Gulf and Arabian Peninsula

When the United States and the United Kingdom decided to strike Houthi targets inside Yemen to stop the group from launching attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, most European allies did not want to get involved in the operation. The sole exception was the Netherlands, which grabbed the opportunity to step forward and show its willingness to provide not only political but also military support, albeit largely symbolic.

Since the height of the protests in 2022, the government cracked down with a new degree of severity on the protesters, reducing their numbers on the street. Many leave if they can. Those who stay have adopted less visible shows of political and social dissatisfaction against the regime’s aggression.

Expert regional analysis by MEI scholars and contributors.

Overnight US and UK strikes on Thursday delivered a strong message to the Houthis: their attacks on global shipping in the Red Sea will not go unpunished.

Ansar Allah, the Yemen-based militant group commonly referred to as the Houthis, is arguably the latest and largest addition to the Iran-led Axis of Resistance. Present tensions in the Red Sea illustrate both the utility of the Houthis for Tehran’s anti-American and anti-Israel regional agenda as well as the challenges their actions can create for the Iranians.

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict in October, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have sought means to capitalize on the war in Gaza to raise their profile, enhance their pan-Arab legitimacy, and burnish their credentials both domestically and in the region. In their effort to insert themselves into the Gaza conflict, the Houthis believe their actions will strengthen their support base at home while also cementing their movement more firmly into the Iranian “Axis of Resistance.”

In 2017, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and a number of Jordanian banks established the Saudi-Jordanian Investment Fund to channel $3 billion into the Jordanian economy. Two SJIF projects provide relevant case studies of the challenges facing Jordan’s broader efforts to attract more FDI and drive economic development.

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US politicians should not pretend that military strikes can alone solve the problem of Iran and its proxies.

In the mid-1980s, during the long war between Iran and Iraq, students at Tehran’s Jewish high schools would watch their friends suddenly disappear, and then reappear six months later in Europe, the U.S., or Israel. They would get there through a sophisticated smuggling operation that spirited Iran’s Jews out of the country and into Pakistan.

As two contradictory trends of de-escalation in the Persian Gulf and a new round of war between Palestinians and Israelis unfold at the same time, Iran is trying to play its best cards and navigate its position. Iran views the region’s geopolitical and security conflicts as a chance to uphold its position and leverage it to advance its defined national interests.

In response to the Oct. 7 attacks and subsequent bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip, most media outlets and think tanks concluded that Hamas initiated the war to sever the path toward normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Prior to the Hamas strike, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) said his country was moving steadily in the direction of normalizing relations with Israel.

“Bahrain” literally translates as “the land of two seas,” referring to the two sources of water within and around the island: the sweet-water terrestrial and submarine springs, and the saltwater surrounding oceans. Water has played a central role in the Gulf island nation’s history and has been a major influence on the work of Bahraini artists, along with the country’s unique landscape and natural environment, as well as the impact of rapid economic and urban development.

Sheikh Mishal al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al Sabah, Kuwait’s 83-year-old crown prince and half-brother of the late emir, was named to replace Sheikh Nawaf immediately following news of his death on Dec. 16.