Description: Yemen’s Houthis continued targeting oil facilities and airports inside Saudi Arabia, while also intensifying attacks on Yemen’s government troops. Houthi spokesperson, Yahya Saree, stated that the group targeted Saudi Aramco facilities in Riyadh, Yanbu and the Rabigh refinery while also targeting the East – West oil pipeline. King Khalid and King Fahd international airports were also targeted and a Saudi airbase in the Khamis Mushait region. Ground fighting has intensified in and around the city of Taiz, where more than 800 thousand people are besieged and in desperate need of humanitarian aid. Egypt has increased calls for resolving the war through a mediated solution while stating that its military assistance to Saudi Arabia would focus on defending key infrastructure and civilian targets on Saudi Arabia’s territory, ruling out any offensive operations.
Impact: Saudi Arabia and the Houthis are highly likely to continue exchanging aerial attacks in the short to mid – term period considering the lack of diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict. Saudi Arabia has failed to gather any concrete support in their offensive efforts against the Houthis in Yemen, which likely indicates the fragility of its defense partnerships and the high – stakes security and political consequences of the war. Egypt’s calls for mediated resolution are unlikely to materialize in the short to mid – term period since they lack diplomatic traction and support from regional countries or the US. The war between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia is likely to directly merge into the US – Iran conflict and is likely being used as a bargaining chip in the current form of the backchannel negotiations between the US and Iran.