Saudi Arabia sleeps in a glass house. The Saudis should not throw stones at their neighbors.

It is simple as it is: Saudi Arabia has so much to lose in the event that it is engaged in war with any of its adversaries.

For its own good, the wealthy kingdom should not participate in the "monkey-dance."

For all its glamour and excellent economic progress, Saudi Arabia should not even be thinking of engaging in a war with Houthi militants who have nothing to lose. 

If Yemen and Saudi Arabia were  houses, we would say that the Houthi reside in a grass thatched house while Saudi Arabia resides in a glass house.

The Saudis and Houthi fighters have technically been at war for the past eleven years, which culminated into a Saudi imposed blockade on Yemen's land, sea boarders and skies. 

This came after the Houthis attacked Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, with ballistic missiles in 2015.

In the seemingly renewed military escalation between Saudi Arabia and the Iran backed Yemeni fighters, the Houthi's message to Saudi Arabia is clear: lift the unfair blockade, stop treating Yemenis like wild animals that have to be caged, or else we shall inflict some of the pain we are going through on your own people.

Rather than seek a peaceful and political solution to the Yemen problem, Saudi Arabia is deluded into thinking that it can militarily over power the Houthi. 

This, while pretending to forget that they already failed militarily with the group over five years ago. Moreover, they were many against a seemingly weaker group.

The Saudi-led coalition against Houthi in 2015 included countries like the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Morocco, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Senegal. They had alongside them, logistical support from the United States and the United Kingdom. 

With all their sophiscated war planes and other ammunitions, they failed to neutralise the Houthi and up to date, Sana'a the capital off Yemen, is under Houthi control.

Learning nothing, Saudi Arabia is still going about, making military alliances that would hopefully help it fend off attacks from the Houthis.

Besides the fifteen member maritime alliance that they recently launched, the Saudis have now signed a defense pact between itself, Pakistan and Turkey. 

This pact includes a collective defense clause stating that an attack on one nation is an attack on all three.

These alliances are of no good to regional security but most especially, Saudi Arabia's security. Alliances only fuel crises rather than solve them.

The Saudis forget that they have forever been allies of the most superior power in the world, that is: the United States of America. 

Yet, when time came for Iran's ballistic missiles and drones, the highly acclaimed "Super power" could only helplessly look on as Iran's inferior munitions were ravaging oil refineries and U.S military bases in the Middle East. Not forgetting that Saudi Arabia is the biggest buyer of American highly sophiscated ammunitions globally.

The Saudis should take a lesson from this recent failure by the United States.

The world is shifting away from a country's sole survival on its military prowess and more important today, is a major power's ability to peacefully work out crises with those whom they hold conflicting ideologies.

Furthermore, while the Saudis are trying to hide their military weaknesses behind these new alliances, they should put into mind that for a group like the Houthi, it does not matter how mighty their opponent may be! 

Such groups only need to have the ability to disrupt peace and order.

A twenty dollar drone can be used to hit and damage millions worth of cargo on a ship sailing through the Babel Mandeb strait.

For such militant groups like Houthi, it is enough to be able to inflict such liitle damage on a regular basis as with time, the impact of their small but regular attacks becomes evident.

In 2024 during the Israeli war on Gaza, the Yemen Houthi movement managed to disrupt about 15% of global trade when they used anti-ship missiles, drones, and hijacked vessels in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea. These were ships that they claimed had a connection with Israel.

Recently, the Houthi used drones to attack Saudi Arabia's ARAMCO refinery successfully, destroying a 400,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Jizan, located on the Red Sea coast. 

These are people for whom life is already bad enough and can not get any worse than it already is.

Their country has endured bombs, missiles and embargos from their fellow Arab brothers.

In Yemen, since the civil war in the  country escalated in 2014, over 17 million people face severe food insecurity, with millions experiencing acute hunger and malnutrition. 

Furthermore, millions lack access to safe drinking water and sanitation, triggering recurring outbreaks of preventable diseases like cholera.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia boasts of a booming economy, the largest in the Arab world and acts as a dominant global energy superpower. 

This economy is anchored by massive oil and gas reserves managed through state giant Saudi ARAMCO oil company.

Therefore, Saudi Arabia should not even think of engaging in worthless wars with these nothing to lose groups. There is so much at stake to lose on the side of the Saudis.

Rather than panic and seek military alliances from countries that do not even belong in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia should face its challenges head on.

They share a sea and land boarder with Yemen. 

Prevention is better than cure.

The easiest thing to do would be to find ways of making peace with one's neighbors rather than try to make alliances with far away countries, to try and militarily confront a problem at one's door step. 

By the time the allies step in to one's rescue, their oil refineries and other economic infrastructure may already be on fire.

In conclusion therefore, Saudi Arabia should find means of harmonizing with the Houthis and lift the miserable blockade on Yemen. 

After all, the blockade has not effectively stopped Houthi attacks on Saudi territory.

By openly pursuing hostility with the Houthis rather than diplomacy, the Saudis are obviously trading a very dangerous path that could potentially disrupt their admirable economic progress.

Let Saudis consider making peace with their Yemeni neighbors. War is obviously much more costly than peace!

The Houthis seem to have decided that they are not going to carry on with the Saudi inflicted misery while they sadly watch Saudi Arabia's ecomomic progress across the boarder. 

They seem to have decided that as long as they are suffering, the Saudis should share some of the pain since they are partly and greatly responsible for it.

However, the Saudis should not forget that they sleep in a glass house. They should not throw stones at their neighbors.

Rather than put their glass house at risk of being shattered in their blind pursuit of dominance over their poor neighbors, let them pursue the course of peace and harmony with them.

With all their wealth, it wouldn't hurt either, if the Saudis used some of their tremendous oil revenue to help rebuild Yemen. 

It is of no use trying to appear powerful by deliberately making fellow human beings miserable!

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https://amwaldah.blogspot.com/2026/07/letter-to-arab-and-sunni-brothers.html