is perpetuate that conflict,
43:35and to fuel the fire as long as it goes.
43:41It's hard to track how much help Iran is providing.
43:45If indeed the Iranians are providing support to the Houthis,
43:48that should show up in the weapons record.
43:51To determine the level of Iran's engagement,
43:54conflict armament research has analyzed Houthi weapons.
43:59CAR is a private group with funding from the EU
44:02and a contract with one member of the Saudi coalition.
44:06We were able to determine that these drones were not indigenously designed nor manufactured.
44:14Its design was essentially identical to an Iranian drone called an Abbil-2.
44:20The serial number prefixes were almost exactly the same.
44:24The internal components matched up with internal components used in Iranian drones.
44:29And then we traced some of the components back to an Iranian distributor.
44:33So when the Houthis say we're not getting any kind of support from Iran
44:38in terms of weapons or material, what do you say to that?
44:42The evidence clearly shows otherwise.
44:47Are you familiar with conflict armament research group?
44:51Their conclusions are that Iran has provided technical know-how at least,
44:57and in some cases, armaments to Yemen.
45:01And they look under the table, above the table.
45:04They look at the cabaret, in the cabaret, in the cabaret.
45:09This Iranian idea, the Iranian idea, the Iranian base.
45:13These are all hypocrites.
45:14Of course, they help us with human assistance.
45:17Iran helps us.
45:19But something through the Iranian war, for the Houthis,
45:22this is the knowledge of Allah.
45:24We don't know it until Allah.
45:26They are not helping us.
45:28We would wish they are doing so.
45:30The problem is that nobody believes you.
45:35Yes, I know that.
45:37Americans don't believe you when you say that there's no help from Iran.
45:40Yes, let them believe that.
45:42I believe what I say.
45:43I'm very happy with that.
45:48There are no questions about who supplies weapons to the Saudis.
45:52The largest amount comes from the United States.
45:58This is the Amran cement factory.
46:01After successive Saudi air attacks, it was shut down.
46:051,500 workers lost their jobs.
46:22The Saudis say that they're fighting Iran in Yemen.
46:46It's a CBU-105, a U.S.-made cluster bomb.
46:52It delivers 40 separate explosive projectiles.
46:58Following reports of their use in Yemen, they were discontinued.
47:03How many are left in Saudi stockpiles is unknown.
47:08In 2016, the Obama administration halted shipments of both cluster bombs and precision-guided weapons.
47:16But the damage had been done.
47:27Back in the capital, Sana'a, we came across a rally called no to U.S. terrorism.
47:33What brought you here today?
47:34Why did you come here?
47:35Today, I came here to tell the world that we are suffering.
47:39We are dying here.
47:42The rally was timed to coincide with President Trump's arrival in Riyadh,
47:47the first foreign visit of his presidency.
47:50He pledged to renew America's relationship with the kingdom.
47:54You try to stop killing Yemenis with Saudi hands.
48:02Trump promised another $110 billion in weapons to the Saudis.
48:07And we will be sure to help our Saudi friends to get a good deal
48:12from our great American defense companies.
48:19The Houthis greeted him by launching a missile at Riyadh.
48:28You seem like you're bogged down in Yemen at this point.
48:31I don't think so.
48:32We're not bogged down.
48:34We're making progress.
48:34The U.S. has been fighting in Afghanistan for 10 years.
48:39You've been fighting in Iraq for how many years?
48:41The coalition against ISIS in Syria has been conducting operations
48:45for how many years?
48:47Longer than our war in Yemen.
48:55The war in Yemen is now in its fourth year.
48:59Both sides stand accused of war crimes.
49:04The country is failing.
49:07Garbage lies uncollected.
49:10Drinking water is polluted.
49:14And there's the biggest cholera outbreak in modern history.
49:22In addition, there is widespread malnutrition.
49:26In Hajah, one of Yemen's poorest provinces,
49:30I met five-year-old Ruqayah.
49:34The hospital up near her home, hours away, had been bombed.
49:40Other children can't even reach here.
49:57Just a day or two before, a severely malnourished boy had come in.
50:02But it was too late.
50:15And who do you blame for the war?
50:32Yemen, now, is facing a dual humanitarian crisis.
50:37Does that matter to Tehran?
50:39I don't think so.
50:41And the reason I don't think so is because I don't think they see it as their fault.
50:45Any of the injustice that's happening, any of the suffering,
50:49the entirety of the humanitarian crisis is being blamed on Saudi Arabia.
50:56But what Iran never does is take responsibility for any of the bad things that happen in the areas that
51:02it's involved in.
51:05Together, they have done this to the region.
51:09But neither of them see themselves as responsible.
51:12And they all see it being driven from the other side.
51:22When elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers.
51:26And in today's Middle East, the two elephants are Iran and Saudi Arabia.
51:33There's been over a million casualties in the Middle East over the last decade.
51:38But they've been Syrian.
51:41They've been Yemeni.
51:43They've been Iraqi.
51:48Iranians and Saudi citizens aren't the ones that are suffering.
52:14Iranians and Saudi citizens aren't the ones that are suffering.
52:27Go to pbs.org slash frontline to read extended interviews with Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif.
52:35So they started this sectarian message.
52:37Saudi foreign minister Adil al-Jubair.
52:40They are the ones who have been on an aggressive path since 1979.
52:43And others.
52:44Learn more about the making of bitter rivals.
52:46We just passed a group of Afghan volunteers.
52:51Connect to the Frontline community on Facebook, Twitter, and pbs.org slash frontline.
52:58He gripped my arm and he started to massage my shoulders in a forceful way.
53:03Stories with uncanny similarities.
53:06He came back in a robe.
53:07Just like an open robe.
53:08If you were in his movie, you had a shot at an Academy Award.
53:11He used his nondisclosure agreements.
53:13It was a show of power.
53:15I think a lot of people turned a blind eye.
53:17And control.
53:17I think his career is over.
53:19But, you know, who knows?
53:21Anything can happen.
53:23Don't miss this Frontline at a special date and time.
53:55For more on this and other films,
53:56Frontline programs, visit our website at pbs.org slash frontline.
54:10Frontline's Bitter Rivals is available on DVD.
54:14To order, visit shoppbs.org or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.
54:20Frontline is also available for download on iTunes.
54:25Frontline's Bitter Rivals,ather.com or call 1-800-PLAY-inka ludzi.
54:25Hotline's Bitter Rivals is available on DVD.
54:26lew同 i7nnj lite rhurst.com or you can watch it for 2-800-PLAY-K.
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