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Been the most successful franchise. if isis is able to make inroads there and take away recruits and support from the al qaeda fill, it could mean death to affiliate. >> in the chaos yemen has avoided the vicious sectarian violence that we've seen if iraq and syria. you lived there for a year many years ago. how do you think that until this moment it has avoided that? >> well the shiite offshootute shoot the is a -- offshoot is a moderate group. the shia/sunni divide is much nay ohher in yemen than it is in those country. >> if the situation in yemen continues to deteriorate the sphere that we...

From the pentagon. martin dempsey told the senate foreign relations committee wednesday that the u.s. is concerned about what iran will do down the road in exchange for its help against isis now. >> iran is going to be influence in iraq. has been influential in iraq. i am concerned about the way they wield that influence. they can wield it to promote a better iraq economically for example. there are ways they can wield that to create a state where the sunni and kurds are no longer welcome. >> let's bring in cnn's ian lee. iran has a great interest in iraq and the help in the shi'ite militias a...

Iran is essentially, has its proxies on the ground, and the sunnis are going to say, we're going to defend tikrit, and anbar province. and this is the shia/sunni divide you were talking about, which is worsening by the day. >> if you're a sunni sitting in tikrit, and you suddenly see this iranian force, this death squad coming in -- >> you are suspect. but i would contend that the shia/sunni divide is not what we're all making it. in that area of the country, in the north, there have been kurds, shias, sunnis, living together under saddam hussein for a very long time. it is not that much -- it...

This brings this old topic which is, are these ancient hatreds or are they modern politicians who are exploiting these divides? the shia/sunni divide goes back to the 7th century. is that what is at the root here? >> no. very simply no. you had people converting from shia to sunni, in iraq in the early 20th century. intermarriage all over iraq, all over lebanon. i challenge anybody to find an instance from the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century where sectarianism is the primary divide in any one of these societies where sunnis and shias live together. >> what turns it on? >> one of the ...

>> they're trying to hand out the goodies. they're looking at bahrain. they have a shi'ite/sunni divide. the sunnis control bahrain. 70% of the population is shi'ite. they have pretty good jobs, but they're protesting, because they want a bigger stake in it. the saudis are saying, why don't we have a similar problem? shi'ites will want a bigger role. who are they? friends of iran. iran, shi'ite and persia. saudi arabia, arab and sunni. so that look at it as a proxy fight. megyn: if those are the stakes, proxy fight, if we see the protests this week and we know that our saudi allies are looking...