Saudi Arabia launches attacks against Houthi insurgents in Yemen

Jubeir said the Saudis “will do anything necessary” to protect the people of Yemen and “the legitimate government of Yemen.”

Jubeir said Saudi Arabia launched the attack “in response to [a] request from the legitimate Yemen government” and insisted it would be a limited operation “designed to protect the people of Yemen and its legitimate government from a takeover by the Houthis.”

“The [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries tried to facilitate a peaceful transition of government in Yemen, but the Houthis have continuously undercut the process,” he said.

“Based on the appeal from President Hadi, and based on the kingdom’s responsibility to Yemen and its people, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, along with its allies within the GCC and outside the GCC, launched military operations in support of the people of Yemen and their legitimate government,” he added.

Jubeir said the airstrikes began at 7 p.m. Washington, D.C. time and were conducted by Saudi Arabia along with “partner nations in the Persian Gulf” and others, although he declined to specify any other participants. He said that some countries had already transferred military assets to Saudi Arabia and that others were on their way.

Jubeir said that Saudi Arabia and its partners had made every effort to prevent violence but that those attempts had been thwarted by the Houthis. They are now “in control of ballistic missiles and heavy weapons,” in addition to Yemeni aircraft, he said.

In a statement published by the Saudi press agency, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain said they would respond to a request from Hadi “to protect Yemen and his dear people from the aggression of the Houthi militias which were and are still a tool in the hands of foreign powers that don’t stop meddling with the security and stability of brotherly Yemen.”

Oman, the sixth member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and a neighbor of Yemen, was not a signatory to the statement.

Egypt also announced it was providing political and military assistance for the anti-Houthi operation.

The Houthi insurgents are members of the Zaydi offshoot of Shia Islam – but note that while all the Houthis are Zayidis, not all Zayidis are Houthi, as is the case with Ali Abdulah Saleh, who was the president of North Yeen from 1978 to 1990 and, after the unification Yemen in 1990, the president of Yemen from 1990 until 2012.

The Houthis captured the capital, Sana’a, last year and placed Hadi under house arrest. He escaped to Aden earlier this month.

“This is all about Sunni v Shia, Saudi v Iran,” said Michael Lewis, professor at Ohio Northern University College of Law and a former navy fighter pilot who watches Yemen closely. The United States, he told the Guardian, “can’t be a disinterested observer. Nobody’s going to buy that. What we needed to do was pick a side.”