In 2021, the U.S. removed Yemen’s Houthi rebels from its official list of foreign terrorist groups, and ceased helping the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in their war against the rebels. Now that these Iran-backed guerrillas are attacking international shipping, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh are reluctant to help Washington fight them. Israel, meanwhile, admitted last week that a cruise missile fired by the Houthis had successfully penetrated its air defenses and landed near Eilat. Hussain Abdul-Hussain comments:
Under the Biden administration’s strategy of “regional integration,” America’s Arab allies—Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Egypt—are members of Combined Task Force (CTF) 153, whose mission is to guarantee the security of the Red and the Arabian seas. Yet when Yemen’s Houthi forces started targeting ships, these Arab countries passed on Washington’s invitation [to take part in defending them]. Some believe this was because Riyadh and Abu Dhabi correctly calculated that Biden might change course midway and quit, leaving them facing renewed animosity from Tehran and the Houthis.
With [the U.S. envoy Bret] McGurk’s reported meeting to ask the Iranians to rein in the Houthis, the Saudis and the Emiratis were proven right. They likely see this as evidence that Biden is an unreliable ally, and that if he thinks that diplomacy is the way forward, Saudi Arabia and the UAE can reach out to Iran, and its proxies, on their own. Consistency is key to successful foreign policy. The Biden administration has not shown this.
Read more on Algemeiner: https://www.algemeiner.com/2024/03/20/reported-us-iran-talks-explain-saudi-sitting-out-red-sea-operations/