Houthis Strike Back: Saudi Arabia Pays Iran's Bill
The Houthis, who have held significant territory in Yemen for years, are the most battle-hardened of those proxies — and the most willing.
Houthis Strike Back: Saudi Arabia Pays Iran's Bill
Saudi Arabia and the Houthis are at war again. After months of a fragile ceasefire, Houthi forces — backed by Tehran — have resumed strikes against Saudi territory, opening what analysts are now calling a second front in the wider conflict ignited when the United States and Israel attacked Iran. According to the New York Times, the renewed fighting has thrown regional energy markets into fresh uncertainty, with oil traders watching Riyadh's response as closely as they watch the Persian Gulf.
The logic of the escalation is not hard to read. Iran, under sustained military pressure, has activated every proxy available to it. The Houthis, who have held significant territory in Yemen for years, are the most battle-hardened of those proxies — and the most willing. For Saudi Arabia, which spent years and billions trying to suppress the Houthi movement, the resumption of hostilities arrives at a moment of diplomatic exposure: Riyadh had been quietly recalibrating its relationship with Tehran before US strikes changed the calculus entirely.
Asian markets are absorbing the news alongside a Wall Street tech rally, with oil falling on hopes of diplomatic movement elsewhere — a contradiction that tells you how much the market wants to believe this stays contained. It probably will not. When Iran fights through its proxies, the bill always arrives somewhere else, and right now that address is Riyadh.
*— Isla Camilleri, Global Affairs & Lifestyle Editor*
