The Houthi Threat: Why Saudi Arabia’s Truce Strategy Failed

Saudi Arabia tried to avoid war with Iran's Houthi proxies, now its airports are under deadly missile attack, and the kingdom may be paying the price for a catastrophic miscalculation. Meira K exposes the decades-long conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Houthis, revealing how Iranian weapons, Western pressure and years of failed truces helped turn a regional militia into a major threat to the Middle East and global shipping. She examines why Saudi Arabia's strategy of appeasement has backfired and why Riyadh is now reportedly seeking Israeli assistance against the very enemy it hoped to contain. With President Trump reportedly calling off strikes even as American bombers were being prepared, Meira argues that Saudi Arabia is confronting the same painful lesson Israel learned on October 7: giving radical enemies more time doesn't guarantee peace, but it may give them time to prepare their next attack. Could the latest Houthi assault finally push Saudi Arabia to change course and trigger a much bigger confrontation with Iran?