William Lawrence, former US diplomat and American University professor of
international relations, said Saudi Arabia did not respond quickly enough to a
Houthi offensive in Yemen because each side assumed the other would deal with
the threat. He said both Washington and Riyadh assumed the other would defend
Mocha; when then-President Trump denied Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s
request for assistance, Saudi forces were too late to intervene there. Lawrence
added the Saudi-led anti-Houthi coalition’s new command-and-control
architecture—designed to improve defense and coordination—appeared to collapse
at the outset of the Houthis’ lightning raid along the Red Sea coast toward the
Bab al-Mandeb. A Saudi counteroffensive has begun but has delivered limited
success so far in retaking Houthi-held areas; Lawrence characterized the problem
as a delayed reaction to the scale of the attacks rather than a misjudgment of
Houthi capability.
