Deadly strikes hit Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport. Fire spread across several floors of a Saudi Aramco building. Over the past week, Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia have widened, leaving Yemenis, already worn down by a war that ended in a bloody stalemate, facing the prospect of something worse.
The attacks have disrupted Riyadh’s flagship oil conference, too. Top oil executives withdrew from the Future Investment Initiative, an annual global investment forum, and organizers offered remote participation instead. Saudi, Iranian and regional sources say the strikes form part of a campaign targeting infrastructure and investment events central to Saudi Arabia’s economic ambitions.
A Campaign With Two Audiences
Those sources say the goal is to pressure Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to meet Houthi demands in Yemen and persuade US President Donald Trump to ease the US blockade on Iran’s economy. Iran and the Houthis are using Saudi Arabia’s prosperity and vulnerability to disruption as leverage in a confrontation stretching from the Strait of Hormuz to Bab el-Mandeb in the Red Sea.
Michael Knights, of strategic advisory Horizon Engage, said Iran faces mounting economic and military pressure after the war the US and Israel launched on February 28. “The Iranians are in a chokehold,” he said. Unable to force Washington to change course directly, Tehran and the Houthis are “hammering Saudi Arabia, they're hammering the weak point.”
A senior Iranian official said Riyadh couldn’t count on US protection and should negotiate. The official said Houthi attacks would continue unless Saudi restrictions were lifted.
What the Houthis Say They Want
According to two Saudi sources and three regional sources familiar with Saudi thinking, the movement demands an end to Saudi military operations and restrictions on Yemeni ports and airports, regular flights to Iran, restored salary payments, war compensation, and an end to Riyadh’s support for Yemen’s recognized government. Those terms would cement Houthi rule over much of Yemen.
Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam rejected the claim that the group acts for Tehran. He called the demands longstanding humanitarian issues: lifting restrictions on Yemeni ports, airports and the economy, and paying civil servants’ salaries from Yemen’s own resources. “Our humanitarian demands have nothing to do with Iran or anyone else,” he said. Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics put it more bluntly: “What the Houthis are asking now is a victor's peace.”
A Peace Roadmap Unravels
The crisis has deep roots. Riyadh intervened in Yemen after the Houthis took Sanaa; that intervention is now in its 11th anniversary year. The war became a bloody stalemate before a 2022 ceasefire, now in its fourth anniversary year. The Houthis have struck deep inside the kingdom before. In 2019, attacks on Aramco facilities temporarily disrupted about 5% of global oil supply.
Yemen analyst Farea al-Muslimi traced the crisis to the unraveling of a 2023 Saudi-backed peace roadmap. The plan offered the Houthis a path to political legitimacy and reconstruction funding, with Riyadh set to help pay public-sector salaries and fund rebuilding. The Red Sea conflict derailed the roadmap as the Houthis deepened their alignment with Iran.
“We're heading toward the worst outcome imaginable,” al-Muslimi said. “A war worse than 2015. This time it will be bloodier, and Saudi Arabia will enter it with fewer allies.”
Limited Options for Riyadh
Saudi leaders now view military pressure as their only viable option, said Abdulaziz Sager, chairman of the Saudi-based Gulf Research Center. “They reached a point of no negotiations,” he said. “They have no other choice except military action.”
Washington has offered little beyond targeting assistance and intelligence-sharing. Sources told Reuters last month that bin Salman asked Trump for help fighting the Houthis, but Trump did not agree to US strikes. Trump later said he was considering possible action, while seeming to defer a response until after the US midterm elections. Sources familiar with Saudi thinking said the US has shown little appetite for another sustained campaign after bombing the Houthis last year over Red Sea shipping attacks and then agreeing to a ceasefire.
Former US negotiator Aaron David Miller said the imbalance in stakes favors the Houthis. “Saudi infrastructure is much more valuable than Houthi infrastructure,” he said. “They have so much less to lose than the Saudis.” Analysts warn the conflict could harden into a war of attrition.
Al-Muslimi said no successful campaign against the Houthis could happen without Gulf unity, mainly between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. “This is not simply a Saudi war,” he said. “It is a Gulf war.” The Saudi government media office, Iran’s foreign ministry and a Houthi spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Why This Matters:
The fighting over Saudi infrastructure can look like a contest over oil prices and investor confidence. But the 2022 ceasefire and the 2023 roadmap brought Yemen closer than it had come in years to a negotiated path, and both now lie in tatters. The Houthis frame their demands around ports, airports and unpaid salaries—the daily conditions of ordinary Yemenis—but the group’s escalation shows how readily humanitarian questions become part of a larger contest between Tehran and Riyadh. Washington remains reluctant to engage, and Saudi leaders see no room for talks; diplomatic exits are narrowing. Analysts quoted here warn of a conflict bloodier than 2015. In Yemen’s wars, it’s civilians who have borne the heaviest costs.
- houthis
- saudi arabia
- iran
- houthi attacks
- yemen conflict
- oil infrastructure
- future investment initiative
- vision 2030