Analysis: Saudis Complicate Perilous Mideast

BEIRUT — The meltdown in Yemen is pushing the Middle East dangerously closer toward the wider regional conflagration many long have feared would arise from the chaos unleashed by the Arab Spring revolts. What began as a peaceful struggle to unseat a Tunisian dictator four years ago and then mutated into civil strife now risks spiraling into a full-blown war between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran over a country that lies at the choke point of one of the world’s major oil supply routes. With negotiators chasing a a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program, it seems unlikely that Iran would immediately respond militarily to this week’s Saudi airstrikes in Yemen, analysts say. But the confrontation has added a new layer of unpredictability – and confusion – to the many, multidimensional conflicts that have turned large swathes of the Middle East into war zones over the past four years, analysts say. The United States is aligned alongside Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and against them in Yemen.