साउदी अरेबिया के हूती प्रतिरोध की चुनौतियाँ

Over decades, Saudi Arabia has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in building an advanced military, putting the kingdom among the top 10 nations in terms of arms spending. Still, the country has stumbled in response to deadly attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi militia, with the fighting in recent months reigniting a war that the kingdom began in 2015.

The problem in part is that Saudi Arabia invested heavily in weapons having what some military analysts call a "glitter factor" — things like high-tech fighter jets and the latest missile interceptors. But the Houthi guerrillas often deploy cheap drones or low-flying cruise missiles that Saudi forces struggle to detect. In addition, Saudi defenses were built assuming that the biggest threat would come from the east or northeast, from Iran or Iraq, not from Yemen to the southwest.

"It's a hugely rattling moment for Riyadh, humiliating on a number of fronts," said Burcu Ozcelik, an expert on Middle East security issues at the Royal United Services Institute. "There has been a very substantial, longstanding investment in building up hard military capabilities. But the issue is preparedness. How ready were the Saudis for this kind of lightning-speed offensive?"

For days, the Houthis have launched repeated attacks on infrastructure, energy and military targets deep within Saudi Arabia. This week, they struck the Saudi energy giant Aramco, setting a building on fire in Dhahran. On Saturday, a cruise missile struck a domestic airport terminal in Riyadh, killing at least 13 people and wounding more than 300 others. The Houthi spokesman, Yahya Saree, warned strikes would continue until the kingdom stopped attacking Yemen.

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