Saudi diplomat and former intelligence chief Turki al-Faisal recently lamented the weak response by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden and the greater West to Yemen’s Houthi terrorists disrupting commercial shipping in the Red Sea, the Guardian reported on Sunday, dismissing “pinprick bombings” as insufficient.
The British Guardian newspaper was relaying comments that al-Faisal made during an appearance at London’s Chatham House to discuss the current turmoil in the Middle East. The Houthi terrorist movement, which relies heavily on support from Saudi Arabia’s longtime geopolitical rival Iran, has dramatically expanded its international profile in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas massacre of hundreds of civilians in Israel.
Following the attack, the Houthis declared war on Israel and proclaimed they would attack all commercial ships transiting through the Red Sea that they deemed to be affiliated with Israel. The result has been dozens of attacks, including some deadly ones and two ship sinkings, on a seemingly random assortment of ships that has included some affiliated with Houthi allies such as China and Iran.
Global shipping companies have loudly complained that the international community should do more to protect global commerce as the Houthi campaign has caused shipping and insurance rates to skyrocket. The main response to that call has been “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” a Pentagon-led global operation allegedly intended to protect civilian ships attempting to transit through the Red Sea. Debuting in December, the operation had few named partners relevant to the Red Sea, and it is unclear if any meaningful defense work has been conducted under its banner, leaving shipping industry leaders feeling largely abandoned to the Houthi threat.
Outside of “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” Biden has greenlit some limited attacks on Houthi military targets — strikes that al-Faisal reportedly dismissed as making little difference in the security situation of the region.
“We have seen the deployment of European and US fleets along the Red Sea coast and more can be done there to interdict the supply of weaponry that comes to the Houthis from Iran,” the Guardian quoted al-Faisal as saying. “Putting pressure on Iran by the world community can have a positive impact on what the Houthis can do in launching these missiles and drones to hit international commerce.”
The Saudi diplomat lamented that “pinprick bombings” by American and British forces have had a minimal effect on the situation in the Red Sea. He also condemned Iran, however, for doing nothing to stop the Houthis from disrupting global trade. The Houthis, known formally as Ansarallah, could find their operations severely limited if resources from Tehran dried up.
“The Houthis now hold the world as hostage in the Bab al-Mandab entrance to the Red Sea, and yet Iran is not showing that it can do something there if it wanted to,” al-Faisal said, “and the kingdom [Saudi Arabia] would have expected Iran to be more forthcoming in showing not just to us but to others that it can be a positive factor in securing stability and removing differences not just with Saudi Arabia but the rest of us.”
Saudi Arabia conducted a military operation against the Houthis in Yemen for years, following the Houthi conquest of the Yemeni capital Sana’a in 2014 that led to the ongoing civil war. Riyadh supports the legitimate government of Yemen against the Ansarallah, which now claims to be the government of the country. That operation resulted in the Houthis orchestrating significant terrorist assaults within Saudi territory, including bombing key oil facilities.
While the Saudi government counted on firm support from the United States under former President Donald Trump, that support dried up under successor Joe Biden. Biden outraged the Saudi government with several measures including removing the Houthis from the State Department’s list of designated foreign terrorist organizations and halting the sale of offensive weapons to the Saudi military in response to alleged Saudi human rights abuses in Yemen. Following the launch of the Houthi campaign against commercial shipping in Saudi Arabia, Biden told reporters that delisting the Houthis — allowing them significantly amplified opportunities for global funding — was “irrelevant.”
As the Iranian regime supported the Houthis through their war with Saudi Arabia, the situation placed the two countries in a proxy war situation that severely jeopardized the already volatile situation in the Middle East. The Chinese communist regime, looking for ways to expand its influence in the Middle East, ultimately brokered a tenuous deal between Tehran and Riyadh to restore diplomatic relations in March 2023 that led to a ceasefire agreement between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in September of that year.
In his remarks on Friday, al-Faisal suggested that, by allowing the Houthi campaign against global commerce to persist, the Iranian government had brokered the provisions of the China normalization deal.
The sentiment appears to have been heard in Iran, as President Masoud Pezeshkian addressed relations with Saudi Arabia during a press conference on Monday. Pezeshkian, a so-called “moderate,” was inaugurated into the presidency on July 31 after a special election following the death of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a mysterious helicopter crash in May. His inauguration was largely overshadowed by the assassination of Hamas “political” chief Ismail Haniyeh while in Iran to attend the event.
“We are brothers, so there is no place for hostility,” Pezeshkian reportedly said of the Saudis during his press conference on Monday. “I welcome any move that can solve the differences between Muslims.”
The Iranian president also denied that his country was arming the Houthis with missiles used to target Israel. Houthi terrorists fired a surface-to-surface missile hitting Israel on Sunday, an unprecedented attack that wounded five Israelis.