The British Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said in a report that Washington had recently rejected an urgent Saudi request regarding the rapid developments in the war in Yemen that confused Mohammed bin Salman’s calculations.
The newspaper reported that a group of Saudi officials had asked the American president’s administration to provide them with some kind of intelligence and military support to help KSA target the sites used by Houthi forces to strike KSA with drones and missiles, but the administration of President Joe Biden rejected their request and also refused to help Saudi Arabia with any steps that would strengthen the position of the current Crown Prince Mohamed ben Salman, who became a “beggar” during the Biden administration, according to the US administration’s expression.
The newspaper highlighted Saudi Arabia’s increasing losses in Yemen, and the Houthis’ gains, in the eight-year war, revealing that KSA feels worried of losing the city of Marib, which is a strategic place for KSA, while efforts for reconciliation with the Houthis are decreasing.
The Saudi ongoing war in Yemen has resulted in great material and strategic losses, as the newspaper revealed that Riyadh has recently begun to re-evaluate its strategy in Yemen, especially after satellite images showed Saudi Arabia reducing its military presence, seeking to strengthen its borders, and that this decision came in anticipation of the Houthi takeover of Marib.
The Dispatch revealed that the Houthi group and their friends in Iran have outperformed the administration of MBS and the government of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, especially regarding the battle of Marib.
The website also said that the battle of Marib represents the beginning of a victory for the Houthi group in Yemen, and indicated that the ongoing intervention now for Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Marib will be very costly and useless.
For its part, the Carnegie Middle East Center said that Saudi Arabia fears that the strategic city of Marib will fall into the hands of the Ansar Allah Al-Houthi group, as part of their years-long conflict, and it stressed that this will significantly strengthen the Houthis’ influence in the political settlement in Yemen, and the fall of Marib will extend their control over the areas bordering Saudi Arabia.
The British Guardian newspaper also said that the bloody battles taking place in the Marib governorate between the Yemeni government backed by Saudi Arabia and the Ansar Allah group will finally resolve the war in Yemen.
The newspaper expected that in case of rebels won in Marib they would have defeated the Yemeni government and the Saudi-backed coalition.
Saudi Arabia has been keeping a close eye on the main battle in strategic Marib, as it risks watching its allies lose a major battle against the Houthis, several kilometers from the Saudi border, which would be a major defeat.
