Despite her recent offer to stop the war and siege, which reflects a defeat at its core, Saudi Arabia tried to maintain its cohesion through pretending force in parallel, so what are the messages that it is trying to convey?
During his reading to the Saudi Peace Initiative in Yemen
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan made sure to have the military spokesperson for the coalition forces, Turki Al-Maliki, to his right. In the wake of this, Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman appeared in a series of tweets trying the carrot and stick. Not to mention the intensification of air strikes on Yemeni cities, and all of them are messages through which Saudi Arabia is trying to appear strong. How was the initiative read by neutrals and even those loyal to it?
The initiative, with its contents, carries great concessions that reflect the size of the dilemma in which Saudi Arabia is living. On the 26th of March 2015, the Kingdom led a coalition of 17 countries and spent trillions of dollars in favor of harnessing the latest in military technology, including satellites, spy planes, etc.,.two weeks were set for the invasion of Yeme, it did not expect the situation to reach this level of regression, and the surrender document would read by the same hand through which the bullet of war was fired, and even observers did not expect that the rapid events, despite their gravity, would witness a dramatic development. And returns Saudi Arabia, which used to rule this country with a special committee, to its normal size in the region.
Saudi Arabia offered to open Sana’a airport and Hodeidah port as much as recognition to its blockade to Yemen, it indicates that Saudi Arabia is aggressively promoting its new initiative, it is trying to satisfy Sana’a, whose leaders’ condition was “to stop the aggression and lift the siege” and push it towards accepting the initiative, it realizes that the ceiling of Sana’a, according to the pro-Saudi expert Majid Al-Madhaji, is greater than these demands, in light of the new military superiority.
Therefore, Saudi fears that Sana’a will reject the new initiative, which would put Saudi Arabia in an embarrassing position in front of the international community, and exposes it to a slap in its place among the nations, this is the same reason that prompted international parties, including the United States and the United Nations, to encourage the Saudi initiative, hoping that Sana’a would accept it, in a way that would preserve its face.
These repercussions in the course of Saudi initiative indicate that Saudi Arabia preceded its initiative
by pushing US administration to announce its willingness to stop the war on Yemen, or in a clearer sense, “surrender” it wants salvation from Yemen. The war has exhausted her on all levels, amid indications of an economic collapse, in light of the recent Aramco reports regarding the decline in profits to below 40%, but in parallel, Saudi wants to preserve part of her face and show its self-strong, despite the breakdown. This is what Saudi Arabia will try to defend on, as the repercussions over its future as a leader in the region will be at risk.
