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This is the first major, independent war which Saudi forces have undertaken, essentially, since the fighting against South Yemeni forces in the mid-1960s, and even then the Saudi forces had strong British participation. That does not deny that Saudi forces have been entirely without operational experience in the subsequent four decades, and early Yemeni predictions that the August-November 2009 fighting would result in substantial Saudi losses to the Houthi have not been borne out.

Indeed, this is a war which Saudi Arabia cannot ignore, and is even more important than its campaign in recent decades against Iranian-backed Hizbullah forces in the Levant. Iran has made it clear that it is moving to support Shi’a groups on the Arabian Peninsula, and it was clear, too, that Tehran was instrumental in the declaration of the “Islamic Republic of Eastern Arabia” by Shi’a imams on May 15. That Shi’a belt inside Saudi Arabia runs along the Omani and Yemeni borders.