The eruption of violence and political instability in Yemen has put President Barack Obama in a difficult position as he tries to negotiate a historic nuclear deal, while at the same time opposing Shi’ite rebels widely believed to be backed by Tehran.

Why the Chaos in Yemen Could Force Obama to Take a Harder Line with Iran

Greg Jaffe and Missy Ryan – The Washington Post

President Obama has for years stuck to a strategy aimed at keeping the United States from getting pulled into a big regional war between Iran and America’s traditional Arab allies. The net result was a tailored, country-by-country approach to the region’s turmoil that put a priority on nuclear negotiations with Iran and the fight against terrorism. Containing Iranian proxies took a back seat. As chaos and sectarian bloodshed have spread, the White House is facing heavy pressure from its traditional Sunni Arab allies, Congress and some in the U.S. military to confront Iran more forcefully over its support for militant groups. To critics, though, the push to confront Iran has come too late and at far too high a cost to regional stability.

Some columnists painted a more grim picture, convinced that the current violence in part of the Middle East will become ever more complicated.

Decades of Deadly Conflict Will Spread Across the Middle East

Richard N. Haas – Financial Times

The modern Middle East is like 17th-century Europe, enmeshed in violent and costly political and religious struggles within and across borders that could well last for three decades longer. The situation in Yemen, long characterised by poverty and internal divisions along tribal, religious, political and geographic lines, is just the latest in those conflicts. There is now a civil war involving at least three principal actors: remnants of the former Sunni-led government of Abd Rabbuh Hadi; the terrorist group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula; and the Houthis, supported by a segment of Yemen’s population representing a branch of Shia Islam.