Houthis Target Riyadh as Iran’s Proxy War Spreads Acros s the Middle East

And Saudi Arabia says the Iran-backed Houthis tried to attack its capital yesterday with ballistic missiles. It is the first time the group has targeted the kingdom since the war began six months ago. Stephanie Bennett is live in London now with the latest. Stephanie. Overnight, the State Department issued a new alert for Americans in the Middle East, warning them about the possibility of airspace closures, flight cancellations, and travel disruptions. These alerts issued by U.S. embassies in Iraq, Beirut, Jerusalem, and Bahrain, just to name a few. Now, these are, of course, are periodic reminders that have been in place for months for potential unforeseen escalation. Yesterday, as you mentioned, Saudi Arabia says it foiled the Iran-backed Houthi rebels' attack on its capital, Riyadh, intercepting and destroying ballistic missiles. Video shows flames and that large plume of black smoke near King Khaled International Airport Saturday, causing many travel disruptions there. For the first time in months, emergency air raid alerts sounded Friday into Saturday across the capital, as residents reported hearing loud explosions. The Houthis also tried to attack spots near the Red Sea, but those were thwarted as well. Last week, the Houthis stormed down the Red Sea coast, seizing new territory, now posing a major threat to global oil supplies, capturing key cities of Mocha, Parham Island, all in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, allowing them to keep an eye on who's coming in and out. It's of course a vital shipping route for Saudi Arabia that's used as an alternative to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. While an attack on Saudi's east-west pipeline, that was blamed on Iran-backed militias in Iraq. Iran needs, you know, they're losing their leverage in the control of the Strait of Hormuz, and so the next thing they have is to use their proxies. The United Nations Migration Agency says at least 112,000 people have been displaced inside Yemen in the last couple of weeks, nearly 3,000 fled by sea, crossing the Strait over to Djibouti. Now, meanwhile, Iran warned today against any new big attack by the United States and its allies, saying it would trigger sustained retaliation against U.S. bases and interests. A lot to keep our eyes on, Rich. Sure are. Stephanie Bennett, thanks very much. For more on all of this, let's bring in National Security Analyst Rebecca Grant, she's the vice president of the Lexington Institute. Rebecca, thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. Take a look at the national gas prices here today, we're at about $4.47 a gallon, that is up from a week ago, it's up from a month ago, it's certainly up from a year ago. Is this part of Iran's strategy, and is it working? Well, yeah, diesel was $6.49 when I drove in here. But Iran's strategy is to try to wait this out. Is it working? No. You know, Iran hasn't sold any oil in weeks. Our U.S. Navy blockade, led by our two aircraft carriers, 50,000 U.S. service members in Central Command are keeping that military pressure on Iran, along with the financial sanctions. But this just shows why we have to persist in this strategy. We cannot let Iran's oil terrorism continue. Do you think the administration is pursuing that now? Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think there's no question they're going to keep this blockade in and keep all the economic pressure on as well. And that also means doing force protection for our forces in the Middle East, which we're doing very well. And you look, Iran's major mistake was the ballistic and drone attacks on all its neighbors. That's changed the whole balance in the Middle East and made that region ready to stick with us, with the U.S., in really eliminating Iran's threat for good. You know, if you look a little farther to the south here, this front has expanded. The Houthis are now firing into Saudi Arabia. How much responsibility do you think the United States has to help the Saudis in this? Or do the Saudis have to step it up? Well, you know, one ballistic missile into the airport is, to me, not an impressive tactical capability. They fired dozens of missiles at Saudi Arabia over the years, and it was an easy intercept for the Saudis. Very capable military. Look, the Houthis want economic concessions. But why this matters for Americans is it just shows you, again, it was Iran that helped the Houthis upgrade some of their old Russian and North Korean missiles. And we've got to stop this, whether it's their terror financing or their attacks here and there against bases and ships. We cannot let this go. China's aided it by buying Iran's oil. Russia's helped them out. And we are stepping in to change this. So we have this huge summit upcoming this week. President Trump, President Xi Jinping. How much is this conflict going to play into their conversations, do you think? Oh, it's going to be on their minds. And you know, neither Trump nor Treasury Secretary Besant like to spat with the Chinese in public. But over this year, Trump has really reset some of this relationship. Venezuelan oil, the strong action in the Middle East, the announcement that we do have space control weapons. That's targeted directly at some of China's nasty maneuvers up in geosynchronous orbit. So I think Trump has a very strong hand here. But of course, a lot to talk about. And he wants to find a way that goes forward that supports and secures America's economic prosperity. It seems like ahead of all of these major summits with the Chinese are all these expectations about what's going to happen. And in the end, maybe there's a small agreement on agreeing to purchase some things that down the road maybe never happens. What can we expect to come out of this series of meetings? Well, you're right. It's probably going to be another light set of deliverables because both President Trump and Xi Jinping really prefer to deal one on one. They don't like when they're talking with each other. They want to use that private forum. So it's very much about sizing each other up. But here comes Trump with a much stronger position. As for an A.I. accord, hey, let's remember, China does not do nuclear arms control. They won't talk about space control. So I don't know. We know that they are behind in the A.I. race, but they want desperately to beat us. And we can't let that happen. And do we do that by continuing to control chips and technology that goes to China? We mostly do that by supporting our, thank God, great American innovative companies that all through that A.I. tech stack are dominant. Our innovation, our ability, and we need the ability to sell that globally. It's a global race so that everyone adopts a U.S.-based A.I. tech stack and not a Chinese tech stack. Just imagine what this world would look like if China dominated A.I. You do not want to see that. All right, Rebecca Grant, a lot to go over this week. Thanks so much for walking us through it. Thank you.