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 As the kingdom winds down the campaign it led against Yemen's
Houthis, a militia allied to its regional rival Iran, Riyadh faces a
test of its diplomatic skills in trying to arrange talks among
Yemen's fractious elites.
The bombs have helped prevent the Houthis from fully seizing Aden,
Yemen's main port, but have yet to reverse their decisive military
gains over recent months, when they took the capital, joined forces
with army troops loyal to former leader Ali Abdullah Saleh and
emerged as the country's most powerful force.
Saudi Arabia says it has stopped its main air campaign but will
still bomb Houthis and Saleh loyalists if they make military moves.
Air strikes have not ceased but their pace has declined.
Meanwhile, the war has made tens of thousands hungry and homeless,
and has given Yemen's branch of al-Qaeda - long a target of secret
U.S. CIA drone strikes - more room to operate. Tribal chiefs, some
with past ties to al Qaeda, have emerged as the dominant force in an
oil-producing eastern province.
 Most awkwardly for the kingdom, the Houthis are still locked in
battle throughout southern Yemen with supporters of Saudi-backed
President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, now exiled in Riyadh.
While Saudi Arabia can take comfort from Washington's decision to
send an aircraft carrier to help block any Iranian arms shipments to
the Houthis, the ships and bombs may not help it put the shattered
country back together.
Supporters of the Yemen intervention say it marks the moment Riyadh
took the initiative after years of growing Iranian regional clout.
It had little choice as the Houthis surged toward Hadi's last
foothold in Aden.
But critics say the strikes were launched with little advance
thought given to securing an eventual political settlement, given
that the Houthis and Saleh were never likely to be decisively
defeated from the air.
Saudi leaders were motivated by "a need to show force, to basically
kick ass and show they could handle their own national interest
without waiting for the U.S.," said Rami Khouri, a political analyst
at the American University of Beirut.
ASSERTIVE POLICY
Long a "soft power" heavyweight due to its vast oil wealth, the
kingdom has relished taking on a lead role in a regional war in
which it spearheaded an alliance of Sunni Muslim countries against
the Shi'ite Houthis.
As Washington has grown less willing to deploy its forces in the
region, Riyadh's ruling princes have started to adopt more assertive
regional policies.
Yemen was the first big test for King Salman and his ruling team
after the death of his half brother and predecessor Abdullah in
January.
Leading Saudi commentator Jamal Khashoggi said the kingdom has been
emboldened by the success of the venture in limiting Houthi
expansion.
"If it weren't for the Saudi intervention, the country would be
totally under the Houthis," Khashoggi said.
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Support for the kingdom still runs deep in Yemen's embattled south,
where local fighters have withstood Houthi advances across hundreds
of miles, backed by Saudi raids and arms drops.
Posters of King Salman and fluttering Saudi flags adorn checkpoints
manned by armed youths in Aden, the southern port where residents
welcome the continued air strikes.
"The southern resistance had the will but not the means to fight the
Houthis. The Saudi air campaign succeeded in this in a big way by
blocking the Houthis from an easy victory, and southerners are happy
that it will continue," said Mahmoud al-Salmi, a professor at Aden
University.
HURT IMAGE
Diplomats say the Saudi campaign succeeded in destroying much of
Yemen's missile and air power, removing the threat of a
sophisticated counterattack on the kingdom or its Gulf allies by
units loyal to the Houthis or Saleh. Riyadh has cited that
achievement for winding down the campaign.
But there appears to be less reason for triumphalism in Riyadh than
in the early, heady days of the air strikes. Over the weeks, it
became clear that Pakistan and Egypt, the most populous countries
with the biggest militaries in the Saudi-led alliance, would offer
only token participation in the effort.
The blockade by air and sea, led by the Arabian Peninsula's richest
country against its poorest, has led to a warning by the
International Committee of the Red Cross that Yemen's humanitarian
situation is "catastrophic".
Diplomats say a similar humanitarian assessment, along with the
emboldening of al Qaeda, led Washington to call for a pause.
"Saudi Arabia must have felt this was hurting their image in the
West. But their blockade continues - trade and food imports are
still cut off - so this mission change just distracts the media,"
Yemeni writer and activist Farea al-Muslimi said.
(Editing by William Maclean and Peter Graff)
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