Tag: yemen

Houthis Demand $51 Billion to End War with Saudis

Saudi Arabia approached the Houthis to determine what it would take to negotiate an end to the fighting. The answer was $51 billion, supposedly compensation for years of Saudi military operations and the blockade of Yemen. Other figures have reportedly been discussed, but the Houthis are demanding tens of billions of dollars and recognition of their authority over Yemen. This would require Riyadh to abandon the internationally recognized Yemeni government it has supported for more than a decade. The Houthis are effectively demanding that Saudi Arabia pay an enormous sum and accept an Iranian-backed adversary along its southern border.

Saudi Arabia launched its military intervention in Yemen in 2015, believing its superior military capabilities and financial resources would defeat the Houthis. More than eleven years later, the Houthis are demanding payment from the Saudis to stop fighting. They have expanded their territorial control, threatened shipping through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and demonstrated the ability to attack Saudi oil infrastructure, airports, and pipelines. Riyadh has spent billions purchasing advanced Western weapons, yet relatively inexpensive missiles and drones continue threatening assets worth billions of dollars.

The Houthis have already demonstrated their ability to threaten Saudi Arabia’s energy infrastructure. Attacks earlier this year temporarily disrupted the kingdom’s East-West pipeline, which carries oil from the eastern production regions toward Red Sea export facilities. That pipeline is particularly important because it allows Saudi Arabia to bypass the Strait of Hormuz when Persian Gulf shipping becomes dangerous. With Iran threatening Hormuz and the Houthis operating near Bab al-Mandab, Saudi Arabia faces pressure on both of its major maritime export routes. The kingdom’s geographical position, which once made it an indispensable energy supplier, has become a source of vulnerability.

The United States has also demonstrated the limits of its security guarantees. In September, Mohammed bin Salman reportedly asked President Trump for military assistance against the Houthis. Washington declined to conduct direct strikes on the group’s behalf, although it offered intelligence and targeting support. Saudi Arabia has spent decades maintaining a strategic relationship with the United States based largely upon energy security and military cooperation. Now Riyadh is discovering that an American security partnership does not guarantee American intervention whenever Saudi interests are threatened. Washington is already deeply involved in the conflict with Iran and has little appetite for opening another major military front.

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Egyptian Parliament Authorizes Troops to Defend Saudi Arabia

The Egyptian Parliament on Monday voted to give President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi the authority to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia, where they would help the kingdom repel attacks from the Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen.

Sisi requested the authority to deploy troops last week, offering assurances that the deployment would be purely defensive in nature. Officials in Sisi’s administration have stressed that Egyptian soldiers would remain on Saudi soil and would not be directly involved in attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen.

On October 18, Sisi chaired a meeting of his National Defense Council, which includes Egypt’s top ministers and military officials. The Council passed a resolution of solidarity with Saudi Arabia and pledged to support its security and sovereignty.

The Egyptian constitution stipulates that military deployments outside the national border require approval from Parliament, and on Monday, two-thirds of Egyptian lawmakers voted to authorize the mission to Saudi Arabia. A notable exception was the caucus from Egypt’s Social Democratic Party, which abstained from the vote because it said not enough details had been provided about the cost and objectives of the mission.

The Saudi government has yet to make an official request for Egyptian support.

Egypt is part of a loose four-way alliance with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, and Egypt known as the “Regional 4” or “R4,” and Cairo is seen as a close ally and potential future member of the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, which was signed by the other three R4 governments in August 2026.

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Türkiye Prepares To Deploy Military Personnel To Saudi Arabia Under Defense Pact

Reuters reported that Türkiye is set to deploy military personnel to Saudi Arabia under an agreement to provide joint defense to Türkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Once the agreement is ratified, the mandate to deploy will be sent to Türkiye’s parliament, Reuters reported.

Türkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement on August 7 under which armed attacks on any of the three countries would be considered attacks on all three of them. The agreement aims to promote closer defense cooperation, share intelligence and conduct joint training, and a Turkish official described it as purely defensive in nature.

Amid Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabian airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea, officials from the three countries met in Riyadh on October 5 and agreed to put their collective defense commitments into action, including the rapid sending of armed forces to Saudi Arabia in accordance with each of the countries’ national laws.

Türkiye’s parliament was submitted the pact in full on October 20 for ratification, according to sources in the Turkish parliament. It is expected to go to the foreign affairs committee and then to a full parliament vote.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the role Türkiye plans to play would be limited to a defensive one, and that Türkiye will not launch attacks against Yemen from bases in Saudi Arabia. Türkiye’s constitution states that sending troops abroad requires the approval of the Turkish parliament.

Türkiye’s contribution is expected to include air defense systems, electronic warfare systems, technical personnel and intelligence, and possibly a limited number of pilots and special forces. In the past, Türkiye already deployed technical personnel to Saudi Arabia within the scope of previous bilateral agreements.

Pakistan is also a full signatory to the agreement and already has armed forces stationed in Saudi Arabia. Iran’s reaction to the three-way security deal, signed in Mecca, has been strongly worded, with one senior Iranian lawmaker saying a paper agreement would not bring the Saudis security.

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What’s a 100,000 Dead Yemenis When War Is Profitable?

Based on his actions and words, Yemeni life matters little to Mark Carney. He supports monarchist/Zionist/US domination of the region.

Late Saturday evening the prime minister posted, “The Houthi attacks on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and in particular the strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, are abhorrent.

There can be no justification for attacks on civilian infrastructure… Canada condemns these reckless acts of violence in the strongest possible terms.”

Carney was responding to Ansar Allah strikes on Riyadh’s airport that reportedly killed a dozen and injured many more. It’s reasonable to criticize the substantial loss of life. But Carney hasn’t said a word about hundreds of Saudi strikes on Yemen, which have killed far more civilians.

Two days earlier, Antiwar.com’s Dave DeCamp reported, “Saudi airstrikes hit a passenger vehicle in Yemen’s southwestern Taiz province on Thursday, killing at least two civilians and wounding six others, as civilian casualties continue to mount in the US-supported bombing campaign.” The Yemeni Health Ministry reported that a pregnant woman also lost her baby and two girls were injured in the attack.

Two days before, 14-year-old Athir al-Amri was killed by shrapnel when the Saudis hit next to her school bus in eastern Sana’a. Two classmates were also wounded, including one gravely.

According to a Drop Site News article quoting a spokesperson for the health ministry, Al-Amri was the 83rd civilian killed in Ansar Allah-controlled areas since the escalation began in September. The worst incident took place on September 7 when 35 civilians, including a child, were reportedly killed by a Saudi strike on a prison in the northern al-Jawf province.

Over the past six weeks, the Saudi-led coalition has reportedly launched 2,000 airstrikes on its southern neighbor. On October 5 the media reported that 100 Saudi fighter jets carried out over 150 strikes across Yemen while on Sunday Ansar Allah said the kingdom “launched 124 airstrikes in the past 24 hours.”

Montreal-based flight simulator company CAE has trained Saudi pilots in numerous locales. It trained them at a facility in Abu Dhabi and a US base in Pensacola, Florida. Saudi pilots have also trained at NATO’s Flying Training in Canada, which was run by CAE and the Canadian Forces in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Millions of dollars in Canadian-made rifles and billions of dollars in Canadian built armored vehicles have been shipped to the monarchy as the Saudis killed tens of thousands of Yemenis between 2015-2022. (The United Nations Development Program put the Yemeni death toll at 377,000 due to direct and indirect consequences of the war as well as the Saudi blockade.)

While it has received far less attention in recent years, arms shipments continue to the kingdom. The largest non-US recipient of Canadian arms, $1.3 billion was sold to the Saudis in 2024 and another $400 million in 2025.

On Friday the Globe and Mail published a guide for capitalists looking to profit from the violence headlined “Bet on These Defense ETFs Amid Escalating Yemen War”. The Report on Business article noted, “The conflict in Yemen has spilled across Saudi Arabia’s borders once again. Houthi rebels recently struck two airports inside the Kingdom, including an attack on the airport serving the Saudi capital that witnesses described as triggering an evacuation.

“Riyadh’s air defenses were tested in real time, underscoring a longstanding challenge for defense planners: the drone and missile threat from Yemen remains persistent, increasingly sophisticated and far from resolved.

“For investors, this is a relevant signal. Escalating attacks of this kind tend to accelerate demand for weapons systems like interceptors, precision-guided munitions, radar, and integrated air and missile defense architectures, designed to stop them.

“Naturally, defense majors that already hold direct weapons agreements with Saudi Arabia stand to see order growth, expanded backlogs, and stronger revenue visibility as the Kingdom is likely to replenish and upgrade its defensive stockpile. Against this backdrop, defense-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which provide exposure to multiple prime contractors, offer a diversified way to capitalize on rising demand without betting on a single name.”

Throughout the 2010s Saudi war on Yemen the Canadian Embassy’s website claimed, “the Saudi government plays an important role in promoting regional peace and stability.” It’s been updated. Now the section on bilateral relations starts off noting, “Canada and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have enjoyed positive relations for over 50 years, grounded in shared interests in achieving economic growth, diversifying their economies, enhancing regional and international security, and establishing the foundations for global peace.”

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Trump: U.S. ‘may’ become involved after Houthi attack on Saudi airport leaves 13 dead, hundreds injured

United States officials condemned the Houthi attack on a Saudi airport in Riyadh that reportedly killed 13 people, including an American, and left hundreds more injured.

On Saturday, the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh was targeted in attack attributed to the terrorist Yemeni militant group, the Houthis, according to Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry.

“The United States strongly condemns the recent attacks on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by the terrorist Houthis, including today’s strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh that took numerous innocent lives, including an American citizen,” said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a Saturday statement.

The Saudi Arabian General Authority of Civil Aviation announced 12 deaths, which included four Saudis, two Bangladeshi nationals, one American, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian and one Sudanese. Per the authority, 309 others were injured, including some in critical condition.

The Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia also said on Sunday that one Indian national succumbed to their injuries, bringing the death toll to 13.

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Iran-Backed Houthis Kill American in Saudi Airport Strike

The Iranian regime’s proxies continue to murder civilians across the Middle East.

At least 12 people died and over 300 suffered injuries after Houthi terrorists struck the airport in Saudi Arabia’s capita, Riyadh. One of the victims was an American. It was the worst mass casualty event in any Gulf Arab state since the start of the ongoing conflict with the Iranian regime this year, with only Israel suffering worse bombardments. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the American casualty.

President Donald Trump also told reporters on Saturday that his administration was now finally considering taking action against the Houthis in light of this new attack. The Houthis have stated their intention of making airports a “theater of operations.”

The strike illustrates the fact that while the Islamic world tends to band together when fighting Westerners, there’s plenty of internecine warfare due to political and geographical disagreements. Whenever Muslims are not killing Christians and Jews, they are killing each other.

Saudi Arabia is a sharia state that persecutes Christians, but it has not been on the side of the Iranian regime in the current conflict, which means it has become a target both for Iran and for Iran’s proxies. Exiled Persian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi certainly blames Tehran for the multiple Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, even on the Muslim “holy” city of Mecca, in recent weeks.

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“In The Name Of God”: Yemen Leader Orders All-Out Offensive Against Iran-Backed Houthis

Saudi Arabia and Yemeni government forces have been preparing for a major offensive against Iran-backed Houthis, whose latest advances along Yemen’s western coast have tightened their control over coastal areas and disrupted a critical maritime chokepoint known as the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Bloomberg now reports that the operation is underway.

The outlet reports that Rashad Al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, ordered all branches of the armed forces into active combat operations on Sunday.

“All state military, security and civil institutions as of this moment are mobilized and on high alert until the mission is completed and victory is achieved,” Al-Alimi said on Sunday.

He said the operation would continue “until the liberation of the country from the grip of the terrorist Houthi militia.”

Our reporting on Saturday indicated that more than 100,000 Yemeni pro-government troops were set to mobilize for the offensive. Last month, the ease and speed of Houthi gains proved humiliating for the Saudi coalition in Yemen.

The Houthis largely stayed out of the US-Israeli war against Iran. But by midsummer, the terror group had announced a blockade of Saudi ships in the critical maritime chokepoint in response to what it described as a “siege” of Yemen. It has since repeatedly attacked the kingdom, including its oil facilities.

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Department of Energy employee arrested for allegedly trying to provide material support to Houthis

Federal authorities arrested a Department of Energy employee Thursday in Washington state for allegedly trying to provide material support to the foreign terrorist organization, the Houthis.

Ashton Hamed Ellaboudy has been charged with attempting to provide material support or resources to the Houthis after he allegedly purchased precursor chemicals for homemade explosive devices and provided guidance to an undercover FBI source.

Court records alleged Ellaboudy traveled to Oman in 2024, before crossing the border into Houthi-occupied Yemen. He allegedly told U.S. officials upon his return that he traveled to the Middle East on official government business, but Ellaboudy’s supervisor said he did not have authorized official government travel to that region. 

“A U.S. government employee traveled overseas and used his specialized expertise in an attempt to aid the Houthis, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization backed by Iran,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said. 

“Additionally, Ellaboudy acquired materials for the construction of explosive material and drones capable of delivering these explosives,” he continued. “These allegations are so deeply disturbing that they almost defy imagination.”

The Justice Department claimed that an investigation found Ellaboudy communicated with an FBI confidential human source who claimed to work for a Houthi “Colonel” to acquire communications equipment that would be sent to Yemen for use in a mobile communications center. 

Ellaboudy provided expert advice and assistance to the individual, based upon his background in electrical engineering, by helping them test and modify solar power generators and communication equipment.

He also provided guidance on how the power and communication systems integrated, provided schematics and diagrams for the proper setup of the systems and provided information on other equipment that could enhance the communication equipment of the Houthis.

Ellaboudy has not entered a plea yet and is expected to appear before a federal magistrate judge on Friday. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

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Corporate Media Don’t Understand the Houthis—and Don’t Want You to, Either

It’s that time of year again: The Houthis are making the news—and so is the Western corporate media narrative that surrounds them.

The Houthis—formally Ansar Allah, “Supporters of God”—are from the Zaydi Shia minority in Yemen, and have governed the most populous sections of the country, including the capital Sanaa, since the start of Yemen’s civil war in 2014.

Like many a “civil” war, the conflict has plenty of outside participants—most notably Saudi Arabia, which led a coalition of Arab states (with the backing of the United States) in an effort to bomb and starve Yemen away from Houthi control.

In 2022, a tenuous truce took hold between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government, but the Saudi blockade of the country was never lifted.

This July, the Houthis declared their own naval blockade of Saudi Arabia, in response to the Saudi siege and resumed bombing of Yemen. In a rapid September offensive, the group completed its takeover of Yemen’s Red Sea Coast and the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait, putting Saudi oil shipping operations in a decisive bind. The Houthis have also launched missiles at Saudi Arabia in response to Saudi attacks on the country.

The offensive has prompted a slew of media interventions to ostensibly explain to everyone who the Houthis are. The New York Times (9/23/26), for instance, ran the headline “Who Are the Houthis, and What Do They Want?”; the BBC (9/24/26) ran the very same title, minus the comma.

The Washington Post (9/15/26) asked: “Who Are the Houthis, the Iran-Backed Rebels Threatening a Key Maritime Passage?” Its headline characterization revealed what corporate media see as the primary thing anyone needs to know about the Houthis: that they are simply proxies of Iran, the West’s current favorite enemy.

In a typical example, a recent CNN dispatch (9/21/26) identified the Houthis as “Iran-backed” in both the headline and the first sentence, with a reference to “Tehran’s proxies” appearing further down.

For its part, an Associated Press exclusive (9/23/26) on how “Iranian Advisers Helped Houthis Seize Yemen’s Red Sea Coast in Less Than 48 Hours” sounded the alarm that “Iranian Revolutionary Guard advisers were in the field helping direct the battle,” in a show of “how Iran has built the Houthis into a major regional partner able to open a new front in the wider war with the US.”

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Yemen Is Unraveling as the War Spreads Across the Red Sea

The situation in Yemen is deteriorating by the day. The United Nations now says more than 130,000 people have been driven from their homes this month as fighting intensifies following the Houthi advance along the Red Sea coast. Another 100,000 could be displaced over the next three months. More than 3,000 people have already escaped Yemen by boat toward Africa, primarily Djibouti, and the UN is preparing for that number to reach 10,000 as calmer seas make the crossing possible.

Families are abandoning everything and crossing the Red Sea on whatever vessels they can find. Reuters documented families fleeing barefoot after bombardments reached displacement camps where some had already sought refuge from earlier fighting. This is what politicians sitting comfortably thousands of miles away never comprehend. War becomes a statistic to them. To the people trapped inside it, your home, savings, possessions, livelihood, and sometimes your family can disappear overnight.

Yemen was already one of the poorest nations in the Middle East before this latest escalation. Some 22 million people require humanitarian assistance. Now the infrastructure required to provide that assistance is itself being disrupted. Roads have been damaged, telecommunications have been interrupted, movement is restricted, and damage to the port of Mokha has complicated humanitarian logistics. UNHCR says its response plan was less than 20% funded even before this latest wave of fighting exploded.

This is precisely how regional wars expand. Everyone looks at Yemen as though it is some isolated civil war between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government. It is not. Yemen sits beside one of the most strategically important pieces of geography on Earth. The Houthis’ advance along the Red Sea coast has placed them astride the Bab el-Mandeb, while Iran sits beside the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia is caught between both chokepoints.

Now even Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are publicly calling for safe passage through BOTH Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb. That alone tells you the seriousness of the situation. Saudi Arabia has already been forced to redirect oil through Egypt’s Suez Canal because of disruptions affecting its traditional export routes.

The humanitarian crisis cannot be separated from the economic crisis. The same waters desperate Yemenis are crossing to escape the fighting are among the most important commercial shipping lanes in the world. UNHCR warns that further deterioration around Bab el-Mandeb could force humanitarian cargo to travel around the Cape of Good Hope, adding 25 to 30 DAYS to delivery times. That means higher freight rates, more fuel, higher insurance premiums, delayed food and medicine, and eventually higher prices.

Djibouti is now being dragged directly into the consequences. It has fewer than 1.2 million people and already hosts tens of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers. The Markazi refugee facility has room for only around another 5,000 people while authorities are preparing for more than 10,000 arrivals from Yemen. More than 60% of the initial arrivals identified by UNHCR were women, children, and elderly people. The pressure on food, water, shelter, schools, and medical services will rise rapidly if this becomes a genuine mass exodus.

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