MBS Is to Blame for Saudi Arabia’s Shame in Yemen
The crown prince’s first foreign policy foray is ending in abject failure.
It won’t be remembered as a win.
Photographer: AFP via Getty Images)
It has taken eight years, cost more than 200,000 lives and drained the exchequer of tens of billions of dollars, but Mohammed bin Salman is hoping nobody will notice that his first foray into foreign policy has been an utter failure. As he seeks a peace with Yemen’s Houthi militia, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and de facto ruler would prefer that we all pay attention to his growing stature as a player in international affairs.
In the Saudi telling of the tale, the prince is merely getting out of a minor entanglement, the better to engage with great-power geopolitics. Why spar with Shiite rebels over control of the kingdom’s impoverished southern neighbor, when he can apply himself to matters of worldwide import, such as setting the price of oil and playing the US, China and Russia off each other?