Washington Post: Saudi Arabia Can’t Find its Way Out of Yemen’s Messy War

 

Local Editor

Some eight months into the deadly Saudi war against Yemen, the Riyadh regime now seems stuck in a quagmire, without a clear strategy to end the costly military campaign in "a face-saving way", according to a report published by The Washington Post on Friday. 

The report by Washington Post outlined the economic and political challenges facing the Al Saud family due to the war it has waged against Yemen, as well as mounting pressure on Riyadh even by some of its own allies due to the high number of civilian casualties caused in the aggression.

"This war is draining the Saudis militarily, politically, strategically", the Post quoted a Yemen analyst at the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center, Farea al-Muslimi, as saying. "The problem is they’re stuck there". 

Since March 26, Saudi Arabia has been involved in a military aggression against Yemen supposedly with the aim of weakening the country’s Ansarullah movement and returning the government of fugitive former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, its close ally, to power. The airstrikes have not been authorized by the United Nations [UN].

 

 

Referring to a growing rift in the coalition of mostly Persian Gulf monarchies that are assisting Saudi Arabia in the aggression on Yemen, the report said that the aggressors appear "unable to find a face-saving way to end the costly conflict".

According to the report, the protracted Saudi war which has led to thousands of civilian deaths so far has drawn an outcry from numerous international human rights bodies, making it difficult for Riyadh’s long-time allies including the US and the UK to keep up their support for the Saudi regime in the military aggression.

 

The Post report said that Egypt and Pakistan have also let down Saudi requests for the dispatch of troops to help Riyadh’s military and the pro-Hadi militias on the battleground against the Yemeni army, backed by Ansarullah fighters and Popular Committees.

 

The war has caused even more headaches for Riyadh, the report said, pointing to dissent within the House of Saud.

It said that Riyadh’s offensive "has intensified apparent power struggles within the secretive and opaque royal family", with new Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud receiving letters from the royals critical of the war’s economic burdens on the kingdom, which is already suffering from low oil prices.

 

 

"It’s all somewhat murky, of course, but the war is generating this competition for power", a Middle East analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Center, Yezid Sayigh, said. 

The power struggle among Saudi royals came to the surface after the death of former King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, which put Salman at the helm in the kingdom early this year [2015].

Shortly after his rise to power, Salman rattled the kingdom with shake-ups, including with the appointment of his son Prince Mohammad bin Salman to deputy crown prince and defense minister, a position that placed the 30-year-old in charge of the kingdom’s aggression on Yemen.

 

Meanwhile, Yemeni forces continue to defend their country in the face of Saudi attacks, as foreign troops and allied pro-Hadi militias operating on the ground are unable to make any gains and appear to be mired in back-and-forth battles, according to the Post report.