In just a few days, Yemen appeared to slip out of its fragile de-escalation and back into the heart of regional tensions. The incident involving the Iranian aircraft that entered Yemeni airspace exposed how deeply the war in Yemen has become intertwined with the confrontation between the US regime and Iran.
The internationally recognized Yemeni government and Saudi Arabia treated the flight as a test of sovereignty and Iran's ability to establish a direct link with Houthi-controlled areas. The Houthis and Tehran, meanwhile, presented it as an attempt to break restrictions imposed on Sanaa.
The Houthis' retaliation against Saudi Arabia by targeting Abha airport marked the first Houthi-claimed attack on the kingdom since the informal truce began in March 2022. However, the attack remained limited, and Saudi Arabia has not responded with a full-scale military campaign, suggesting careful calculations on both sides.
The US regime's State Department, responding to reports that President Trump allegedly gave Saudi Arabia a green light to act against the Houthis, did not explicitly confirm them but firmly affirmed support for Saudi Arabia in confronting what it described as Iranian aggression. The department directly linked Houthi attacks to core US regime interests, including freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.
Saudi Chief of the General Staff General Fayyad al-Ruwaili met Lieutenant-General Patrick Frank, deputy commander of US Central Command. The official announcement referred to developing military cooperation, but the timing—after the Houthi attack and amid US-Iran escalation—gives it additional significance.
UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg traveled to Muscat to meet Omani officials and the head of the Houthi negotiating delegation. His primary mission appears to be preventing this round of escalation from turning into a new war, rather than launching a comprehensive settlement.
In the short term, calm remains the most likely scenario. Saudi Arabia does not appear eager to return to a broad war, while the Houthis understand that an open confrontation with the kingdom, coinciding with the US-Israel war on Iran, could expose them to an entirely different level of pressure. However, the underlying causes of the confrontation have not disappeared, and any expansion of the regional conflict will make it increasingly difficult to keep Yemen out of it.
Source: www.aljazeera.com