00:00Elijah J. Manier is a veteran war correspondent and political risk analyst. Elijah, welcome back.
00:05Let's just take stock then. Let's do a sit rep, as they call it. To what extent have the Houthis
00:10exposed the limits of the Saudi military arsenal? Well, I mean, in 2015, the Saudis conducted a war
00:22with a large coalition for seven years against Ansarullah, led by the Houthis, and also Donald
00:30Trump in his second mandate in March 2025, after 45 days, gave up and left after battling
00:41again Ansarullah with no outcome and no objective. It is exactly the same the Saudis are facing
00:48today, but they have made a Syrian mistake. In the last 24 hours, they have attacked a
00:55depot of oil and gas in Sana'a, which gave Ansarullah now the freedom to break all red lines, which
01:07means that I am afraid many locations of Aramco around Saudi Arabia will be targeted in the
01:14next days and weeks. And how come, how come Saudi Arabia is still struggling against the Houthis
01:21despite monumental financial spend in defense and weaponry? Because in 2022, there was a ceasefire
01:31with Ansarullah and the Saudis. And according to this ceasefire, the Saudis would lift the blockade,
01:38pay the money and the salaries to the Ansarullah, pay back contribution of all the damage and lift the
01:48blockade. None of this happened. This is when the Saudis again, just a few months ago, during the funeral
01:57of the Granatullah, Sayyid Ali Khamenei, assassinated in Iran. A delegation went to Tehran on Mahan air,
02:05Iranian flight. And on the way back, the Saudis bombed Sana'a airport, giving the beginning of the
02:13hostility and the preparation between both sides. And this is when Ansarullah attacked. And then that
02:20led to the control of Moqa and Dahab and Dubaab. And now they are advancing toward the city of Taiz
02:29in the
02:30south in direction to Adam after occupying all the mountains around the city of Taiz and to protect
02:39their back on the Babel mandate. Why are relatively inexpensive drones and cruise missiles proving
02:49such a huge challenge for a military equipped with advanced radar and missile defense technology?
02:56Well, I'm afraid this question is the agony of all armies we have seen during the war between
03:06Hezbollah and Israel, how very inexpensive drones jeopardize the life of the Israeli occupation forces
03:15in the south of Lebanon equipped with the most advanced technology. We have seen how the Americans
03:22suffer of all their bases in the Middle East against the Iranian drones and cruise and ballistic missiles,
03:30of course. And now Ansarullah are equipped with very cheap drones, but highly effective with a little
03:37camera available in the market, but also equipped with a bit of explosive and really harassing their
03:45opponent and causing serious damage on oil and energy installation, which is a dilemma that every
03:54single army is suffering from. And I think that includes also the Russian at the beginning of the
04:00war. And now the Russian Ukrainian war are suffering exactly from the same. Elijah, we'll talk again.
04:05Thank you for that. Elijah J Manier, the veteran war correspondent and political risk analyst.
