Farea Al-Muslimi

That's the BBC's Ugo Bochega there.

Well, earlier I spoke to Farea Al-Muslimi.

He's a research fellow and, uh, the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, um, a global affairs think tank here in London.

And I asked him how the Houthis, which started out as a fairly small rebel militia not that many years ago, uh, was now able to mount sustained attacks on a country like Saudi Arabia.

I won't be surprised if I see them move ahead further to attack Saudi borders and try to gain territory inside Saudi Arabia just even for the sake of YouTube.

So I do not believe we have seen yet what the Houthis are capable of and how far they're willing to go.

Farea Al-Muslimi, their research fellow at Chatham House.

[upbeat music] Now, there were some hopes that there were moves towards an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine at the weekend as declared on social media by President Trump.

"I think history tells us that this military conflict, whoever starts it, is a disaster for the people of Yemen, for the region, and for the United States." Analysts said the attacks on Riyadh in recent days would make it more likely that the Saudi government would intensify its bombing campaign in Yemen.

"The latest attack just gives them more international support for any military operation they would do against the Houthis," said Farea al-Muslimi, a Yemen specialist at Chatham House, a London-based research group.

President Trump has rebuffed Saudi government requests to direct American airstrikes, but more than two hundred US intelligence and military analysts are assisting the Saudi government in command centers inside the kingdom, helping to analyze and select targets in support of its Yemeni allies, according to one current and one former US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.

The United States is also providing aerial refueling for Saudi warplanes conducting defensive air patrols, they added.