A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Houthis Cross Saudi Border

The Saudi media for tomorrow morning are up in arms about a raid across the Saudi-Yemeni border by Houthi rebels. The simmering tensions along the border may just have crossed a line (namely the border) and this could escalate. Here's Al-Jazeera in English on the story, and here's Arab News, but there's much more if you go to the Arabic press: Al-Watan in particular is full of stories so I'm linking to the front page rather than to individual stories. Their map is stolen (with full acknowledgment) on the upper right of this post. For those who don't read Arabic, the white parts to the right of the heavy line are Yemen and the colored parts (as well as the white parts with detail) are Saudi (the colored part is Jazan).
[Map from tomorrow's Al-Watan.]

This bears watching. The Saudi press is increasingly blaming Iran for the Houthis, as is the Yemeni government, and the two countries, usually at odds or at least awkward in their relations, are moving quickly towards some kind of common position here. More as this develops.

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