The decision to launch operation “Decisive Storm” against the Houthis in Yemen is like the announcement of a qualitative shift in Saudi foreign policy in dealing with regional crises, and these transitions are linked to Saudi Arabia’s attitude towards the suffering of the people of brotherly Yemen and extend to include the activation of the role of the Kingdom in other regional Arab crises in the forefront of which is the Syrian crisis.
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, chose the right strategic timing to activate the Saudi role and regain the initiative in the interest of the Saudi kingdom and by extension the Gulf and Arab countries. If the decision to launch “Decisive Storm” has been delayed just a little bit, the situation in this brotherly country, which is deeply vital to the Gulf Cooperation Council and represents the south gate of the Arab world, would have become very complicated, especially after the signing of the final agreement on the Iranian nuclear program. Indeed, the Iranian diplomacy has now the time to reap the fruits of this agreement, which means that Iranian interventions would be aggravated in addition to the growing desire for expansion and incursions in the Arab affairs under banners and slogans of various claims.
There is no doubt that the Houthi group leaders and the deposed president Ali Abdullah Saleh and Iran, their sponsor and partner and instigator, have moved to the annihilation of statehood in Yemen based on wrong strategic estimates that persuaded them that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf and Arab states, will not lift a finger in the event of a coup on the part of the Houthis and the forces of ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh on the constitutional legality in the country, and that the Saudi leadership will not take a bold step for military intervention to stop these attacks against the Yemeni people. These estimates coincided with the expectations of some observers, who had surrendered and were disappointed in front of the Iranian pride about controlling four Arab capitals!!! .
But they did not realize that historical leaders are usually born in times of crisis, through their good management of the crisis in a way that ensures the interests of their countries and their peoples and confirms the leaders’ ability to develop effective visions and perceptions in dealing with difficult circumstances. Hence, the decision of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to firmly intervene through the alliance supporting legitimacy in Yemen, led by Saudi Arabia, was a strategic surprise that did not fall in the calculations of the planners of Houthi encroachment in brotherly Yemen.
So that we do not forget, and in order to evaluate the extremely positive strategic results of the Saudi position, we have to restore the historic contexts of this position. The statement of Heydar Moslehi, former Minister of Iranian intelligence during the month of April that “Iran is actually in control of four Arab capitals” and his boasting that the “Houthis in Yemen is one of the products of the Iranian Revolution” was not the first of its kind, but was preceded by several Iranian statements and positions of the same sense. These include the statement of Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, in which he said that “officials in Iran did not expect this rapid spread of the ‘Islamic Revolution’ off-limits to stretch from Iraq to Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Bahrain, Yemen and Afghanistan,”. Many other Iranian officials harsher vocabulary to express similar views such as “conquering the countries in the region” and “the new Iranian empire” and the biggest Iranian Jihad”. Western strategic experts talked about the crystallization of the features of “a new Iranian imperial axis” beyond the notion of the Shiite crescent, while others felt that the “Shiite crescent” gradually turns into a “Shiite collar” that firmly controls the Gulf cooperation Council and smothers it strategically !!.
These and other positions, statements and opinions, were considered shocking by some Arab officials, but all this Arab discomfort and anxiety has done nothing actually to counter this Iranian incursion in the depth of Arab security. In the face of this strategic expansion of Iran at the expense of Arabs, several ideas were raised, among which the need for an Arab project that addresses the projects of foreign expansion in the region. But several factors have been and are still preventing the crystallization of this ambitious Arab project. So the existence of a deliberate strategy to address this accelerated collapse in the foundations of Arab security was like a lifeline saving the entire Arab world. This strategy began with the decision concerning “Decisive Storm”, which laid the foundation for an active Arab action that included major active and influential Arab powers, led by Saudi Arabia.
The shift in Saudi foreign policy has at its core the constants in terms of values, morals and strategy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since its inception, as well as active and effective dynamics to safeguard Arab security. Certainly, what is achieved now on the land of Yemen, that is the defeat of the Houthis, reflects the rightness of strategic planning in crisis management, and the error in the calculations and perceptions of some Arab theorists that are prejudiced against the kingdom and its regional role, when they rushed to the launch incorrect allegations that have been answered in practice on the ground in Yemen, through successive military victories. Soon the results of this active Arab action will materialize in other Arab troubled files.
