 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. In a recent offensive, the Houthis in Yemen launched a major attack against the Saudi forces along the border, as well as inside the southern Saudi region of Najran. To talk more about this, we have with us Prashant. So Prashant, can you first tell us about the details of this attack, what happened and what kind of damage the Houthis were able to inflict? So all the details we have now are basically largely based on a Houthi press conference which described the offensive. So the offensive is believed to have started in the city, in the area of Khitaaf in southern Yemen, and then it progressed into the Najran region into Saudi Arabia. Now this marks a major, what do you call it, major surge or a major stage in the war, because we have earlier seen the other airstrikes that happened, the drone strikes that happened which were launched by the Houthis. But this is a land offensive which has moved into Saudi Arabia. And according to them, nearly three brigades of the Saudi forces were captured, senior officers were either captured or killed. And this is actually quite huge, because all these years it was a war launched by Saudi Arabia, UAE, its proxies in Yemen, fighting was completely being done in Yemen. Over the past one-one-and-a-half years, we have seen a slight shift in the reversal, a shift in the fortunes as attacks have been mounted on Saudi Arabia, so including facilities like the airports, oil fields and stuff. But this is a qualitative change because it's actually a land offensive which seems to have actually had considerable impact. Now the fact remains that a lot of the Saudi forces who were captured were probably irregulars. There were people just paid by Saudi Arabia to get onto the field. And it's not very clear if these were any crack units or some of the more well-trained Saudi soldiers, so to speak. This may just have been irregulars in some instances. So it's not really clear if it's a major defeat for Saudi Arabia purely military terms. But in terms of the overall situation, it's a huge setback to Saudi Arabia and actually a considerable victory as far as the Houthis are concerned. So so far Saudi Arabia has not really confirmed any of these attacks and the actual losses. So that's still a bit, it's still a bit unclear. But the Houthi version has a lot of evidence. They have photos, they have videos. So right now the tendency or the direction would be to actually trust them in terms of the information they're given. And it's also important to note that this is the second offensive in the same region. There was one in August also. And that also led to considerable losses for the Saudis. So in some senses, we can clearly say that this time the war, the Yemen war, has really come home to Saudi Arabia. And more than any other attack by the Houthis in the past. And of course, another key aspect to note is that this happens just about two weeks after the attacks on the Aramcoil facilities. And the Saudi Arabia, the US, the UK, they'd all refuse to accept that the Houthis were responsible. So it was it was almost as if they didn't want to accept that Houthis could have done anything of this sort. And they kept insisting that it was Iran. And there was a whole diplomatic assault over that. So coming as it does immediately after that, this actually also proves a bit of a point that the Houthis are capable of this. Also because the attacks in Najran were accompanied by drone attacks and cruise missile attacks also, including on some including on the airport. So it does show that the Houthis have considerable military equipment and firepower. And this is not the claim about the Aramcoil attacks was not just a lie. So as you just mentioned that this is the second attack within the span of a month, the first one being on the oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, which also significantly reduced Saudi's oil output. So what do you think this says about the strength of the forces both in Yemen, the Houthis and of Saudi Arabia's and what are the implications of this for the conflict in general? So one thing we have to remember is immediately after the Aramcoil attacks, the Houthis made an offer for the ceasefire. So they were like, we are going to stop the cruise and drone attacks provided you stop all air raids. And this is also around the same time the Saudis had actually attacked Hodeida, the port of Hodeida, which where a tentative ceasefire had been kind of functioning for a couple of months. And there was an attempt to actually break or at least counter bit of the humanitarian crisis by the UN taking over. So the Houthis made an offer which the Saudis seem to have refused and their counter offers seem to have been that we will stop bombing in select places and we will have some kind of negotiations maybe a prison exchange. So after this attack maybe that process might go a bit further. But I think the calculation of the Houthis primarily is that they have proved the point that they are now in a position to substantially attack any part of Saudi Arabia cause huge amount of damage. And we also have to know that Saudi Arabia is also in the not a very stable country. There is a lot of internal dissent. The current ruling monarchy exists completely by the support of the United States and its allies. So and in fact, one of the claims the Houthis had made earlier during the Aramco attacks was that they were actually aided by certain sections within Saudi Arabia giving rise to speculation whether the drones were actually launched from inside Saudi Arabia and not aided by the Houthis of course, but whether they were launched inside Saudi Arabia. So the Saudis actually have a lot to worry about. So I suspect this attack might give further impetus to the possibility of some sort of negotiations at least beginning informally because right now as far as the Saudis are concerned, they don't really have too many trump cards, so to speak, because any victory they win is basically it's nothing special because anyway, they all they are supposed to be the leading force. The main ally, the UAE has already withdrawn much of its forces. Their alliance, so to speak is in tatters because there is a huge disagreement between the southern Yemeni side and the northern Yemeni forces of Hadi, so a former president Hadi. So basically what all of this brings together is understanding that the Saudis are really in a position they're increasingly out of options. And also to remember the fact that all said and done the war is becoming increasingly unpopular in the UK and the US. We have had congressional action in the US about this, the high courts, the courts intervening in the UK and the government being forced to apologize for even selling very minor equipment to the Saudi army. These are like coolers or not even hardcore military equipment. So across the world, there is some amount of restiveness about the whole war that's coming in. And mind you, this is happening after four years, after four years of utter destruction and the kind of destruction unleashed on Yemen has been unprecedented, maybe the largest humanitarian crisis of the century. So increasingly, it seems that the Saudis are out of options and sooner or later, they will have to settle for some form of talks. Now the question is how they do it or what they see is not losing face because for them now, this is very important. So they may not officially or formally do it in a big way. And they may try to extract some concessions to kind of safe ways. But on the ground, I think increasingly we're seeing a situation where they probably have to come to the table. And what do you think will be the implications of all these developments for the region as a whole? Right. So some in some of the earlier news click videos we talked about is that how, although it is very asymmetric, the coalition around which involves Iran has actually has actually managed to transform the say strategic picture of the region. So despite the fact that Saudi Arabia is in cahoots with Israel, it is aided by the US largest military power in the world. And it has the European countries on its side. We see that despite the they're still not able to push their agenda beyond the point. And we also talked about how, for instance, all it takes now and what are the key factors for this has been the fact that military equipment is nowadays increasingly easier to not hardcore military equipment, but equipment that can make a difference is increasingly easier and cheaper to produce. So we do have there is a possibility that Iran has given technology transfers as far as who these are concerned if not exactly weapons. Same thing, of course, with Facebook. So what we also see is that this may be some sort of a discussion or negotiation process in Yemen would mark a huge it would mark a huge step as far as this alliance is concerned and a larger strategic picture of the region because it basically means that even though in terms of numbers in terms of sheer firepower, the US, Saudi Arabia, Israel axis might have a considerable advantage. They are still in a no way safe enough or in no way such a powerful enough that they can dictate terms because very small forces to the use of very inexpensive and not even necessarily very accurate technology can actually cause enough say damage and especially because of the oil scenario can cause enough damage to basically reverse any of the agenda or pushback any of the agenda the US and Saudi Arabia seek to push. And we saw the same thing with Iran in the streets of Hormuz also because Iran's point that if we can't trade to the streets of Hormuz nobody else can. And that's a very powerful threat. And so it's on very similar lines. The Houthis in some sense is saying that you can bomb us to annihilation. You already done it. But we'll still make sure that we'll heat your oil and we'll still make sure that we can cause enough internal damage that you will be increasingly forced to reconsider your options. So that's strategy. This is just another example. And I think as time passes we'll see more of this leading to Saudi Arabia, the US and its allies to basically reconsider some of their positions. Do we want to keep doing this conflict? Or for that matter I do the Houthis form part of some larger deal with Iran in the region. So these are all possibilities that are increasingly emerging because of the success of this asymmetric model of warfare. Thank you Prashant for joining us today. And that's all the time we have. Thank you for watching NewsClicker.