From Riyadh to Taiz, it has been a week of tragedy. While Saudi Arabia faces a wave of deadly attacks by the Houthis, hundreds of thousands of people in the southern Yemeni city are largely cut off from food and fuel.
The fighting continues to intensify between the rebel group and Yemeni government forces, but the most recent attacks on Saudi targets, both inside and outside the country, have tested the kingdom’s patience.
At least 13 people were killed and hundreds injured in a missile strike on Riyadh’s international airport over the weekend. Since then, the Houthis have continued to target airports and oil facilities across the kingdom, as well as the headquarters of Saudi Aramco.
In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher examines the security options Saudi Arabia could consider in the wake of the most recent escalation, and asks how the country can find a way out without being drawn into a wider war.
She speaks to Nawaf Obaid, senior research fellow at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, and to Mahdi Ghuloom, geopolitics researcher at the Observer Research Foundation Middle East.