The Yemen Trap: How Saudi Arabia Lost to the Houthis – and Why It Now Needs the World’s Help

After spending a decade trying to defeat the Houthis through military intervention, Saudi Arabia is now asking the world to confront a movement that emerged from that war stronger than ever.

From Saudi Arabia’s War to the World’s Problem

On the surface, the proposal appears logical. Nearly 15 percent of global seaborne trade passes through the Red Sea, making freedom of navigation an international concern rather than a regional one. Since late 2023, Houthi attacks on commercial vessels have disrupted shipping routes, increased insurance premiums, and forced many companies to reroute vessels around the Cape of Good Hope. The economic costs have been felt well beyond the Middle East, affecting global supply chains and energy markets.

Yet the significance of Saudi Arabia’s proposal lies less in the coalition itself than in what it reveals about the kingdom’s reassessment of its own strategy. For nearly a decade, Riyadh insisted that the Houthi challenge could be addressed through a Saudi-led military campaign. Today, it argues that the same challenge requires collective international action. This is more than a policy adjustment; it is an implicit acknowledgment that the Houthis have evolved into a threat whose scale exceeds what Saudi Arabia can—or wishes to—manage alone.

Ironically, the Houthis’ transformation into a regional strategic actor cannot be separated from the war that Saudi Arabia itself helped shape. When Riyadh launched Operation Decisive Storm in March 2015, its objective was straightforward: restore the government of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and roll back Houthi territorial gains. Instead, after years of intensive airstrikes, blockades, and support for anti-Houthi Yemeni factions, the movement not only survived but consolidated control over much of northern Yemen. Numerous assessments, including those by the International Crisis Group and the United Nations, have concluded that the........

© New Eastern Outlook