A senior member of the Saudi royal family has accused Iran of breaching the terms of the 2023 agreement to resume ties as it continues to arm and fund armed militant groups in the region.
Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief, said the West must also do more to deter the Iran-backed Houthi terror group in Yemen amidst the Red Sea blockade as the group holds the world "hostage".
Houthis began attacking international shipping in the Red Sea region last fall after Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called for blockading Israel. They have expanded their reach far beyond Yemen disrupting a key global trade route.
Speaking at Chatham House in London, al-Faisal said on Friday: “The Houthis now hold the world as hostage in the Bab al-Mandab entrance to the Red Sea, and yet Iran is not showing that it can do something there if it wanted to, and the kingdom would have expected Iran to be more forthcoming in showing not just to us but to others that it can be a positive factor in securing stability and removing differences not just with Saudi Arabia but the rest of us.”
Dozens of projectiles have been fired at commercial vessels and dozens of hostages taken amid the blockade initially aimed at forcing an Israeli ceasefire in Gaza.
Iran also continues to destabilize countries including Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, which al-Faisal said had broken the terms of the 2023 agreement.
However, according to the UK's The Guardian, al-Faisal has said that the West's "pinprick bombings" carried out by the UK and US on Houthi infrastructure, is not enough to quash the group, armed, funded and trained by Iran.
In a frank admission, al-Faisal said the kingdom is disappointed in Iran's having broken its promise to limit the influence of its terror groups in the region, agreed upon last year when the two countries resumed diplomatic relations after several years' hiatus.
During the session at Chatham House, he said more must be done by the global community to combat the Red Sea blockade which began in November.
“We have seen the deployment of European and US fleets along the Red Sea coast and more can be done there to interdict the supply of weaponry that comes to the Houthis from Iran,” he said.
“Putting pressure on Iran by the world community can have a positive impact on what the Houthis can do in launching these missiles and drones to hit international commerce.”
On Sunday, a missile penetrated Israel's air defence systems, threatening once again, to inflame tensions amidst the war in Gaza which has seen Iran's proxies in the region surround Israel since the Hamas invasion of the Jewish state on October 7.
A former Royal Navy Commander told Iran International’s podcast Eye for Iran that Iran is winning against the Americans in the Red Sea, through their proxy the Houthis.
Tom Sharpe, who worked alongside the Americans in the Red Sea for two decades, witnessed their might as the most powerful navy in the world but in spite of that, under the tutelage of Iran, the Houthis have not been deterred by the limited US defensive and allied retaliatory actions.
“They're achieving their ends, all of them, and we're achieving none of ours. We're spending millions and millions of dollars on not winning. It's a real problem," he warned.
Critics say the US's risk aversion has meant that just like its kid gloves approach to Iran, the deterrence to its terror groups such as the Houthis is failing.
Rear Adm. Marc Miguez, a US Navy commander from the Dwight D Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, told Ward Carroll's YouTube episode that more aggressive strikes on the Houthis were necessary.
"There are definite strategies that were put forward, but our National Command Authority decided that those - I would call more aggressive postures and more aggressive strikes - was not something we wanted to challenge," Miguez said last month.
Jason Brodsky, the policy director for United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), agreed that the Biden administration's inability to deter Iran has led to an emboldened stance not only from the Islamic Republic but also, its proxies.
“We have a deterrence deficit with Iran. They have been attacking our forces. They have been attacking commercial vessels, with impunity since October 2023,” he said.
