Saudi-backed Yemeni forces repel Houthis from Red Sea

Saudi’s previous war against the Houthis resulted in a yearslong quagmire and devastating humanitarian crisis. Saudi-backed Yemeni forces said Monday they had expelled the Houthis from key areas surrounding the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on the Red Sea following a major counteroffensive. Reclaiming coastal areas seized during the Houthis’ lightning advance last month curtails the rebels’ ability to significantly disrupt energy flows, but the counteroffensive — a hoped-for “ zero hour ” — among some Saudi and Yemeni pundits, could widen the Iran war, further upending energy markets: Saudi Aramco’s chief told the Financial Times that global oil stockpiles are now “ scarily thin.” The kingdom’s previous war against the Houthis resulted in a yearslong quagmire and devastating humanitarian crisis, but former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki Al-Faisal told Arab Views that restraint “ is no longer operable.”