Saudi Arabia is planning a major offensive against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, with options ranging from a coastal push to secure the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to a multi-front assault across four Yemeni governorates, Reuters reported on Friday, citing six people with knowledge of the preparations. The operation would be the biggest escalation of the Yemen conflict since the 2022 truce collapsed.
The operation, expected to be launched in the coming weeks, would be led by Yemeni forces on the ground, overseen by Riyadh and supported by Saudi airstrikes, the officials told Reuters. More than 100,000 Yemeni troops could be mobilized, depending on the scale of the operation. Estimates of the launch timing ranged from within a week to after the U.S. midterm elections in early November. The six people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss security matters. Spokespeople for the Saudi and Yemeni governments, the Houthi group and the U.S. military did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
Bab el-Mandeb is the prize
A key objective of the planned offensive, which had not been previously reported, is to reverse what the officials described as the Houthis' rapid gains last month, when the group advanced down Yemen's coast and seized control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The strait is the southern exit of the Red Sea, a key shipping route between the Mediterranean and Asia that Reuters said has assumed even more importance this year as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed by the Iran conflict.
The officials told Reuters that Riyadh has concluded it cannot enter new peace negotiations with the Houthis while the group controls Bab el-Mandeb, which gives the Houthis significant global leverage.
Michael Ratney, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told Reuters he expected an offensive to be narrowly focused and "certainly more modest in scope" than the Saudi-led operation launched in 2015 that sought to rout the militants. Yemen analyst Mohammed Albasha cautioned that the anti-Houthi forces Saudi Arabia and the UAE armed and trained earlier in the civil war are "still not organised or prepared for the kind of sustained offensive required to push back a disciplined Houthi military force." Saudi political analyst Ali Shihabi told Reuters the priority so far had been defending positions on the ground, but "certainly they will be going on the offensive" — adding that success would depend on the quality of local forces.
Washington provides intelligence, not airstrikes
The United States is already providing military advisers and intelligence, including targeting information, to support Saudi air operations in Yemen, according to one Western diplomat cited by Reuters. But Washington has declined to take part in combat. Axios reported Friday that the U.S. turned down a Saudi request for direct airstrikes — the second such refusal in recent weeks. Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman called Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday to brief him on the planned operation and again request U.S. strikes, according to a U.S. official cited by Axios, who said the U.S. "is not going to take kinetic action for now" but could change that position if the operation runs into problems.
Axios also reported that President Trump was close to ordering a strike on the Houthis last week after a request from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman but ultimately decided against it, and that U.S. Central Command had reservations about strikes in Yemen as a distraction from its focus on Iran. One U.S. official told Axios the United States had provided Saudi Arabia with more than 200 Houthi targets over the past two weeks.
Regional support is taking shape around the kingdom. Pakistani and regional officials told Reuters that Turkey and Pakistan — with whom Saudi Arabia signed a joint defence agreement last month — have provided military equipment Riyadh is using in Yemen. Pakistan sent four cargo planes with air-defence systems, light artillery, drones and anti-drone systems to Aden last month, and Pakistani military advisers are on the ground alongside Saudi counterparts; 30,000 to 40,000 Pakistani troops are in Saudi Arabia defending the kingdom's land borders, though Islamabad has not decided to send troops into Yemen in a fighting capacity, a Pakistani official said. Turkish drones previously bought by Saudi Arabia have been deployed over Yemen, the officials said. France has announced it will send defensive systems and troops to Saudi Arabia to help protect the Red Sea port city of Yanbu, which was struck by a projectile earlier Friday.
The planned offensive comes amid Yemen's most serious escalation since the 2022 truce: the Saudi-led coalition this week accused the Houthis of a drone strike on a Medina power station — a claim the Houthis denied — and Yemeni government forces carried out 20 airstrikes against Houthi targets in Taiz province on Friday.
