Saudi Arabia is seeking to contain its renewed conflict with Yemen’s Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, through diplomacy, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, amid a new Yemeni blockade targeting shipping on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast.
The report said that Saudi Arabia has held talks with Ansar Allah through Omani mediators but is still preparing military options if diplomacy fails. The Guardian reported last week that Riyadh was preparing for a major escalation, which could potentially include a ground offensive.
The conflict between the Saudis and the Houthis reignited last month when Saudi Arabia bombed the Sanaa International Airport to prevent a plane from landing that took off from Iran. The plane was carrying a Yemeni delegation that had attended the funeral of Ayatollah Khamenei and safely landed in the Yemeni Red Sea port city of Hodeidah following the Saudi strikes in Sanaa. US officials have claimed that the plane was also carrying weapons and IRGC advisors.
Ansar Allah announced a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia following the strikes on the Sanaa airport, calling the policy a “blockade for a blockade.” The US-backed Saudi/UAE war against Ansar Allah from 2015 to 2022 involved a blockade on Yemen’s sea ports and airports, and while it was eased following a 2022 ceasefire, it was never fully lifted.
The Bloomberg report said that in the talks with the Saudis, Ansar Allah is seeking a lifting of all restrictions on the entrance of goods and people in the areas under its control, which is where the majority of Yemenis live. The report also said that Ansar Allah is seeking payment for Yemeni civil workers.
The payment of civil workers in northern Yemen was supposed to take place as part of the first phase of a peace deal negotiated in 2023, but it was never implemented. US sanctions imposed on Ansar Allah, specifically the re-designation of the group as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” blocked the payments as part of punishment from the Biden administration over Yemeni attacks on Israeli-linked shipping, a response to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
The report from Bloomberg on Tuesday said that Saudi Arabia wants to respond to Ansar Allah’s blockade and attack without getting sucked back into the war. It also said that the US was discouraging Saudi Arabia from launching a major military retaliation over concerns it would lead to the total closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, though President Trump did give the green light for strikes in Yemen before the Saudi attack on the Sanaa International Airport.
In the meantime, Ansar Allah continues its attacks on Saudi Arabia, announcing on Tuesday that its forces targeted an airport in southern Saudi Arabia.
