Al-Jazirah, Saudi Arabia, June 17
Last week, Saudi-led coalition forces finally managed to seize the international airport and seaport in Hodeidah, Yemen’s fourth-largest city and its principal port on the Red Sea. This is a monumental development in Yemen’s civil war. Seizing the port will now force the Houthi rebels to the negotiation table, where they will have to make significant concessions to Saudi Arabia. The Hodeidah port has been the Houthi militias’ main source of revenue over the past four years. According to several sources, the shippers of each vessel that dock at the port are required to pay upwards of $100,000 to Houthi authorities before being allowed to unload their goods. In addition, the port served as the main gateway for Iranian ships carrying arms to the Houthis, including ballistic missiles used to target Saudi cities and towns. Thus, the capture of Hodeidah will severely weaken the Iranian-backed rebels and allow the legitimate Yemeni government to regain control over one of the country’s most strategic sites. In an unsurprising turn of events, the United Nations—the same body that has been calling for the Houthis to disarm without any progress to date—is pressuring Saudi Arabia to halt its operation. Various UN agencies have already warned of “hundreds of thousands” of civilian deaths in Hodeidah, as a result of this takeover. It remains beyond me how detached bureaucrats came up with these preposterous and inflated figures. Yet the bottom line is this: namely, that Saudi Arabia will not stop its mission until the Houthi militias are crushed. This victory will be swift and, once completed, the people of Hodeidah will finally be liberated. It is a shame that the United Nations not only failed to bring the Houthis to the table, but also provided the conditions for them to enhance their foothold in the country. The least this organization can do at this time is stand on the sidelines and wait for Riyadh to finish its job. –Salman al-Dossry