{"id":30168,"date":"2026-08-27T21:04:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=30168"},"modified":"2026-08-27T21:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:04:20","slug":"a-15-country-%ce%b1lliance-led-by-saudi-arabia-is-permanently-expelling-the-us-from-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=30168","title":{"rendered":"A 15-country \u0391lliance led by Saudi Arabia is permanently expelling the US from the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The announcement of the new multinational naval alliance led by Saudi Arabia is not just another military initiative in a region accustomed to alliances, bases and foreign armadas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is something much bigger: a message that the Middle East is beginning to question in practice a security model that has for decades been centered on the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On August 13, after the meeting in Jeddah, the Saudi Ministry of Defense announced that 15 countries had signed the joint declaration for the Multinational Naval Defense Alliance, while 13 had already completed internal procedures and officially joined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initial creation of the alliance was announced in Riyadh on July 30, with the mission of protecting shipping, the Bab el-Mandeb, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The timing is not coincidental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few days earlier, Yemen\u2019s Houthis had warned shipping companies to avoid Saudi ports, effectively declaring a naval blockade against Saudi interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The threat had already begun to affect real trade routes and oil shipments. The critical question, however, is not whether the new alliance can eliminate the Houthi threat. It probably can\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is critical is that regional powers are beginning to realize that their security cannot be indefinitely entrusted to a superpower thousands of miles away, whose strategic priorities shift with the changing White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yemen as a monument to failure<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current crisis did not arise in a few months. Its roots lie deep in the Yemeni war. Saudi Arabia intervened militarily in 2015 at the head of a coalition that sought to overturn the fait accompli created by the Houthis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United Arab Emirates initially participated in the same axis, but gradually Riyadh and Abu Dhabi \u2014 or, more precisely, the governments of the two states \u2014 supported different local forces and different political aspirations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the enormous amount of military means used, the Houthis were not neutralized. On the contrary, they evolved from a local armed movement into a force capable of using ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones at distances of hundreds or even thousands of kilometers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the support of Iran, and particularly networks linked to the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), they acquired capabilities that allowed them to strike energy facilities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and later expand their operations to Israel and shipping in the Red Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The informal ceasefire of 2022 significantly reduced major fighting, but did not solve the core problem. The Houthis remained militarily strong, politically entrenched, and capable of turning their geographical control of western Yemen into leverage over one of the world\u2019s most important trade routes.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Houthi rebel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

American power that didn\u2019t work<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here\u2019s the problem with American strategy. For decades, Washington built up a vast network of bases, military missions, arms sales, and bilateral security guarantees in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The informal trade-off was clear: regional monarchies remained closely tied to the United States, and Washington emerged as the ultimate guarantor of stability. The problem is that the American military presence proved far more effective at interfering than at creating sustainable political order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Iraq and Afghanistan to Libya and Yemen, the pattern has been repeated: overwhelming technological superiority, airstrikes, the neutralization of specific targets \u2014 and then an environment that remains unstable or produces new adversaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical example was Operation Rough Rider against the Houthis. The operation took place from March 15 to May 6, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US forces conducted an extremely intense bombing campaign, hitting radars, missile systems, installations and other military infrastructure. Yet the strategic effect was much more limited than one would assume given the size of the US war machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Houthis suffered damage, but they did not lose the ability to threaten the region. In 2026, they still have the ability to affect shipping and threaten Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This in itself is an unpleasant answer to the question of whether massive bombing can replace a coherent political strategy. Even heavier is the human cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pentagon acknowledged this year that 2025 US airstrikes in Yemen killed at least 153 civilians and wounded 243, while independent Airwars tallies put the toll even higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most serious incidents included strikes on Ras Isa and a migrant detention center in Saada. It is difficult to present this as a convincing model for regional security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The war with Iran accelerated the dispute<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The even greater reversal came in 2026. The US-Israeli war with Iran, which began in February, has transformed the Persian Gulf into a field of great strategic uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran has suffered serious military and economic blows, but it has maintained missile and unmanned capabilities and has shown that it can cause significant disruptions to maritime transport and the economies of the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gulf countries thus found themselves faced with a paradox. For decades they had paid huge sums for American weapons and accepted an American military presence on the grounds that it was a guarantee against a major regional war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally the major regional war came. Qatar has already suffered severe economic damage from the war and the attacks on its energy facilities, while traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has collapsed from pre-war levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not to say that the blame lies solely with Washington. Iran has chosen to respond militarily, and the Houthis have repeatedly attacked commercial shipping and civilian infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regional governments have also made serious strategic mistakes. But the American promise that an ever-larger military presence will produce ever-greater security now seems far less convincing.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Iranian War<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan show the new path<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saudi Arabia\u2019s response is revealing. It was not limited to the Red Sea naval alliance. On August 7, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a landmark mutual defense agreement in Mecca, according to which an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The picture is striking: Saudi Arabia\u2019s economic power, Turkey\u2019s large military and industrial base and Pakistan\u2019s nuclear arsenal are linked in a new framework of deterrence. This is not yet a matter of replacing the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf monarchies still have a huge American arsenal and deep institutional cooperation with Washington. But it is about something that may prove to be more historically important: diversification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governments in the region are beginning to create options so that in the future every crisis need not automatically result in a phone call to Washington and the arrival of yet another American aircraft carrier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The era of American tutelage is running out<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Middle East does not need another external tutelage. It needs regional mechanisms that force Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, and smaller countries to take greater responsibility for the security of their own environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will be difficult, contradictory, and likely to be fraught with failure. Regional powers have deep differences and often conflicting interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the alternative has been tried for decades. American bases, aircraft carriers, bombings, sanctions, regime change, and endless military operations have not brought the stable Middle East that the architects of this policy promised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result has often been just the opposite: more armaments, more armed groups, deeper antagonism, and countries that feel they must choose sides in great-power conflicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new Red Sea alliance is not yet the end of the American era. But it is another sign that regional capitals have begun to read the map differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the message to Washington is hard to ignore: military superiority does not automatically equal strategic success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When decades of intervention leave your own allies searching for alternative security guarantees, then the problem lies not only with your adversaries. It lies with your strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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