The War Is Spreading: What the Houthi Front Means for the Region

Amid the ongoing US–Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the emergence of a Saudi-Houthi confrontation has added a new layer of complexity to the Middle Eastern conflict, with the potential to widen and prolong the war while drawing additional regional actors into an increasingly broader confrontation.

A New Front, A Wider War

The recent US refusal to the Saudi request to launch airstrikes against Houthis, after their capture of strategic points in Yemen, improving their ability to access the significant Bab el-Mandeb Strait, is one of the prime examples of prudent strategic thinking and policymaking. By this refusal, the United States seems to have avoided embroiling itself in a war it did not need to be in. However, if the US policymakers ever had this prudence and sanity, Washington would arguably not have initiated military action against Iran in the first place. So, another possibility is that the USA did not want to use its military resources against the Houthis because they might be needed later in the conflict with Iran. The issue, therefore, may not have been a lack of capability, but a reluctance to commit forces that could become important elsewhere.

Similarly, there could be a possibility that some of the US policymakers and commanders might have recalled the US experience in the so-called War on Terror against the Afghan Taliban. The Houthis have some resemblance to the Taliban, especially in their mode of warfare and their........

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