in yemen the u.s. helped saudi arabia launch air strikes against iran-backed rebels all in a single day. nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel reports. reporter: saudi arabia has long been known forgetting washington to fight its battles. not this time. these saudi fighter jets are on their way to attack rebel positions in yemen, targeting weapons depots, a command center, and aircraft used by the rebels who have been trying to overthrow the government. the rebels called houthis now control large parts of yemen. they re backed by iran. to fight them saudi arabia says it s bombing with 100 jets imposing a no-fly zone and mobilizing 150,000 ground troops. no invasion yet, but that s clearly an option. the saudi coalition of ten muslim nations includes jordan and egypt which reportedly sent warships to defend the yemeni coast and offered to send ground
be done next week. exactly. exactly. we ve already seen puts pressure on them. we haven t seen iran step up in a national way to try to back the houthis. they are backed by iran militia backed by iran but not it s not like the iranians are sending ground forces there. they seem to be indicating that they re not going to. one of the things that s important to iran right now is getting the nuclear deal done. right. and you have the u.s. foreign minister and the iranian foreign minister meeting today. to keep score here. iran, with are with them in iraq against them in yemen, with them and against them in syria, have i got it right? that s essentially right. the question is and we re making ann answer all of these questions. if you talk to folks at the white house in the simplest form, probably two things they will make the argument. one is that we all have an interest in a more stable
iran which would see iran put brakes on the nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions. while we are negotiating in one country, we are fighting or supporting a fight against iran in yemen, the fight that s now led by saudi arabia. we are fighting both with and against iran in syria and fighting with iran in iraq. so there are many people who i have spoken to many in the military, many policy analysts who say what we are seeing here is incoherent policy regarding not just iran but regarding the middle east in general. it is tough to keep track. richard, let s talk about this. when it comes to diplomacy and the challenge with secretary of state kerry trying to hammer out a deal with iran before the deadline next tuesday. how does that come into play as far as disrupting negotiations there? reporter: well, if you look
coming up it is not a family affair for republican senator rand paul. why ron paul supporters are defecting from the likely 2016 candidate. and there is no end in sight for the unrest in yemen. how the crisis could send oil prices soaring. keep it right here on morning joe. the volkswagen jetta is really fun-to-drive. go for it. okay. wow. woohoo! i m dreaming. pinch me. no, not while you re driving. and, right now, you can get a one-thousand-dollar volkswagen credit bonus on jetta models. seriously, pinch me. it s not a dream. ow! it s the volkswagen stop dreaming, start driving event. stop dreaming, and test-drive one today. hurry in and you can get 0% apr plus a $1000 volkswagen credit bonus on 2015 jetta and passat models.
the cia. phil good to see you. looks like iranian development involvement here runs pretty deep. if you were still with the cia, how concerned would you be about the iranians being involved in these operations especially in the leadership role they re playing? you ve got to be concerned because going back years after the iranian revolution in 1979 when we have seen power vacuums across the middle east lebanon, fast forwarding to iraq remember we talked about the houthis, backed by iran in yemen. bh when there is a power vacuum the iranians will move in. in this case you have a country on their border that is two-thirds shia. we forget that. not surprising the vacuum after the u.s. departure the iranians are there in force. what can we expect? the bottom line is look i understand the iranians are state sponsor of terror but if isis is this enemy and the other arab countries, saudi arabia uae, qatar, aren t stepping up and sending in troops and the