That reverse-midas touch is NEVER late...
BREAKING: The Houthis have now seized Perim Island, completing total control over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, per a Yemeni local government official to AFP.
Perim sits inside the strait at its narrowest point and hosts an Emirati air base where Israel has been granted access to. It comes right after MBS called Trump twice urging US strikes on the Houthis as they closed in on the strait, and Trump refused
Saudi Arabia finds itself in a catastrophic situation.
With the latest strike on the Abqaiq-to-Yanbu pipeline—which served as the last remaining route for oil exports following the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz—Saudi Arabia has essentially ceased exporting oil;
Furthermore, it has already applied for a massive loan from the World Bank due to its dire economic state.
The fall of the Bab al-Mandab Strait into Houthi hands represents yet another disaster of unprecedented proportions for the Saudis, who were already seeing 50% of their ships attacked and blocked.
It is truly baffling to imagine how they will extricate themselves from this quagmire they have plunged into.