Why Everything is Going Wrong for Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia's currently experiencing one of the worst years in its entire national history, and it's only getting worse and worse with every passing month. As if the Iran war and Iran's forced closure of the Strait of Hormuz wasn't enough for them, Saudi Arabia's now facing the terrible prospect of the other narrow strait to its southwest,

known as the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, getting shut down as well. This has long been considered by the Saudi kingdom to be its worst-case nightmare geopolitical scenario, since it would effectively almost landlock them and prevent their oil exports from flowing out to the rest of the world, which would be like the engine of their entire economy grinding

down to a halt. Unfortunately for them, however, nightmares like this can sometimes become reality. And this one began for them only a few weeks ago when the Houthis in northwest Yemen suddenly launched a rapid and shockingly successful new offensive there. Within only a matter of days, the Houthis smashed through the Saudi-backed government's defenses in Yemen and

overran roughly 5,400 square kilometers of territory along the country's Red Sea coast. In the process, the Houthis seized control over the strategic port city of Mocha, the Hanish Islands in the center of the Red Sea, and perhaps most critically of all, they also seized control over Perim Island in the dead center of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait

itself, which is only around 20 kilometers away from the country of Djibouti over on the other side of the strait. With nearly all of Yemen's Red Sea coastline now directly under Houthi control, the Houthis will be in a far better position to harass shipping in the region, and with their control of Perim, they can probably force a