- CAP's Dan Benaim & Brian Katulis: Trump's blank check for Riyadh
- WaPo editorial on the Saudi blockade of Yemen
- Bloomberg's Eli Lake: Breaking eggs to make omelettes in Riyadh
- WINEP's Dennis Ross on the cost of abandoning the Kurds
- Brookings' Suzanne Maloney & Michael O'Hanlon on post-ISIS strategy in the Mideast
Saudi Arabia’s three-day-old blockade of entry points to Yemen threatens to plunge that war-ravaged country into a famine that could starve millions of people, the top relief official of the United Nations said Wednesday. -New York Times
[Lebanon] has often been caught between the political agendas of more-powerful countries. But it now appears more vulnerable to conflict as Israel and Saudi Arabia try to isolate their shared enemy, the Iran-backed movement Hezbollah. - Washington Post
Israel is moving to counter Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah with assertive diplomacy, aligning its policies with onetime foe Saudi Arabia and signaling a shift in the region’s power politics as the war in neighboring Syria winds down. - Wall Street Journal
- Saudi Arabia is using the ongoing Yemen war to justify an escalation against Iran and its proxies in the region. Saudi officials cited Iran’s provision of a ballistic missile to the al Houthi-Saleh bloc and Hezbollah’s involvement in its firing from Yemen toward Riyadh as a potential act of war by Iran and Lebanon. Saudi officials blamed Iran for the attack more directly than in the case of two prior al Houthi-Saleh missile launches targeting Riyadh in 2017. [See the latest Yemen Crisis Situation Report.]
- Al Shabaab activity is limiting U.S. diplomatic engagement in Somalia’s capital. The U.S. Department of State withdrew all non-essential personnel in response to a threat to the Mogadishu airport, where the U.S. Mission to Somalia is based. Instability in Mogadishu hinders the development of the non-military relationships that are necessary for the U.S. to support and strengthen the Somali Federal Government.