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How long can Saudi Arabia afford Yemen war?

The war in Yemen may prove just as dangerously costly for Saudi Arabia, where an economic downturn threatens its political system, as for Yemen, whose economy can only start to be revived when it ends.
Firefighters attempt to extinguish a fire at a foodstuff storage facility destroyed by a Saudi-led air strike in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Houdieda January 6, 2016. REUTERS/Abduljabbar Zeyad - RTX2177D
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During the first Gulf War (1990-1991), more than 800,000 Yemenis working in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were forced to leave their host countries because Yemen did not provide political support to the international intervention against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Saudi Arabia also suspended all economic assistance to Yemen, aid that was resumed a decade later in 2000.

Saudi Arabia’s decision to minimize economic cooperation with Yemen as a result of what has been perceived as Yemen’s support of Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait reflects a long history of political animosity; this is a history that continues until our present day.

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