Saudi Arabia Shocked to Find Its Proxies Have Their Own Agendas
The story details accusations of 'betrayal' by Yemen's Southern Transitional Council (STC) against Saudi Arabia, with STC leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi skipping Riyadh-brokered talks. This 'betrayal,' however, is less a shock and more the standard playbook for interventions where local factions are armed, funded, and then expected to suspend their own ambitions at a moment's notice. The Kingdom,
having cultivated and armed these 'separatists' since 2015 to counter the Houthis, appears genuinely perplexed that they developed independent objectives. One might wonder if Saudi strategists assumed bottomless loyalty, or if they mistakenly believed their vast financial resources could indefinitely paper over divergent interests. The U.S. and its allies, who have supplied billions in weapons to
Saudi Arabia (e.g., $1.7 billion in weapons in 2021 alone, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute), have effectively bankrolled this entire operation, only now to witness its predictable fragmentation. This isn't betrayal; it's the chickens coming home to a very dusty, bomb-cratered roost.