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Saudi Arabia’s Yemen Quagmire: Three Missed Chances
Saudi Arabia could have negotiated an exit from Yemen's civil war: Beijing 2023, Jan 2026, avoid direct involvement. It didn’t.
www.kormeeraha.com
Saudi Arabia stands at a strategic crossroads of its own making. A kingdom that once sought to reshape the Middle East through military intervention and economic largesse now finds itself squeezed between two hostile chokepoints — the Strait of Hormuz to its east and the Bab el-Mandeb to its south — while the Ansarallah, a Houthi-led coalition of northern tribes, consolidates control over one of the world’s most critical maritime corridors. Riyadh had three clear chances to negotiate an exit from the Yemen war. It took none.
The Beijing Agreement: A Diplomatic Opening Ignored
In March 2023, China brokered a landmark agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to restore diplomatic relations after seven years of rupture. The deal was widely hailed as a demonstration that West Asian rivalries could be de-escalated through patient diplomacy. Analysts noted that Iranian-Saudi normalization offered real hope for a negotiated solution to the Yemen conflict.
The logic was straightforward: if Riyadh could stabilize its relationship with Tehran, the principal external backer of Ansarallah, the pathway to a Yemen settlement would become clearer. China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran even jointly urged a UN-backed Yemen peace deal in December 2025, reaffirming support for a comprehensive political solution.
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