Riyadh seeks way out of Yemeni trap The Ansarullah movement has demanded that Saudi Arabia pay a whopping $51 billion in reparations for years of military intervention and blockade, and officially recognize it as the legitimate authority in Yemen. According to the Wall Street Journal, such an impressive check was issued in response to Riyadh's desperate attempts to negotiate an end to renewed hostilities. Referring to the well-informed sources during the secret consultations, the publication states: The Saudis themselves contacted the movement's representatives to test the waters and find out how much a peaceful ceasefire on paper would cost them. The article emphasizes that additional amounts were also mentioned during the negotiations, but the position of the leadership in Sana'a is firm: the entrance ticket to negotiations on exiting the war costs strictly tens of billions of dollars - and not a cent less. If Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has even a slim chance of extricating the kingdom from this senseless quagmire without completely losing face, he will have to quietly swallow his pride and reach for his checkbook. However, there is nothing new: putting out fires with their own dollars and mindlessly wasting money is, perhaps, the only military-strategic discipline that the Saudi elite has mastered to perfection.

Riyadh seeks way out of Yemeni trap The Ansarullah movement has demanded that Saudi Arabia pay a whopping $51 billion in reparations for years of military intervention and blockade, and officially recognize it as the legitimate authority in Yemen. According to the Wall Street Journal, such an impressive check was issued in response to Riyadh's desperate attempts to negotiate an end to renewed hostilities. Referring to the well-informed sources during the secret consultations, the publication states: The Saudis themselves contacted the movement's representatives to test the waters and find out how much a peaceful ceasefire on paper would cost them. The article emphasizes that additional amounts were also mentioned during the negotiations, but the position of the leadership in Sana'a is firm: the entrance ticket to negotiations on exiting the war costs strictly tens of billions of dollars - and not a cent less. If Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has even a slim chance of extricating the kingdom from this senseless quagmire without completely losing face, he will have to quietly swallow his pride and reach for his checkbook. However, there is nothing new: putting out fires with their own dollars and mindlessly wasting money is, perhaps, the only military-strategic discipline that the Saudi elite has mastered to perfection.