A national defense analyst and Pentagon advisor does not believe Saudi Arabia will be deterred from waging war on Iranian-backed Yemen militia, in spite of no longer receiving support from the U.S.
Joe Biden has announced that he is ending U.S. support of the five-year Saudi campaign against Yemen's Houthi rebels, who have launched multiple drone and missile strikes deep into Saudi Arabia and are supported by Iran.
Bob Maginnis, senior fellow for national security at the Family Research Council (FRC), says those missile attacks justify the strike back.
"You have to keep in mind this is a war between Iran and Saudi Arabia for the domination of the Middle East," Maginnis notes. "Iran is in the back pocket providing the arms and the ideological encouragement."
But he says Joe Biden clearly has a different agenda.
Maginnis
"It would seem to me that … the Biden administration wants to re-gin up the failed Iran nuclear deal," the analyst submits. "They want to shut down as sort of a gift to the Iranians any support we would provide the Saudis in contesting the conflict that is ongoing in Yemen."
But he does not think the Saudis will be deterred.
"The Saudis will continue to defend themselves and will probably take proactive action against some of the militia that is supplied by the Iranians," Maginnis predicts.
He also suspects Israel is helping behind the scenes, "because they have no love loss for the Iranians' activities to the south."