Between America’s secret moves and Saudi attempts to drag the region… Who will pay the price first in Yemen?

The Yemen file returns to the forefront globally, having activated the most dangerous card in the Middle East. However, unlike other regional files, Yemen emerges as more complex in light of the military and geopolitical gains it has achieved in recent years. So, how does the scene appear, and where is the situation heading?

Exclusive – Al-Khabar Al-Yemeni:

For two weeks, the Yemeni forces have been imposing a total ban on Saudi navigation through its most important passages in Bab Al-Mandeb. They have targeted several Saudi oil tankers, all within Saudi territorial waters, escalated operations in the depth by striking important oil facilities along both the western and eastern coasts of the Kingdom, and rearranged the situation in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the point that their adversaries now fear their decision to impose fees, an indication of their conviction that they have imposed full control over the vital strait.

Regardless of the Yemeni operations, which have maintained a significant record in the conduct of operations by land and sea, whether in confronting Israel in support of Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, or in confronting American and Western fleets, their adversaries in Riyadh and Washington face a new burden that no one dares to confront alone.

For Saudi Arabia, it has tried through bombing Sana’a Airport or Hodeidah Port, but it has received painful strikes that it has been unable even to scream in pain from, preferring to flee to other fronts, most notably Iraq. Faced with what Saudi Arabia is suffering from due to the Yemeni escalatory steps, Riyadh is trying to find solutions or treatments to avoid a new reality that is beginning to take shape in its surroundings and threatens its entity in the future. However, unlike every time Saudi Arabia tries to show off, it is now looking for a regional or international coalition, sometimes by including more countries in mediation and others by pressuring economically or geopolitically to force powers to engage.

Although Saudi Arabia’s chances of dragging more countries, including Arab and even Gulf states, into the quagmire of its war in Yemen are dwindling in light of the results of the 17-nation coalition it launched in March 2015 and the subsequent American, British, and Western coalitions, it is trying to impose them diplomatically and militarily in the hope of finding a window to exit its new quagmire.

Among Saudi Arabia’s attempts to escape the predicament is clinging to the American straw, throwing its full weight into convincing its major ally to take over the file. However, the US administration, burdened by defeats from months of confrontations in the Red Sea, doesn’t seem to want to incur a new loss. To maintain the ties of the existing relationship based on pumping, Washington tries to drag Saudi Arabia into the Yemeni quagmire, sometimes by advising it to form new coalitions and at other times by supporting its factions in Yemen, which have previously failed to maintain their positions despite unlimited Saudi support in recent years.

America and Saudi Arabia may be trying to play cards without bearing the consequences and costs of war, but indicators confirm that those parties no longer have strong cards that can impose an equation on the ground, in the air, or at sea, as the Yemeni forces have completely changed the equations.