According to veteran Israeli diplomat and security expert Dore Gold, Iran has embarked on a calculated plan to help its Houthi allies in Yemen seize and consolidate power, enabling Tehran and its allies to exercise strategic control over one of the world's most critical waterways.

Gold writes on Facebook that, according to his Yemeni sources, Tehran has:

• Hosted 5,000 Yemeni Shiites in seminaries in the holy city of Qom and financed their indoctrination in radical ideology.
• Developed a community of supporters in the strategic region of Yemen bordering Tehran's archrival, Saudi Arabia.
• Sent massive quantities of arms to Shiite radicals looking to seize power in Yemen.
• Positioned its "Yemeni surrogate forces on the narrow Bab el-Mandeb [Strait], a choke point through which international maritime trade — including 4 million barrels of oil per day — passes between Europe and Asia."

Gold notes that Tehran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, located off the Iranian coast in the Persian Gulf.

By exercising control of Yemen "and threatening another of the world's vital sea lanes, Iran will be able to manipulate the price of oil and what we all pay at the pump," he writes, noting that this "is the same Iran that world powers are prepared to recognize as a nuclear threshold state."

Gold's Facebook page includes a photograph from Yemen of men holding up a banner showing Houthi leaders alongside the late Ayatollah Khomeini and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Related Stories:

• Gen. Paul Vallely: Iran Fighting Proxy War in Yemen
• Saudi Fears Over Iran Could Trigger Ground War in Yemen