President Donald Trump said last week the Iranian regime was “cuckoo”. This week, he’s outdoing them in his own efforts to emulate a Swiss clock.
Trump’s careless talk on Iran is now imperilling not one, but two ceasefires. He has already claimed the truce between the US and Iran that began on 8 April is now “over”, rhetorically tearing up last month’s 14-point memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two countries that was supposed to lay the groundwork for a full-scale peace deal.
Now, he’s taken action that is simultaneously imperilling a separate, four-year truce between Saudi Arabia and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Late last week Trump reportedly gave Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman his blessing for the most serious military assault by the Saudis on Houthi positions since 2022.
On Monday, Saudi forces struck the main airport in Sanaa, as a sanctioned Iranian airline linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was flying Houthi leaders back from the funeral of Iran’s slain Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The jet safely diverted to the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah.
The Saudi attack sparked reprisals from Houthi forces, who fired missiles at Abha airport in the Kingdom’s south-west. The outbreak of hostilities now threatens to reignite broader conflict between Riyadh and the Houthis that could further inflame regional instability.
