Above photo: AP.
Saudi planners are reportedly disinterested in joining the pro-Israel Operation Prosperity Guardian.
Despite mounting pressure from Washington to restart hostilities with Yemen.
Saudi Arabia is “uninterested” in being dragged back into war with Yemen to protect Israeli interests in the Red Sea, Saudi and US officials revealed to the New York Times (NYT).
For the past several weeks, Washington has been looking to get its long-time Gulf partner involved in the so-called Operation Prosperity Guardian. This US-led naval taskforce claims to defend Israeli-linked commercial vessels from Yemeni attacks in the Red Sea.
This includes pressuring Riyadh to walk away from a potential peace deal with Yemen, with offers of new military training for the Saudi army and promises to lift an arms embargo on offensive weapons imposed by the White House.
However, according to the NYT, the kingdom “would rather watch these latest developments from the sidelines, with the prospect of peace on its southern border a more appealing goal than joining an effort to stop attacks that [Ansarallah says] are directed at Israel.”
After eight years of war that saw Saudi jets and mercenary groups decimate the Arab world’s poorest nation, Riyadh is pursuing a new strategy “which leans away from direct military action and toward cultivating relationships with Yemeni factions,” the NYT reports.
This approach “is driven by the reality that after eight years of war, [Sanaa] effectively won.”
“Escalation is in nobody’s interest,” Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said in a television interview earlier this month. “We are committed to ending the war in Yemen, and we are committed to a permanent ceasefire that opens the door for a political process.”
The NYT report was published one day after UN special envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg issued a statement saying that the “warring parties” in Yemen had agreed “to a set of measures to implement a nationwide ceasefire, improve living conditions in Yemen, and engage in preparations for the resumption of an inclusive political process,” and that meetings will continue to establish a “roadmap” to peace.
The ceasefire plan will reportedly also include commitments to resume oil exports from Saudi and UAE-occupied Yemen, pay all public sector salaries in regions controlled by Ansarallah, open roads in Taiz and other parts of Yemen, and “further ease restrictions on Sanaa Airport and the Hodeidah port.”
A large part of Saudi Arabia’s opposition to renewed violence with Yemen stems from concerns about what the crisis in Palestine could mean for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MbS) Vision 2030, especially given the extent to which its western Red Sea region – where many of the kingdom’s economic diversification projects, such as the futuristic NEOM and various tourism destinations are situated – is affected by the spread of war.
Riyadh has concentrated on re-establishing diplomatic relations with former adversaries to secure its long-term plans.
In March, Saudi Arabia signed a historic rapprochement deal with Iran under the auspices of China. The two Islamic nations are just days away from becoming the latest additions to the powerful BRICS bloc.