Saudi Crown Prince Seeks Egyptian Support Amid Escalating Houthi Attacks on Red Sea Shipping

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman traveled to Cairo to meet Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, seeking political support as Houthi rebel forces intensify attacks on Saudi Red Sea shipping and oil infrastructure. The Houthis recently seized the port of Mokha and three strategic islands near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, while a pipeline attack attributed to Iran-backed Iraqi militias has taken a significant volume of Saudi oil off global markets. The renewed conflict has killed more than 500 people in one week and displaced nearly 94,000, with international observers noting the limited options available to Saudi Arabia amid uncertain support from its key allies.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince held talks with Egypt's president on Tuesday, with regional stability among the topics discussed amid ongoing Houthi attacks on shipping and infrastructure that have pushed global oil prices higher. The Houthi offensive has added a new layer to the broader regional tensions, while also bolstering Iran's influence — a country with a documented history of disrupting vessel transit through the Strait of Hormuz and longstanding disputes with Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has so far taken a measured approach to any broad military action against the Houthis, weighing the possibility that an offensive could invite attacks on its oil infrastructure and pull the kingdom into renewed full-scale hostilities in Yemen. The United States has at times shown variability and unpredictability as an ally to Saudi Arabia. According to Hellyer, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, Egypt has the option of extending diplomatic backing to Saudi Arabia through Arab League channels in relation to any actions taken against the Houthis, noting that there is widespread multilateral consensus that the group should not be allowed to dominate a strategically positioned waterway like Bab al-Mandeb. The coalition Prince Mohammed built to confront the Houthis in 2015 had fractured years before due to internal disagreements, while analyst Hellyer observed that he would be looking to outline a more unified direction, with the result depending on how many parties could be brought on board; in a separate development, Houthi military advances have resulted in losses for forces backed by Riyadh in Yemen, including the internationally recognised government, rekindling a conflict that had largely been on hold under a ceasefire agreed in 2022. In the first week of September, 43 children were either killed or wounded — the highest weekly figure for minors that the organisation had recorded over the preceding twelve months — with the agency's Yemen director, Rishana Haniffa, noting that children were bearing an outsized share of the harm amid some of the most sustained fighting the country had seen in recent years. Thirteen people were wounded and homes along with parked cars sustained damage in southern Saudi Arabia after missile and drone attacks linked to Houthi forces on Monday, a military spokesperson confirmed. The conflict claimed an estimated 150,000 lives and pushed Yemen to the brink of famine on several occasions.

Saudi Crown Prince Seeks Egyptian Support Amid Escalating Houthi Attacks on Red Sea Shipping

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Saudi Crown Prince Seeks Egyptian Support Amid Escalating Houthi Attacks on Red Sea Shipping

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