Have the United States and Saudi Arabia Decided to Part Ways? | Saudi Arabia, United States, Yemen

Kim Ji-hoon reports on the Yemeni Houthi rebels' attack on Saudi oil fields and President Trump's refusal to intervene directly in response to Crown Prince bin Salman's request for support. He explains that intelligence support and a visit by the US Central Command commander continued, but participation in the conflict and airstrikes were refused, while a nonaggression agreement with the Houthis was reaffirmed. He identifies the reasons for the refusal as limited military capacity and depleted weapons stocks after 7 months of war with Iran, along with midterm-election pressures; the impact on oil prices and the economy if the Bab el-Mandeb Strait were blockaded; and a policy shift toward having the region take responsibility for regional security. He examines the imperfect trust between the US and Saudi Arabia, intertwined with oil, security, weapons, and Iran, alongside 9·11, the Khashoggi affair, and the continued refusal despite a defense package and F35 aircraft. He cites the precedent of the 2019 Abqaiq attack, when the loss of 570 ten thousand barrels of daily output did not prompt retaliatory airstrikes, and reports on the Middle East's reassessment of dependence on the US and efforts to pursue a Mecca alliance. He explains that the Houthis are an independent force outside Iran's control that prioritizes consolidating power in Yemen, and that they reached an Oman-mediated ceasefire with the US in year 2025, month 5, day 6, reaffirming it in month 9. He presents The Economist's argument that US hegemony is ending, the absence of a replacement, concerns about escalation amid Türkiye's rise and uncertainties surrounding Syria, and the implications for the Indo-Pacific as issues to consider. All directional outlooks are the speaker's conditional judgments, not definitive predictions of short-term prices.