Houthi Attacks Turn Saudi Infrastructure Into Leverage

Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia have disrupted Riyadh’s flagship oil conference, struck King Khalid International Airport and hit Saudi Aramco. The movement and Iran are using the kingdom’s exposure to pressure Riyadh and Washington. Top oil executives have withdrawn from the Future Investment Initiative, an annual global investment forum, and organizers have offered remote participation.

Saudi, Iranian and regional sources said the campaign targets infrastructure and investment events central to Saudi Arabia’s economic ambitions. Its aims include pressuring Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to meet Houthi demands in Yemen and persuading US President Donald Trump to ease the US blockade on Iran’s economy.

Iran’s Regional Leverage

Iran and the Houthis are seeking to apply pressure across a region stretching from the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Gulf, to Bab el-Mandeb in the Red Sea. A senior Iranian official said the attacks form part of a broader strategy to reshape the regional balance of power by targeting energy infrastructure and key shipping routes. The official said Riyadh couldn’t rely on US protection and should pursue negotiations, adding that Houthi attacks would continue unless Saudi restrictions were lifted.

Iran faces mounting economic and military pressure following the war launched by the US and Israel on February 28, said Michael Knights of strategic advisory Horizon Engage. “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,” Knights said, exploiting the kingdom’s economic vulnerability and desire for stability.

The Houthis have a direct interest in easing the US blockade on Iran, their principal regional backer. A relaxation of pressure on Tehran would likely strengthen its ability to sustain political, financial and military support, along with the flow of weapons and cash that the US says the movement depends on.

Attacks on Saudi Assets

The latest wave included deadly strikes on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport and a strike on Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil exporter and a backbone of the Saudi economy. The Aramco strike sparked a fire that spread across several floors. In 2019, attacks on Aramco facilities temporarily disrupted about 5% of global oil supply.

The Houthis have struck deep inside the kingdom before. Riyadh intervened in Yemen in 2015 after the Houthis took the capital, Sanaa. The war became a bloody stalemate before a ceasefire in 2022.

Two Saudi sources and three regional sources familiar with Saudi thinking said the Houthis are demanding 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. The sources said those demands would consolidate Houthi rule over much of Yemen.

Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam denied that the group was acting at Iran’s behest. He described its demands as longstanding humanitarian issues involving Saudi Arabia, including 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.

A Wider Gulf Security Risk

The campaign leaves bin Salman facing a dilemma, sources familiar with Saudi thinking said. Escalation risks a wider war that could undermine his transformation agenda, while concessions risk strengthening a movement that has challenged Saudi power for years. The longer the conflict lasts, the greater the threat to Saudi security, investor confidence and Vision 2030.

Saudi-based Gulf Research Center chairman Abdulaziz Sager said Saudi leaders now see military pressure as their only viable option. “They reached a point of no negotiations,” he said. “They have no other choice except military action.” Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East analyst at the London School of Economics, said the Houthis increasingly view themselves as negotiating from strength and seek recognition of their authority in Sanaa and an easing of restrictions on Yemen. “What the Houthis are asking now is a victor’s peace,” he said.

Washington has shown little appetite for another sustained campaign against the Houthis since bombing them last year over attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and then agreeing to a ceasefire, sources familiar with Saudi thinking said. When bin Salman asked Trump for help fighting the Houthis, Trump didn’t agree to US strikes, sources told Reuters last month. Washington instead offered targeting assistance and intelligence-sharing.

Analysts warn that drones and missiles exposing vulnerabilities in Saudi defenses could turn the conflict into a war of attrition. Former US negotiator Aaron David Miller said the Houthis benefit from their position near the Bab el-Mandeb chokepoint and the unequal value of the targets. “Saudi infrastructure is much more valuable than Houthi infrastructure,” he said. “They have so much less to lose than the Saudis.”

Yemen analyst Farea al-Muslimi said the campaign against Riyadh seeks regional primacy and risks a wider conflict across the Arabian Peninsula. He said the crisis stems from the unravelling of a 2023 Saudi-backed peace roadmap that offered the Houthis a path to political legitimacy and reconstruction funding. “The Houthis are not a threat to Saudi Arabia alone,” he said. “They threaten the entire Gulf and the wider region. This is not simply a Saudi war. It is a Gulf war.”