Saudi Arabia cannot find a way out of Yemen
The Saudi-led coalition’s withdrawal from a key port underscores its struggles
DURING THE Korean war an American general quipped that his beleaguered troops were not retreating, just “advancing in a different direction”. So too it was for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, which in mid-November withdrew its forces from Hodeida, the main port on the country’s Red Sea coast. The Houthis, a group of Shia rebels who have been fighting the coalition since 2015, swept in to seize it.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Slouching towards an exit”
From the November 27th 2021 edition
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