Saudi Arabia once counted on U.S. protection.
asserted
Arabia → count → protection
Now it’s pivoting to new alliances
asserted
it → pivot → alliances
- After Washington rebuffed calls to strike Houthi rebels, Saudi Arabia is pursuing new maritime and defense alliances.
-
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Arabia → rebuff → alliances
Houthi forces have seized territory on the Red Sea coast and threatened Saudi shipping, endangering an export route made more vital by Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
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forces → seize → Hormuz
For decades, the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the U.S. has centered on an often-mentioned but rarely tested supposition: If the kingdom were attacked, America would come to its rescue.
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America → center → rescue
But recent events have shown that much-vaunted security umbrella to be a leaky one.
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umbrella → show → ?
Last month, Iran-aligned Yemeni rebels blitzed through Yemen’s coast and threatened to shut down Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea lifeline.
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rebels → align → lifeline
But the Trump administration, reluctant to open a new front in its war with Iran, rebuffed Riyadh’s calls to come to its rescue.
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administration → open → rescue
That has left the kingdom searching for friends beyond Washington, for allies ready to put rockets where the rhetoric is and assist in a fight Saudi Arabia considers existential.
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Arabia → leave → fight
Over the last few months, as Persian Gulf nations contended with the fallout from the Israel-U.S. war on Iran, Saudi Arabia has supercharged its military-focused diplomacy.
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Arabia → contend → diplomacy
In July, it announced a 15-nation maritime alliance to safeguard shipping through the Red Sea, the Bab al Mandab strait and the Gulf of Aden.
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it → announce → Aden
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which links the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean, is a new tinderbox in the Iran war.
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which → link → war
Soon after came the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, a NATO-inspired security pact where any attack on Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan would be regarded as an attack against all three.
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attack → come → three
And this week, Saudi Arabia’s race to rally allies spurred a detente of sorts with its frenemy the United Arab Emirates, with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — the country’s de facto ruler — and defense minister brother receiving the Emirates’ vice president for the first high-level meeting since the two sides fell out over Yemen late last year.
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sides → rally → Yemen
The Saudi overtures come at a sensitive time for the kingdom.
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overtures → come → kingdom
The standoff between the U.S. and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz has largely cut off Saudi Arabia’s main export channel, and attacks on its energy infrastructure are lowering its oil output.
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attacks → cut → output
As a result, the kingdom saw a 25% contraction in “oil activities,” according to official economic data, triggering an almost 5% decrease in the country’s gross domestic product between April and June, compared with the first quarter of the year.
uncertain
kingdom → see → year
That reduction forced painful cuts to Vision 2030, the prince’s signature policy aimed at remaking Saudi Arabia.
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reduction → force → Arabia
So-called giga-projects, such as the Line and Trojena, have revised their ambitions downward amid the financial realities of a Saudi Arabia under fire.
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projects → call → fire
Saudi Arabia is gambling on a gargantuan building boom to remake its image and economy, but history offers cautionary tales over such ambitions.
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history → gamble → ambitions
And all that was before the Houthis got involved.
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Houthis → involve → ?
The Houthis had been fighting the Saudis since 2015 in Yemen’s civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people before settling into a stalemate and an uneasy ceasefire in 2022.
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that → fight → 2022
But in July, Saudi Arabia attacked the airport in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, to prevent the landing of an Iranian plane carrying high-ranking Houthi officials.
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Arabia → attack → officials
That set off a flurry of Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure, and the Houthis’ announcement of a blockade against Saudi shipping on the Red Sea — now the main corridor for Saudi energy exports.
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That → set → exports
Then in September, the Houthis overran Yemen’s coastal cities, snapping up materiel left behind by Saudi-backed government fighters and seizing control of territory near the Bab al Mandab strait.
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Houthis → overrun → strait
A few days later, the Saudis accused an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq of coordinating with the Houthis to hit the East-West Pipeline, the vital infrastructure that had allowed Saudi Arabia to reorient its oil from Hormuz to the Red Sea.
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Arabia → accuse → Sea
All that pushed the Saudi crown prince to turn to the U.S. for help — and he had reason to think it would come: Late last year, the U.S. signed a strategic defense agreement with the kingdom, designated it a major non-NATO ally and agreed to sell it advanced F-35 fighter jets.
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it → push → jets
Mohammed also has something of a personal relationship with President Trump, who made Saudi Arabia the first stop of his first overseas tour in 2025 after being reelected and boasted that he had garnered almost $1 trillion in Saudi investments into the U.S. economy.
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he → have → economy
Trump initially seemed receptive to the prince’s entreaties but reportedly pulled back just as U.S. warplanes were set to take off for sorties on Houthi targets.
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warplanes → seem → targets
Later, he told Fox News that Washington was “in constant communication with the Houthis and that they’ve agreed not to fight the United States.”
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they → tell → States
The Houthis have also assured European nations, which have been wary of provoking the rebels’ ire, that they won’t attack their shipping either.
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they → assure → shipping
Last month, France and the U.K. said they would offer defensive assistance to Saudi Arabia, while Greece is operating U.S.-made Patriot missile batteries in the kingdom.
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Greece → say → kingdom
The Saudi deal stoked surprise and immediate concern across Washington, as well as in Israel, itself a nuclear power that has long feared an atomic arms race could grip the region.
uncertain
race → stoke → region
With the U.S. hesitating, the expectation is that Saudi Arabia’s partners in the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement will form the international cavalry to help, but that has yet to manifest itself on the ground.
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that → hesitate → ground
This week, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said his country was “bound” by the pact to defend Saudi Arabia.
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country → say → Arabia
“That means whatever means are available at our disposal, they’ll be available to Saudi Arabia also,” he said.
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he → mean → Arabia
Pakistan already has 8,000 troops in Saudi Arabia, along with 16 Chinese-made JF-17 Thunder fighter jets, combat drone squadrons and a surface-to-air missile battery.
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Pakistan → have → air
But it’s unclear whether they have participated in attacking the Houthis.
uncertain
they → ’ → Houthis
Turkish officials, meanwhile, say they have “no issues meeting” Saudi Arabia’s “military needs,” especially on technical matters.
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they → say → matters
The Houthis say any party attacking them will face retaliation.
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party → say → retaliation
…and 11 more, not listed.
The Aporia
