“The US is playing favourites with its ‘America First’ policy”, Firstpost, 20 Sep 2026.
“In West Asia, recent developments are nearly unbelievable. First, the Houthis, once a ragtag force with possibly not even access to a decent phone, are now sending guided missiles and drones into Saudi Arabia, effectively closing the Bab al-Mandab, the main shipping route through which roughly 10 to 12 per cent of global trade and around 30 per cent of global container traffic passes. That doesn’t seem to bother the United States. First, it made a deal with the Houthi leaders not to target US ships. Second, its House of Representatives passed legislation authorising tariffs up to 100 per cent on major buyers of Russian and Iranian oil or gas. Nice. Apparently everyone is supposed to just starve to death as energy prices climb. It’s beyond outrageous. But it’s not quite quixotic as one would suppose. Look closer.
Deal-making with the Houthis
First, the Houthi menace. The Houthi-Saudi Conflict has been going on for years, with Riyadh launching air attacks on them when they began taking over the Yemeni capital and threatened Saudi territory. This escalated sharply until a truce was declared in 2022, which collapsed as the Iran-Israel-US war escalated and the US and the UK came into the fight in 2024 in defence of Israel. Consider that by this time, the Houthis had amassed not just sophisticated weapons but also a clutch of long-range missiles, that included one that hit Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, some 2,000 km away. That says something not just about Houthi growing capability but also about the extent of Iranian help. The Houthis are not an outright Iranian tool. Earlier, they agreed to a ceasefire with the US, with Oman mediating an end to attacks on US ships. They, however, retained their right to attack Israel in support of the Palestinian cause. In other words, the US fended for itself and let its ally Israel take the heat quite literally. Recently, US officials flatly refused to also defend Saudi Arabia, even while they met with Houthi leaders who assured them that the ceasefire stood. All this despite the fact that in 2025, the US designated them as a terrorist entity, noting that they had hit more than 100 ships. And this is what the order says, “It is the policy of the United States to cooperate with its regional partners to eliminate Ansar Allah’s capabilities and operations, deprive it of resources, and thereby end its attacks on U.S. personnel and civilians, U.S. partners, and maritime shipping in the Red Sea” (italics mine). That last bit has clearly been set aside. As the Houthis occupy Perim and other strategic islands on the Bab al-Mandab, global energy markets and shipping have taken a hit, and major shipping companies have moved to the longer, more expensive route around the Horn of Africa. Meanwhile, here’s the killer. The Trump administration is pushing US firms to rebuild damaged infrastructure in the West Asia, which would be worth billions, even as US officials are looking at a trade-off where Gulf states use a currency swap line from the US firms for rebuilding. So it’s America first and the devil take the hindmost………”
Read the full article at Firstpost.
