Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman telephoned President Donald Trump twice last Thursday and asked him to order American airstrikes against the Houthis, as the Iran-backed movement overran the Yemeni port of Mocha and pushed toward the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Trump declined both times, according to two U.S. officials who spoke to Axios, and administration officials said Washington has no intention of intervening directly against the group.
The refusal marks the point at which the Saudi war in Yemen collided with the limits of American appetite for another front. Trump has instructed U.S. forces to remain focused on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, according to sources familiar with the discussions, and military and civilian officials have been telling their Saudi counterparts as much for weeks. What Washington offered instead was intelligence and targeting data. Roughly 200 American military personnel are already in the kingdom providing non-kinetic support, and Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, flew to Saudi Arabia on Thursday for urgent coordination. A senior administration official framed the position in terms of division of labor, saying the United States is focused on protecting core interests such as freedom of navigation in the Red Sea while empowering regional partners to manage regional security problems themselves.
The two calls came hours apart. In the first, bin Salman briefed Trump on the deteriorating battlefield as Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces retreated from Mocha. In the second, he asked for the strikes. The Houthis took the city, then took Dhubab, the last significant government-held town on the western coast, and then took Perim Island in the middle of the shipping lane after the Yemeni military withdrew, completing their control of the approaches to the strait. More than two thousand government soldiers are besieged on the Hanish Islands. Oil prices rose on Thursday as the advance unfolded, and smoke was reported over the kingdom's east-west pipeline, the overland route Riyadh relies on to move crude when the Gulf is contested.
What makes the refusal significant is how far the Saudi position has moved. When the confrontation reignited in July, after Riyadh blocked an Iranian aircraft carrying senior Houthi officials home from the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from landing in Sanaa, bin Salman asked Trump only for political cover to strike Sanaa airport and made clear the kingdom did not require American military help. Trump gave him the backing. The Houthis retaliated against Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, expanded their attacks to Saudi energy infrastructure, and have since fired repeatedly into Jizan, Abha, Khamis Mushait and Najran, wounding at least 73 people in one three-day stretch. Saudi aircraft have flown dozens of sorties a day across six Yemeni provinces in reply. Two months on, the crown prince is asking Washington to fight the war for him.
He has been turned down more than once. Israel's Kan reported earlier this month that bin Salman had asked Cooper for the United States to take the lead in the campaign and was refused, with a source saying Washington's reasoning was that the Houthis are not currently firing on American vessels and are concentrating on Saudi shipping. That calculation appears to be holding. Speaking to reporters during a visit to Ireland on Saturday, Trump said the Houthis had contacted the United States and did not want a fight with it. He confirmed speaking to the crown prince without disclosing what was said, calling him a good friend and saying everything would work out.
