Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com
Axios reported Monday that President Trump gave Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) his support for an attack on Yemen ahead of Saudi Arabia’s bombing of the Sanaa International Airport, which shattered a years-long truce between Riyadh and the Houthis.
US officials told Axios reporter Barak Ravid that Riyadh sought support for the attack during conversations with US officials last week, which included a Friday conversation between Trump and MbS. The report said MbS "asked Trump for his backing for a military action against the Houthis and received it."
The US backed a brutal Saudi/UAE-led war against the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, from 2015 to 2022, throughout the entire first Trump administration.
The US provided significant military and intelligence support to the Saudis, meaning the US could have provided support for Monday’s attack on the Sanaa airport.
Ravid noted that the fact that MbS sought support from Trump before launching the strike suggested he’s preparing for the potential of it leading to a wider conflict with the Houthis and that Riyadh will need US military and diplomatic support.
In response to the Saudi strikes on the Sanaa airport, Ansar Allah launched missile and drone attacks against a Saudi airport and warned aircraft to stay out of Saudi airspace until the blockade on the Sanaa airport is lifted.
The Saudis bombed the Sanaa airport to prevent the landing of a flight from Iran that was carrying a Yemeni delegation that attended the funeral of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. After the strikes, the plane was able to land in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah.
The tensions began when a plane from Iran picked up the delegation from Sanaa earlier in the month, marking the first known Iranian flight to the airport in more than 10 years, as the Saudis have maintained a partial blockade on the airport despite the 2022 ceasefire.
Yemeni officials are warning that the next move could be the closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
“If the current situation aggravates, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Strait of Hormuz will be closed in an operational alliance. Oil prices would then skyrocket to $200 a barrel in a dreadful shock,” said Mohammed al-Farah, a member of Ansar Allah’s political bureau.