How Saudi Arabia's Anti-Houthi Strategy Crashed and Burned

How Saudi Arabia's anti-Houthi strategy crashed and burned

For a decade, Saudi Arabia’s Yemen policy has rested on the assumption that time, money and coercive force, patiently and strategically applied, would eventually produce enough leverage to subdue the Houthis, or at least force them into a settlement on Riyadh’s terms.Over the last two weeks, that assumption has been tested more severely than at any point since 2015, when Saudi Arabia initially launched its military intervention to roll back Hout…

Houthi Gains Along the Red Sea Complicate Saudi Arabia’s Yemen Strategy

Samir Al-Sabri, the deputy defense minister in Yemen's Internationally Recognized Government (IRG), declared on Sept. 7 that "the decision has been taken" to capture the capital, Sana’a, from the Houthis. Just days later, pro-government forces largely lost all territory along Yemen’s western Red Sea coast in a massive setback for the pro-government camp. As a result, the Houthis and their Iranian allies have tilted the regional balance of power …