GOP senators warn: ‘Middle East is on fire’

Senior Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are warning that the deteriorating security situation in Yemen could engulf the entire region in war.

“We’re on the verge of a full scale proxy war in Yemen between Iran and Sunni Arab states that could spill over into Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, Libya, Lebanon, Jordan,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said during a Capitol Hill press conference.

{mosads}“The Middle East is on fire, and it is every person for themselves,” he added.

Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Saudi Arabia and other Arab states launching airstrikes in the war-torn nation “signals the reality that the countries in the region no longer have confidence or are no longer willing to work with the United States of America.”

He said he was not surprised that nations decided to take action because their leaders believe the U.S. is “forming some kind of Faustian bargain” with Iran over Tehran’s nuclear efforts.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said Iran is seeking “regional dominance,” particularly in Bahrain where the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet it anchored.

The lawmakers’ dire predictions came after a Saudi Arabian-led coalition on Wednesday began airstrikes in Yemen against Houthi rebels who drove President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi from the capital and his hometown of Aden.

The U.S. is backing those strikes and Hadi has reportedly arrived in Saudi Arabia to seek asylum.

The violence has led to criticism of the Obama administration’s foreign policy. Administration officials long touted Yemen as a counterterrorism success story, citing its government’s help fighting terror groups and accepting detainees from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

McCain said Riyadh and its allies “did the right thing” by intervening because if Yemen were to fall it could choke off oil exports from the region.

But he predicted that the “conflict will probably escalate.”

McCain said the administration could provide additional support by sharing intelligences and giving the countries access to U.S. satellite capabilities.

Graham said the conflict would “invariably” impact the West economically, most likely through higher gas prices.

He said that Washington’s Arab allies in the region are “in the crosshairs of a perfect storm” between radical groups like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the encroachment of Iranian-backed militias.

Some Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), have questioned if the Obama administration is putting the fight against ISIS on the backburner as it pushes for a nuclear deal with Iran.

Graham suggested that Tehran would “push back” against the Saudi-led coalition, possibly by using additional militias and ground forces.

“God help us all,” he said.