Last month, a pro-Iranian Iraqi group claimed credit for attacking Riyadh with drones, an important escalation in the sectarian violence in the region. Iran’s militia allies in Iraq may now also be launching attacks on Riyadh. Its provision of missile and drone technology has enabled the Houthis to strike Riyadh and other Saudi targets. The Houthis have moved closer to Iran as the war progressed, and Iran has significantly more clout in Sana’a today than six years ago.

He led an effort to designate the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization in the last week of the administration. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was convinced the Saudis could win and that it would be a great defeat for the Iranians, who backed the rebel Houthi Zaydi Shias. The Trump administration was totally enthusiastic about the war. Who were the proponents of backing Riyadh and Abu Dhabi? Who were the doubters?

It would be useful to know more about the debate inside the Obama administration during the start of the war. The Senate confirmation process for Austin gave insufficient attention to the issue. The administration’s regional military commander, now Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, reportedly advised against supporting the Saudi campaign and predicted it would be a failure. Sales to other belligerents in the war, like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), also rose exponentially.īarack Obama could have stopped the war at its start in 2015 by cutting off military, diplomatic, and intelligence support for the Saudi-led coalition that imposed a blockade on Yemen and began deadly air strikes on civilian targets. agreed to sell over $64.1 billion worth of weapons to Riyadh, averaging $10.7 billion per year. arms transfers to Saudi Arabia amounted to $3 billion between 20, the U.S. A total of 73% of Saudi Arabia’s arms imports came from the U.S., and 13% from the U.K.

and the United Kingdom about Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen, both Washington and London continued to export arms to Saudi Arabia from 2015 to 2019. Despite the wide-ranging concerns in the U.S. Its imports of major arms increased by 130% compared with the previous five-year period. Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center for Middle East Policy, Center for Security, Strategy, and TechnologyĪccording to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the preeminent think tank tracking arms sales, Saudi Arabia was the world’s largest arms importer from 2015 to 2019, the first five years of the Yemen war.

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