Nov 4, 2018

Saudi Arabia has responded to the Trump administration’s call for the end of hostilities in Yemen by ratcheting up the war. The war between the Saudi-led coalition backing President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the Iranian-supported Zaydi Shiite Houthis is a catastrophe for Yemen, the region and the United States, but Riyadh’s leaders do not want to be losers.

Last week Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for the Houthis to stop firing ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia and for the United Arab Emirates and the Saudi coalition to halt air attacks on populated Yemen territory in an effort to lead to UN-hosted negotiations. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said it is time to end the war. Talks about a political solution are supposed to begin in a month.

The administration has promised its support for the UN negotiations with much more coordination and emphasis than ever before. The premeditated murder of Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudis has put the administration under unprecedented pressure to rein in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s reckless and dangerous behavior. The war in Yemen is the crown prince’s signature policy initiative. Congress is ready to take action to curtail America’s involvement in the war after the midterms. A Democratic majority in the House would likely hold hearings on alleged Saudi war crimes and the murder of Khashoggi. The crown prince’s tarnished reputation will be in the docket.

But the Saudis have escalated their airstrikes on Sanaa and Hodeidah instead. The capital and the main port have been heavily pounded by the Saudi coalition since Pompeo and Mattis spoke. For their part, the Iranians have hailed the Houthis' resistance and trumpeted their enhanced ballistic missiles. As Al-Monitor reported, the Iranians are portraying the new Trump administration line on Yemen as a victory for the rebels.

Much diminished in stature abroad by the Khashoggi murder, Prince Mohammed is reluctant to appear to back down in Yemen. His 3½ years of war have cost the kingdom a fortune. The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is a public relations disaster for the House of Saud, and a boon for Iran. Rather than appearing to be the enlightened leader of the Islamic world, the war in Yemen portrays Saudi Arabia and its allies as complicit in mass starvation and malnutrition in the poorest country in the Arab world.