The US isn’t winding down its wars – it’s just running them at arm’s length | Seumas Milne

Barack Obama is playing all sides against each other, but support for the Saudi war in Yemen will only spread conflagration in the Middle East

So relentless has the violence convulsing the Middle East become that an attack on yet another Arab country and its descent into full-scale war barely registers in the rest of the world. That’s how it has been with the onslaught on impoverished Yemen by western-backed Saudi Arabia and a string of other Gulf dictatorships.

Barely two weeks into their bombardment from air and sea, more than 500 have been killed and the Red Cross is warning of a “catastrophe” in the port of Aden. Where half a century ago Yemenis were tortured and killed by British colonial troops, Houthi rebels from the north are now fighting Saudi-backed forces loyal to the ousted President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Up to 40 civilians sheltering at a UN refugee camp in the poorest country in the Arab world were killed in a single Saudi air attack last week.

Related: Somalia lends support to Saudi-led fight against Houthis in Yemen

For the Saudis, Yemen is about enforcing their control of the Arabian peninsula and their leadership of the Sunni world

A tilt towards Iran can be offset with war in Yemen or Syria. Something similar can be seen in Latin America

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