Tit-for-tat attacks between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Houthis are escalating, threatening a four-year truce and adding to pressure on energy markets already strained by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Tit-for-tat attacks between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels are escalating, raising the risk that a fragile truce in place for four years could unravel. The Houthis had already claimed strikes on Saudi Aramco facilities in Jizan and Yanbu, though Riyadh had not confirmed those reported attacks at the time, leaving the claims unverified. A broader return to war between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed militant group would add pressure to global energy markets already strained by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Tehran's retaliatory chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, while also threatening catastrophic humanitarian consequences in Yemen, where famine intensified at the height of the civil war.