The Duran Podcast - Saudi Nightmare: Houthis Seize Red Sea As Pipeline Burns

Episode Date: September 17, 2026

Saudi Nightmare: Houthis Seize Red Sea As Pipeline Burns

All right, Alexander, let's discuss the situation in the Middle East. Let's talk about what's happening in Yemen and the Houthi advance, the Houthi control of the Amandab Strait, the capture of Pyrim Island, the capture of Moka. They continue to advance. MBS, a panic call to Trump, asking for Trump to strike at the Houthis and to try and stop their momentum. Trump claiming that the Houthis called him. and they want the U.S. to stay out of the conflict, okay, that's what Trump says. I doubt that

happened, but who knows, maybe. And we have the rising price of energy. We also have some more information from Reuters and from other media outlets about the situation with the East-West pipeline in Saudi Arabia, which was a route that they were using in order to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. It looks like the damage to the pipeline is quite significant. and we'll need some time to repair. On a side note, Alexander, before you discuss what's going on, I blame Saudi Arabia for the strike on the East West pipeline because I use Donald Tusk's rules when it comes to pipelines, right?

It's who built it that is at fault, not who destroyed it. So we've got to go with Donald Tusk's rules. Saudi Arabia is to blame for the destruction of the East-West pipeline for building it. Not for Yemen or whatever factions in Iraq hit that. That pipeline. Absolutely. Your thoughts. Yeah, I think this is absolutely correct.

And I'm surprising that other people have not grasped this point that you have just made so eloquently. Anyway, let's talk about the situation. So there has been a collapse in Yemen. I mean, the Houthis have always looked like the best organized and, by far away the toughest military force in Yemen. And they have now gained control of the entire Red Sea coast of Yemen. There was some talk that some of the factions in Yemen that were hostile to the Houthis, that they launched some kind of counterattack against them.

the film and photographic evidence that they produced in support of these claims, that there was a counterattack, has collapsed. I mean, they've shown Saudi weapons as Houthi weapons and all kinds of strange things of that kind. So we can discount that. The Houthis are now in firm control of the Red Sea, of the entire Yemeni coast of the Red Sea. They control all the islands. they could close the southern exit of the Red Sea whenever they wish. They probably will.

But at the moment, they don't have to announce that they are doing so. Because they're friends in Iraq, and clearly there's coordination between all of these various groups. They attacked the pipeline, the oil pipeline, transporting oil, from the eastern part of Saudi Arabia to the west. So there's no oil going through this pipeline. The Saudis themselves have confirmed that the pipeline is closed, and that means that Saudi Arabia cannot export oil at the moment. Now, that is the first time that has happened.

I think since the Saudi state was established, in the 1920s. This is the greatest crisis that Saudi Arabia has faced, in my opinion, since its creation. And it can't export through the Strait of Hormuz. It can't export through the Red Sea. The internal situation within Saudi Arabia is very complex and not always very easy to understand. The government there has been in power for a long time. It possesses great legitimacy. It has much support, apparently, from parts of the population, and it has very strong and very ruthless security services. But ultimately, it's money that holds the whole thing together. If the money flow is stopped, and Saudi Arabia's financial

reserves are not especially deep, then this is a major problem and potentially an existential one. And on top of everything else, and very concerning, I think for MBS and the Saudi leaders, is rhetoric that's now coming from some Israeli officials, including the Israeli Defense Minister, Israel, defense minister Kats,

who is now talking about attacking Iranian energy facilities and desalination plants in Iran.

And the Iranians have already indicated if anything like that happens, they will attack similar

energy facilities and desalination plants across the Middle East. So the whole situation

is looking more volatile, more unstable, all the time, and Saudi Arabia is caught in the middle. And the Saudis looked to the country that way back during the Second World War said it would protect them, which is the United States. And MBS must feel that Donald Trump, twice telling him that the United States is not going to bomb the Houthis, he must feel that this is.

at some level of personal portrayal. So we have this crisis, but it is, of course, a crisis not just for the Saudis. It is a crisis ultimately. For the whole energy, global energy markets, we have seen the steady depletion in oil reserves in the United States and across the West. There's debate about how fun,

the United States and the Western powers could continue to dip into their reserves. Some say that they've already passed a danger point and that the caverns might start to be undermined. I'm not a geologist. I'm not going to discuss that. But anyway, we already have a reduced amount of oil in the reserves in the West that can be drawn upon. and we have big shortages of natural gas in Europe. The gas reserves in Europe are very low for this period of the year. I mean, this is becoming a critical situation.

And one again looks to the president of the United States, to the US government. And I have to say this, I don't get the same. they have any solutions, any ideas about what to do in this situation. Tita Parsi, who we interviewed a short time ago, and who is an expert on Iran and on U.S. policy, he believes that the dominant mood in Washington today is that after the mid-terms, the United States should launch an all-out attack on Iran, the kind of all-out attack that has been threatened. The comments from the Israeli officials might be preparing the ground for that. If that is indeed what happens, then we're going to see a much, an even bigger,

more profound energy shock than we have seen up to now, and potentially a massive, an even bigger crisis, an enormous crisis in France, in the Middle East, especially, dare I say, if the Iranians go after the desalination plants. Those are even more. The Israelis, you mean? Go out there. Yes. The Israelis go after the desalination plants in Iran, and the Iranians retaliate by going after the desalination plants in Saudi Arabia, in the other Persian Gulf states, particularly Kuwait, by the way, and by the way in Israel too. If that happens, we're looking at a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions. I was going to say the same thing that you said about the United

States. It seems weird that the Trump administration is not so interested in helping Saudi Arabia. I mean, Trump's response to the alleged MBS call and everything that's going to going on is seemed very, you know, ambivalent. He was just kind of neutral. I don't care, kind of. You guys are on your own. Yeah. I don't buy that for a second.

No. I mean, MBS didn't need to call Trump to begin with. I mean, obviously the United States knows what's going on. Yeah. And they would have acted given the severity, the catastrophe that is unfolding in Yemen and especially to Saudi Arabia and the oil interests in the, in the region. What do you think is going on? Why is Trump, the Trump administration, pretending to not be so interested in what is happening in Yemen or in Saudi Arabia? Is the Trump administration

waiting until after the midterms? And then we're going to see a massive, huge military operation or military strike. Is it a dynamic of the United States not knowing what to do? Is it a dynamic of the United States being bogged down in project Ukraine? in Iran, not having the weapons to do anything, not having a plan or a strategy to do anything. Is there something else going on? Does the United States want to have an oil crisis? Do they want to put pressure on MBS? Do they want to change in Saudi Arabia? I mean, I don't know. I'm just throwing a lot of stuff out there. It seemed very, very weird. The Trump administration's reply to MBS, this alleged phone call, or just just the general statements.

coming out of the Trump White House with regards to the Houthis. We don't really see a need to get involved in any of this. When was the last time the United States opted out of getting involved in a Middle East war? Very, very bizarre. And we do know that the U.S. does have a couple of hundred military advisors in Saudi Arabia. That's already been reported on. So they are there. They are present in Saudi Arabia. What do you think is really happening? Well, the Americans are undoubtedly helping the Saudis. They're helping the with intelligence, they're helping them with satellite data, they're helping them with all kinds of things. And we've discussed air strikes, the United States on the Houthis in an earlier

program. The fact is if they carried them out, they probably wouldn't add anything more to what the Saudis are already doing. The Saudis have a big air force, and the Saudis are already conducting air strikes on the Houthis, and it isn't making that much difference. But the language, the rhetoric coming from Washington must be infuriated to MBS, not just the fact that the Americans refuse to bomb. In other words, refuse to make a public

commitment through the act of bombing to defend Saudi Arabia. But Donald Trump saying that he's been in touch, the Houthis have been in touch with him and that there's some kind of deal done

between the Houthis and the Americans. I don't believe that either, by the way. But Trump talking it that way, NBS, whatever he knows privately, publicly, listening to Trump talk like that publicly, he must find that absolutely infuriating. Now, there are lots of theories. I mean, we had the theory that we discussed with Ryan Perkins, that they want a crisis in energy markets because that's going to destabilize the financial situation in China, for example. And there may be some element of that. My own sense, personally,

is that Trump knows that there is no quick and easy solution to this problem. So at the moment, he's focused on trying to manage to the best extent that he can, the damage, the political damage, ahead of the midterms. So he's going out, he's saying, you know, we're winning the war, the Iranians are on there, they've got their back to the wall, oil prices are going to fall dramatically once we won the war after the midterms. he's mostly focused on what we should recall you know to change the name of the strait of whomose to the strait of Trump or all of this kind of thing that Trump does and let's let's be

frank he does it well I mean I don't know how much people believe any of it anymore in the US but he he's playing that game at the moment because he wants to save what he can in the midterms even as, you know, the economics are looking very bad. The price of diesel is very high. The price of gasoline is very high. The House looks lost. However, the Democrats, to some extent, are helping him because their own divisions are becoming more open.

So I think at the moment he's focused a lot on that. I have to say, I think what Treater Parsi is saying may be true, that beyond the midterms, once the midterms are out of the way, I think that there probably is a belief gradually starting to build within the Trump White House, that the way forward is to go all out to break Iran once and for all, to conduct massive missile bombing raids against Iran, to do it on a scale that we've never seen before in the hope that this finally causes Iran to break. And I think that's probably what they're going to do. They don't want to do it before the midterms because they don't want it to become an issue in the midterms.

it might actually galvanize opposition and provide further support to the Democrats. But as soon as the midterms are out of the way, the Congress is not going to stop Trump conducting that kind of a rule. So he's going to go ahead and go all out, all in, in that kind of way. And I think that is where this is going. The Democrats will be supportive of that type of an operation. Absolutely. They're not going to stop it.

No. No. That gives two months. Two months. A little. Almost exactly two months, I think. When are the midterms? Are they the November?

Is it early or late out? Anyway. Is it early November? Is it early November? Is it like the fourth or the fifth? Okay. Yeah, I think so, yeah. So what does, well, what does Iran do?

knowing this. The situation in Yemen is going to, if it continues this way, it's going to deteriorate significantly against Saudi Arabia and against the United States. Yes. So what does the Trump administration do there? Well, I think, well, they've made the decision in effect to leave NBS hanging out to dry. They're telling him, they're telling him, look, we can't move for two months. You've got to find a way of, you know, keep going for the next two months.

And then the big war against the Iranians in November will begin. So hold out until then. This is a, by the way, I should say, this is a massive, I mean, if this is correct, If this analysis is right, this is a massive gamble. If it fails, then we're looking at a geopolitical catastrophe. If Iran comes through an attack on that scale, then what will happen in the Middle East is almost unthinkable. But that's, I think, the plan at the moment.

I mean, they don't want to negotiate. They don't want to do a deal with Iran. The political opposition within the deep state, within Congress, within Trump's donors, from Trump's own family, and to a great extent on the part of Trump himself, is far too strong. The hostility to Iran is far too great. So a real serious deal with Iran is impossible.

if they did do one, it would fall apart almost immediately. The Iranians, or at least the hardline faction in Iran understands that. So there really is no choice, or so it seems to me, than to go for broke, especially since following the Briggs meeting. There must now be worries in Washington that the long policy of strangling Iran economically might not work, that bricks might start supplying help to Iran. Russia, of course, already is. China might start doing so.

Even India might start doing so, in which case, Iran will still be under enormous economic pressure, but it will never be enough to cause a change of regime to Iran. So go for broke, go for all-out war, accept the risk, because there is a really, is no alternative. It really is no choice. It's like, dare I say, you know, one of those terrible gambles that we've seen happen in many wars, the decision of the Germans to go to war with the Russians of the French simultaneously in 1914, the bizarre decisions the Japanese made in 1941. It's almost on that kind of scale. But that's, I think, where events are pointing.

That's a pretty terrifying prospect. Go for broke, the United States. That can mean all kinds of very, very terrifying, dangerous things. We are talking about the United States. And I think that's another thing to say. I mean, if we do start to get war like that in the United States, in November, unlike these other places that we've just been talking about, because the United States is the United States,

opposition will grow and it will grow and it will gain a voice and become organized. And that might shift American politics as well. But still, gambling in that kind of way is beyond reckless. But I think that's what all the point is suggest to me is, going to happen. Okay. We will end the video there. We are on substack.

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