Al Hudaydah

I mean, look, it, they've had several attacks, maybe 20 attacks on their airport in the last week or so.

Um, they're resuming, uh, airstrikes against Yemen, including, um, in Sana'a and Hudaydah.

But, you know, this is really interesting that it's, and it's totally unraveling the truce that began in 2022.

But the Houthis are demonstrating they can impose substantial economic and security costs on Saudi without really defeating the military.

Uh, they control Yemen's capital of Sanaa, sort of northern Yemen, so the most populated parts of the country actually.

They also control a port called Hudaydah, which is quite strategic on the Red Sea.

Uh, but they've been engaged since around 2014 in a civil war with Yemen's internationally recognized government, which doesn't see their control of Sanaa as valid.

So there's been a, a push-pull.

You know, it is amazing the power he wields of, with his words.

And so yesterday, we can put up, uh, A3, Saudi Arabia hit, you know, significant, uh, oil sites in Yemen, oil depots in both Hodeida and, uh, Sanaa.

And the Houthis had said if, if Saudi Arabia, uh, attacks their oil sites, they're going to hit back at Saudi oil sites.

S- specifically, they threatened Saudi Aramco's headquarters.

You got it.

So I wanted to ask you about the back and forth.

We were talking about that at the beginning of the, the segment here, where, uh, the, the, the, uh, Ansar Allah responded to the Saudi attacks in Hodeidah, um, and Sanaa by attacking Saudi Aramco's, uh, headquarters.

Where would you put the, the...

Is located in the city of Aden, and they didn't have control of that.

They also, of course, like, needed control of certain port cities, Hodeida and of course Aden, Mecca, which we discussed before about the, the areas that they took, Mocha, which they took recently.

And what they're trying to do effectively is to take the lucrative and also politically important remaining parts of Yemen from whatever type of other entity there is within the state.

They have no record for being decent at actually governing any sort of area that they have.

And the fourth point, which is something very important because I think it's in the back head of all Saudi, uh, policymakers with regards to Yemen, one of the biggest issues that happened was beside the SDC foiling, uh, the, the advancements of the Yemeni, uh, government's forces.

The second one was in 2018, the Stockholm Agreement that was pushed, uh, by the international community, specifically Europe, uh, which was, I would call it the original sin, because that original sin actually helped the Houthis to have Al Hudaydah, which is on the Red Sea, to be, uh, uh, basically theirs, where they can actually import weapons from Iran.

And I think one of the reasons I'm optimistic is the fact that the international community realized that Saudi Arabia was right, that they should not have pushed it for an agreement with the Houthis on that regard.

So I'm actually optimistic, but I'm not saying that it's gonna be a simple task.

Saudi Arabia says that it has taken some of the assets that the Houthis have, uh, taken a, a hold of over the past few weeks, namely Maха, which is a main island that is very close to, uh, the, where, where the Houthis are, are based.

This is Hudaydah, of course.

And so it is a deep problem.

They are trying to find solutions around it.