Riyadh's bold gamble

King Salman has instituted the most ideological, sectarian and assertive foreign policy in modern Saudi history. After decades of caution and risk aversion in Saudi Arabia, the king and his senior team have emerged as bold gamblers.

A year and a half after Salman decided to launch Operation Decisive Storm to halt Shiite Houthi rebels from taking over all of Yemen, Saudi Arabia has become engrossed in the most intense sectarian regional conflict with its historic rival Iran to date. Saudi-Iranian tensions are greater today than ever, and the cost to the entire region is deadly.

The Saudi decision to go to war 18 months ago was rushed and poorly thought through, with little concrete planning for how to achieve a decisive victory. The alliance to defeat the Houthis and their ally former President Ali Abdullah Saleh was hastily put together and lacked two critical players: Oman and Pakistan.

For Iran, the war has been a very cheap way to bog down its Gulf enemies in an increasingly expensive struggle while it continues to make advances in Iraq and Syria. Tehran's allies in both countries are gaining ground. Iran's role in Yemen has always been limited and inexpensive. The Iranians are quite willing to fight to the last Yemeni. They are also exploiting the war to inflame anger in the Shiite communities in Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province.