The Houthis are not a democratically-elected government. There is one crucial difference between the war in Ukraine and the war in Yemen. Syria and Iran are the Houthis’ only state allies. It is the first time Assad has been welcomed in an Arab country since the Syrian civil war began in 2011. Last week, Dubai received Syrian President Bashar Assad in an apparent step at rehabilitating the dictator. The Emiratis withdrew the Giants Brigade, a Yemeni militia they fund, from the frontline with the Houthis, effectively caving to their demands. The rebels have not resumed their attacks on the United Arab Emirates, which I wrote about last month. The Saudis have launched almost 25,000 air strikes in seven years while the Houthis have fired fewer than 1,300 missiles and drones in the same period. The Houthi strikes are far fewer than the Saudi air strikes in Yemen. So far the damage has been small, but one shot could injure hundreds of people if it hits a crowded place like an airport lounge or a hotel. Earlier this month they attacked a refinery in the Saudi capital last Sunday they launched a wave of attacks including on oil installations. Most of the targets are in the border area near Yemen, but the Houthis also strike Riyadh and other cities. The Houthis continue to take the war to the Saudis by firing missiles and drones at targets in the kingdom. This impacts on the already weak health and education infrastructure. By one estimate, Yemen is getting only one tenth of the fuel it imported before the war. The blockade also prevents fuel from getting into the country. With the war in Ukraine blocking exports of grain from the two combatants, which together make up a third of global wheat exports, food prices are going up, and the poorest country in the Arab world will suffer. The United Nations estimates 377,000 deaths in seven years, the vast majority from malnutrition and related causes. According to the World Food Program, at least half of Yemeni children under the age of five - 2.3 million people - are at acute risk of malnutrition. Yemen imports most of its food and medicine. The partial Saudi blockade of Yemen has led to a massive humanitarian catastrophe. There are many internally displaced persons, however, who have lost their homes - more than 3.6 million as of December 2020. Unlike Ukrainians, more than 3.6 million of whom have fled the country to neighbors like Poland and Moldova in the past month, few average Yemenis can flee the war to refuge outside the country. They seemed to assume the rebels would be defeated with air power, a badly flawed strategy. As Brennan notes in his memoirs, he wondered what MBS “was smoking.” The Saudi ground forces never even got close to Sana’a. MBS) told then-Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan that the Houthis would be toppled in a matter of a few weeks. In 2015, its architect, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (a.k.a. Like the Russians, the Saudis greatly underestimated their opponents. The Saudi mission was initially code-named Operation Decisive Storm it is anything but decisive. The Saudi intervention in Yemen has many similarities to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center for Middle East Policy, Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology
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