NEW DELHI: As Houthis intensified their attacks on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia this month, Saudis turned first to the US, their defence shield for decades, and then, more interestingly, to China.
This kind of attack is unprecedented for the Kingdom. These are not attacks launched merely to unmask or to signal Saudi vulnerability. They have impacted the country’s economic lifeline by targeting critical energy facilities.
The main artery for Saudi oil exports since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the East-West Petroline, is now shut. The Houthis have even struck the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in an unprecedented attack. No doubt what further emboldened the Houthis is the knowledge that the decades-long war that Saudi forces waged against the Houthis starting in 2014 ended in a stalemate, requiring the UN to broker a fragile peace in 2022.
Meanwhile, even as the Houthis strike the Saudis, they have continued to gain more Yemeni territory, which includes much of Yemen’s Red Sea coast from government-aligned forces.
The control of Mocha and other strategic cities gives the group control over the Bab al-Mandab Strait, another key shipping lane through which 10% of all global maritime traffic passes and which has become exponentially important as the Strait of Hormuz remains dysfunctional.
The Houthis are now trying to take over the Kaboub mountains, which would give them a strategic vantage point over the Red Sea coast. This advantage in asymmetrical warfare to the group, heavily backed by Iran, gives the latter added leverage in the current war, one of whose initial supporters has been Saudi Arabia.
In this scenario, the Mecca Pact that was signed with such flourish in Islam’s holiest city, meant to protect the Kingdom from such attacks, has been content only with condemnations of Houthi actions. And US President Donald Trump, after reportedly initially agreeing to strike the Houthis last weekend, dismissed any such action, preferring to enter into talks with the group instead.
The main reason ascribed to his U-turn was that American troops were overstretched with the war in Iran. But it would also make ample sense to squeeze out crude from global markets at such a moment when supply is already strained, leading to both demand and price surges at a time when the US is flush with Venezuelan oil and wants to sell it in global markets. It may also push the Saudis towards Israel, something the Trump administration had been working on for a long time. But the Saudis have so far steered clear of such a course.
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