by Tyler Durden
The biggest news of the day is the start of the second proxy war in the past year (the first one of course being the Ukraine civil war which is just a chess game between the west, mostly the US with Europe as a reluctant second fiddle, and the Kremlin) overnight in Yemen, where as we reported yesterday a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the US has launched an airborne assault on Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the request of the self-exiled government (at last check Yemen’s president was in Oman), which confronts the Suuni states led by Saudi Arabia, against the mostly Shiite militia, which has the broad support of Iran.
Who is in this coalition, aptly named “Decisive Storm” (one hopes not by the same person who was responsible for “Desert Storm”)? The following map from Al Arabiya should explain. Click on map for larger view.
It is very likely that more nations will enter the conflict, although there is a possibility the “war” may be shorter than expected: Arabiya also notes there are reports that top Houthi leadership Abdulkhaliq al-Houthi, Yousuf al-Madani, and Yousuf al-Fishi were killed, and head of the Revolutionary Committee for the Houthis, Mohammed Ali al-Hothi, was wounded.
Considering the most levered asset class to the Yemen war is oil, a prolonged war is what all those who are bullish oil would prefer, and as such it would certainly be in the Military Industrial Complex’ best interest to have drawn out conflict rather than one which fizzles quickly with the death of a few key Houthi individuals.
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