Cairo, Sep 16: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince sought backing Tuesday from the president of Egypt, his ally across the Red Sea, as the kingdom faces increased attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Saudi shipping and infrastructure that have helped drive a surge in global oil prices.
Saudi Arabia has largely been on its own in confronting the Iranian-backed rebels, who rapidly captured more territory in Yemen over the past week and strengthened their ability to choke off Saudi oil exports out of the Red Sea.
The vulnerability of the kingdom’s oil production was further underscored by an attack days ago that damaged its biggest pipeline. The strike was reportedly carried out by Iran’s allied militias in Iraq. It means the East-West Pipeline will be largely shut down for weeks as it is repaired, regional officials say, likely taking several million barrels of oil a day off the market.
The Houthi offensive has opened up a new front in the Mideast’s war and boosted the hand of Iran, Saudi Arabia’s traditional archrival in the region, which has attacked shipping through the region’s other major maritime route, the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. The crown prince said in a statement that they both confirmed “their shared commitment to ensuring freedom and security of maritime navigation” in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the choke point at the sea’s southern end. El-Sissi’s office put out a statement expressing “Egypt’s unwavering position in supporting Saudi Arabia.”
Neither side gave firm details on any future steps. While Egypt is unlikely to offer military help to Saudi Arabia, the country is influential in the Arab world and can help rally support. Egypt has been at the center of mediation efforts in the last three years of turmoil in the region, keeping open relations with all parties, including Iran and its allies.
The kingdom looks for support as it faces tough choices
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In recent days, Houthi fighters made dramatic advances, seizing the Red Sea port of Mokha and three strategic islands in and near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The gains have further improved the Houthis’ position to seal off the strait to Saudi shipping, which they have been attacking since late July. Bab el-Mandeb connects the Red Sea to the open ocean and, from there, to Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil customers in Asia.
Saudi Arabia has so far seemed reluctant to unleash a major military campaign against the Houthis, wary of bringing greater Houthi attacks on its oil infrastructure and being dragged back into an all-out civil war in Yemen, its southern neighbor.
But as Houthi attacks continue, the kingdom faces a potential decision about whether to step up its military response or seek a diplomatic solution.
Saudi military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki said its air defense forces intercepted and destroyed a drone Tuesday evening before it entered the airspace over Mecca, Islam’s holiest city and a focal point for followers of the faith. It’s the birthplace of Prophet Muhammad, where Muslims believe he first received God’s revelations of the Quran, and the location of the Kaaba, the black, cube-shaped structure that Muslims around the world turn to five times a day when praying.
The security of the holy city is “a red line,” he said, adding that Saudi forces will not hesitate to act against “hostile and terrorist behavior.”
The Saudis’ most essential ally, the United States, has been unpredictable and sometimes unreliable. U.S. President Donald Trump seems reluctant to widen an already unpopular and stalemated Mideast war ahead of congressional elections. The United Arab Emirates, previously a partner in the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis, has withdrawn from the war after conflicts between its allies in Yemen and Saudi Arabia’s.
Yemen’s U.N. Ambassador Abdullah Al-Saadi told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that Yemen’s armed forces are regrouping and regaining control but called for a U.N. arms embargo against the Houthis to be enforced and the council to condemn the escalation.
He asked “whether the international community will accept for one of the world’s most important gateways for trade and energy to become a blackmail card in the hands of a transnational terrorist group.”
Egypt has been hurt as well by the Houthi campaign
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Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping during the war in Gaza led to a decrease in traffic through the Suez Canal, gouging Egypt’s revenues. During the Iran war, Saudi Arabia redirected its oil exports through the Red Sea, much of it going through the Suez Canal or through an Egyptian pipeline from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. But the shutdown of the East-West Pipeline is likely to greatly reduce or end those shipments for weeks.
There are limits to the help Egypt can give.
“I don’t think MBS wants troops from Cairo, which he knows would be a very difficult ask,” said analyst H.A. Hellyer, using the crown prince’s initials.
Instead, Cairo can give the Saudis political backing among Arab nations for whatever steps they take against the Houthis, said Hellyer, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
“There’s genuine international consensus that the Houthis cannot be allowed to hold a choke point like Bab el-Mandeb hostage,” Hellyer said. But some nations are wary about working with Saudi Arabia because of past experience in Yemen.
The coalition that Prince Mohammed first put together to fight the Houthis in 2015 largely fell apart years ago because of infighting and factionalism.
“MBS is keenly aware of this and will be trying to make it clear there is a much better plan for going forward,” Hellyer said. “It just depends on how many are convinced.”
The fighting is pushing Yemen back into civil war
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The Houthi advances have dealt heavy defeats to Saudi allies in Yemen, including its internationally recognized government, and revived a war that had largely gone quiet under a 2022 truce.
Fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed forces has killed more than 500 people in the last week alone, up from nearly 200 the week before, the World Health Organization said. The fighting has also displaced nearly 94,000 people.
Save the Children said at least 117 civilians were killed between Aug. 1 and Sept. 9, including 19 children. In the first week of September, 43 children were killed or wounded, the highest weekly casualty toll recorded by the group in a year, it said.
“Children are once again paying the highest price for some of the most severe violence the country has seen in years,” said the agency’s Yemen director, Rishana Haniffa.
Anees al Asbahi, a spokesperson for the Houthi-run Health Ministry, said Tuesday that Saudi airstrikes killed three people, including two children, in Yemen’s Taiz province. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claim.
The Houthis hold the capital, Sanaa, and the north and west of Yemen, where most of its population lives. The government and its allies — a mix of militias — hold the south and east, including the biggest port, Aden, and Yemen’s oil fields.
Saudi Arabia led an aerial bombing campaign for years against the Houthis beginning in 2015, but its allies made little progress on the ground. The conflict killed an estimated 150,000 people and at times pushed Yemen to the brink of famine. (AP)
