Saudi Arabia’s dilemma as it tries to stay out of US-Iran war

In response, the Saudis pumped as much oil as they could – around five million barrels per day – through their east-west pipeline to their export terminal on the Red Sea, on their opposite coast, at Yanbu.

From there it was loaded onto tankers that headed south, out into the Arabian Sea and off to markets in Asia.

So far so good.

But on 13 July, the Saudis bombed Sanaa airport just outside the Yemeni capital. The strike was claimed by Yemen’s Saudi-supported government, which said it wanted to prevent an Iranian plane from landing. In retaliation, the Houthis attacked regional Saudi airports at Abha and Jizan.

More worryingly for Riyadh, the Houthis have begun attacking Saudi shipping in the Red Sea, making it extremely dangerous for ships to pass through the narrow Bab El Mandeb strait at the southern end of the Red Sea. That in turn chokes off Saudi oil exports to Asia.

Saudi Arabia spent seven years trying to bomb the Houthis into submission and failed.

The war that raged across Yemen was one of the worst humanitarian disasters of our time and its effects are still being felt.

In 2022, Saudi Arabia agreed to an uneasy truce with the Houthis and there were reports of payoffs, but now the richest country in the region, Saudi Arabia, is once more facing the threat of drone and missile attacks from its southern neighbour at the same time as attacks from Iraq to the north.

None of this was envisaged in the plans for Vision 2030.