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YEMEN, PAKISTAN AND ARAB MONARCHIES: WIDENING GULF? – ANALYSIS (SOURCE- EURASIA REVIEW / AUTHOR- IFTEKHAR AHMED CHOWDHURY)

Image credits- The BBC Source- Eurasia Review Author- Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia might have miscalculated when it went into Yemen, not with boots on the ground but with bombs from the air, to try and deter the advance of the Shiite Houthi rebels. Riyadh and its Gulf allies, somewhat grandiosely called their intervention ‘Operation Decisive Storm’, obviously borrowing the jargon from the West. When it began the airstrikes, which appeared to be in imitation of a number of similar Western actions in the Middle East and North Africa, the Saudis and their co-bombers might have assumed it would be a cake-walk. It wasn’t. Notwithstanding mounting civilian casualties, the Houthis fought back with resilience that took the Gulf monarchies by surprise. In their consternation, the monarchies turned to the militarily most powerful Muslim State, the nuclear-armed Pakistan, asking for military support. The Pakistani response was a greater shock to them tha