Trump’s Big Bet on Saudis Goes Bad as Ragtag Yemen Rebels Resist by Mohammed Hatem and Glen Carey - Bloomberg
The Yemeni fighters could be heard in the video chanting “Death to America, Death to Israel” from a barren desert ridge after firing on a distant Saudi military vehicle.
While denouncing the Houthis’ battlefield enemies, the clip was really aimed at the rebel army’s own members. With Iran’s help, they’ve held off a vast military machine funded by Yemen’s rich Gulf neighbors for more than four years, and their commanders know the value of morale-boosting propaganda.
A flurry of recent developments, including Saudi Arabia’s reported agreement to a partial cease-fire in Yemen, are recognition that the Houthis remain an obstinate enemy that’s gaining in military sophistication.
Their claims to have carried out Sept. 14 drone and missile attacks on Saudi oil facilities were rejected by most observers, who concluded the sophisticated strikes were launched by Iran. But as the hottest frontline in the proxy tussle between the Middle East’s preeminent Sunni and Shiite Muslim powers, the war across Saudi Arabia’s southern border is posing an ever greater threat to the kingdom…