... Saudi Arabia is also clearly vulnerable to new attacks, despite enormous military spending and assistance from the United States. The media has added fuel to the fire by
suggesting
that it will take Riyadh between several months and a year to bring oil production to its previous levels.
Consequently, while Saudi Arabia could previously afford to ignore the occasional missile and drone from Yemen and continue bombing the adversary using its own aviation, now, instead of a zero-sum game, it has an asymmetric conflict on its hands with very unpleasant consequences. However, there is a way out of this predicament. A week after the strike against ...
... the most, it is the historical enemy of Saudi Arabia, and both countries have waged proxy wars in each of Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. It is the modern “Cold War” of the Middle-East. One of the reasons Saudi Arabia did not join the Astana initiative is that Iran is a founder. The Saudis does not fear a Russian influence in Syria, but they rather fear an Iranian one. Plus, Russians and Saudis have a lot to discuss and cooperate such as Oil and Gas markets, they have to deal openly at some point. It is in none favour to go into a confrontation in Syria or the Middle-East....
... prices up, but markets shrugged off the fear of oil supply shortage.
A ground intervention would mean that Saudi Arabia is going to actual war. This psychological factor is likely to trigger a strong reaction in the markets around the globe, causing oil prices to shoot up.
The unrest in Yemen is being used by Saudi Arabia to justify a hardened crackdown on protests at home, which creates a backlash from more Saudi Shia ready to take to the streets. This turn of events may play into the Houthis’ hand, who in late March, promised to launch suicide attacks ...