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Inside the Saudi-Houthi conflict as fighting between the sides heats up · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: National affairs experts are warning the conflict in the Middle
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  Speaker 1: East could expand throughout the region after Saudi Arabia and
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  Speaker 1: the Houthi fighters in Yemen traded attacks over the last
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  Speaker 1: few days, increasing worries that the strait leading to the
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  Speaker 1: Red Sea, a key route for Saudi oil exports, could
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  Speaker 1: be cut off. In twenty fourteen, a war broke out
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  Speaker 1: in Yemen between the Muslim Sunni led government and the
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  Speaker 1: Shieit Huthis. Other Gulf nations intervened in twenty fifteen to
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  Speaker 1: restore Yemen's internationally recognized legitimate Sunni led government. Over a
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  Speaker 1: seven year period, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
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  Speaker 1: led an aggressive bombing campaign in rebel controlled areas of Yemen,
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  Speaker 1: with more than twenty five thousand air strikes and a
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  Speaker 1: naval blockade to prevent Iran from resupplying the Huthis. The
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  Speaker 1: Houthis responded by launching drones and missiles at Saudi Arabia
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  Speaker 1: and the UAE. The nonprofit Yemen Data Project estimates that
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  Speaker 1: nearly nine thousand civilian deaths were caused by the coalition
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  Speaker 1: air strikes overall by the end of twenty twenty one,
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  Speaker 1: three hundred and seventy seven thousand ye Men had been
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  Speaker 1: killed in the war. According to the UN, sixty percent
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  Speaker 1: of those caused by food shortages and lack of medical care.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, the UN Secretary General warned the humanitarian
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  Speaker 1: crisis in Yemen had already escalated to a dire point.
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  Speaker 2: Allow me a clear message about the situation in Yemen,
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  Speaker 2: the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
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  Speaker 1: This is not a natural disaster, it is man made
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  Speaker 1: and Dyemen today stands on a precipice. On the menitarian side,
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  Speaker 1: the situation is desparate.
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  Speaker 2: We must do all we can to prevent the already
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  Speaker 2: dire conditions from detilidating into the worst femine we have
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  Speaker 2: seen in decades.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty twenty two, the Saudi led coalition and the
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  Speaker 1: Huthi group agreed to a truce, and while the agreement
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  Speaker 1: lapsed in October of that year, fighting hasn't resumed. In
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, a Houthi delegation visited Riod for longer
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  Speaker 1: term peace talks. The Truth even stayed intact throughout Hoothy
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  Speaker 1: attacks in the Red Sea in support of Gaza during
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  Speaker 1: the Israel Gaza war. Now, these latest attacks between Houthi
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  Speaker 1: fighters and the Saudis, along with the threat of a
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  Speaker 1: Houthi blockade in the Red Sea, could further cause further
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  Speaker 1: conflict in the region. Now. Since the conflict began in
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  Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, the US has been part of the response
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  Speaker 1: during the Saudi led campaign from twenty fifteen to twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty two, the US provided weapons and intelligence to its forces.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty twenty four, in response to Hoothi attacks on
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  Speaker 1: ships in the Red Sea and support of Hamas, the
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  Speaker 1: US bombed Houthy targets and stopped attempted ship seizures. Then,
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  Speaker 1: in March twenty twenty five, the US military launched a
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  Speaker 1: campaign to completely eliminate the Houthy threat to maritime transit.
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  Speaker 1: After about two months of fighting, the US and Houthi's
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  Speaker 1: agreed to a truce, which has held for now, but
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  Speaker 1: an escalation of fighting between the Saudis and Huthis could
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  Speaker 1: jeopardize that. I want to bring in CBS News Middle
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  Speaker 1: East contributor Courtney Kighli. So, Courtney, with these new attacks,
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  Speaker 1: what can we expect to happen and what does this
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  Speaker 1: mean for the region?
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  Speaker 2: Everything and hopefully nothing, So the Yemeni separatist movement and
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  Speaker 2: the Yemeni Civil War was always between east and west,
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  Speaker 2: north and south, but in recent years it's become a
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  Speaker 2: proxy battlefield. The Saudis have chosen one side, the Iranians
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  Speaker 2: have chosen the other. The Saudis side is supported internationally
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  Speaker 2: and it is also supported by the US and other countries.
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  Speaker 2: And after October seventh, they wanted to make sure that
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  Speaker 2: there was no spillover of the Iranians inducing the Hoothies
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  Speaker 2: to shut down the Red Sea shipping routes. And there's
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  Speaker 2: another choke point. So there's straight up Hormus and there's
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  Speaker 2: Bob al mundeeb Bob l Mundeb or Mendeb is basically
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  Speaker 2: the Gate of Tears. Now it's not the Gate of
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  Speaker 2: Tears because it's being shut down by the hoo Thies.
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  Speaker 2: It's the Gate of tears because it was called the
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  Speaker 2: Gate of Endurance. You had to sail through it to
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  Speaker 2: get to further shipping routes to Asia and if you
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  Speaker 2: if you sail through it, you can go through the
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  Speaker 2: Suez Canal and to Europe. So it's another strategicway with
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  Speaker 2: another straight that can be blocked. And so with the
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  Speaker 2: death of Hamione. With his funeral, some of the Houthis
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  Speaker 2: went to the harmonies procession and they came back and
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  Speaker 2: that's when they say, the Sadi's bombed this Sana airport,
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  Speaker 2: which the Houthis are in charge of, and then the
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  Speaker 2: Houthis responded by attacking Saudi ships. And that was just
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  Speaker 2: a few days ago. And what that did was up
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  Speaker 2: end markets and make everyone say, oh, no, here we go.
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  Speaker 2: If we can't get the straight of Hormuz open, what
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  Speaker 2: about this? And are the Iranians going to pick this
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  Speaker 2: fight too?
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  Speaker 1: So what are you going to be watching for the
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  Speaker 1: next few days shipping lanes?
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  Speaker 2: Any kind of agreement for the Saudis and the and
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  Speaker 2: the Houthis to calm down, because the Saudis really speak
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  Speaker 2: for this Yemeni government and the Houthis and the Iranians,
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  Speaker 2: you know, really they'll listen and maybe defer to Iran.
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  Speaker 2: But the country is impoverished, It's one of the poorest
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  Speaker 2: countries in the world. It's still undergoing humanitarian catastrophe, large
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  Speaker 2: numbers of surveys, lack of humanitarian aid. So meanwhile, once again,
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  Speaker 2: as the region often goes, you have people paying the price.
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  Speaker 1: Courtney heally, thank you,