While Yemen’s Houthi movement is urging everyone to accept a peace process, Saudi Arabia is looking to further step up the war, launching a new operation against the area around Hodeidah, which is supposed to be off-limits under a previously agreed-to truce.
The home of north Yemen’s last major port, Hodeidah is where materially
all humanitarian aid enters north Yemen, and is how 70% of all food
enters the country. The existing truce was meant to prevent harm to the
port, and keep aid flowing.
This is the first major Saudi attack in Yemen since last weekend’s
Houthi drone strike against Saudi oil refineries. The Saudis never
acknowledged the Houthis were behind this, and rather blamed Iran.
The Houthis warned the new attacks mark a serious escalation and could
pose a major threat to the existing truce. There has been no comment
from other parties to the deal, though the Saudis claimed the Houthis
used the area for remote-controlled boats.
Mohammed Bone-Saw gets the go-ahead from Washington.
You can’t fix stupid.
You can’t trust the Saudis.
Those accustomed to absolute power have issues with accepting defeat or being made to look weak. So they do what they know how to do, they double down. Which means MbS is gonna need some more “persuading”. In any event, he’s in a tough spot, caught between the Houthis and the Saudi royal family. If MbS bdoesn’t back off, the Houthis will be targeting more oil facilities, power plants, desalination plants, or even the palaces of the royal family — the US can’t defend it all, can’t defend any of it against swarm attacks — at which point the royal family will “remove” MbS for his failed leadership.
MBS is digging his grave in Yemen. He apparently needs to learn this lesson the hard way.
As I don’t like to wish ill on anybody, it would be nice if he could just, in some fashion, peacefully step down. But power is, perhaps, more addictive than tobacco or morphine, and I fear he will hold out till the end, and his end will not be pretty.