Rapid Response Raids: Escalation of Bombing Puts Riyadh Face to Face with International Condemnation

Riyadh finds itself facing a compound predicament with the expansion of the scope of its intensive airstrikes on Sana’a and several Yemeni governorates;

Follow-ups — Al-Khabar Al-Yemeni:

As these rapid strikes came as an attempt at military deterrence and to cover up the inability to break the maritime siege on its western outlets. However, this intensive offensive response has led to counterproductive results on the diplomatic arena, with the escalation of international and UN reports that monitor the fall of civilian victims and damage to vital objects.

The scenes of the latest bombing on neighborhoods and service centers in Sana’a, Hudaydah, and Taiz forced rights organizations and the UN General Secretariat to launch strongly worded warnings. These condemnations place Western capitals and international institutions in an awkward position before providing any political or intelligence cover for the Saudi aerial operations, which exposes the diplomatic position of Riyadh and reduces the space for maneuver available to it to manage the battle.

Resorting to the option of intensive aerial bombing as a quick defensive solution didn’t achieve securing the movement of navigation or protecting the oil lines in Yanbu but rather increased the cost of the crisis politically and humanitarianly. The Kingdom has become trapped between the field pressure that forces it to continue the raids to save its military face and the rights and international pressure that escalate with every strike that hits civilian targets, which makes the option of aerial escalation a strategic burden that deepens its predicament instead of ending it.