LevantTime .

Donald Trump faces a dilemma: responding to the demands of Saudi Arabia, a major Washington ally, while avoiding opening a new front as the war against Iran continues to spread across the region. The U.S. president reportedly backed out at the last minute of launching American strikes against the Houthis, despite renewed urgent requests from Riyadh. According to the New York Times , Donald Trump has repeatedly reconsidered his Yemen strategy in recent days. The NYT says the U.S. administration had prepared an air operation for Sunday. Target lists had been approved and bombs were already loaded onto aircraft when the U.S. president reportedly decided to cancel, or at least postpone, the strikes.

While tensions between the United States and Iran have eased somewhat around the Strait of Hormuz, hostilities between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis dominated the week, with the equally strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait emerging as another flashpoint. Saudi Arabia is now being hit by Houthi strikes almost daily, increasing pressure on the world’s largest crude oil exporter, while Washington, its longstanding ally, has made it clear that the U.S. military will not come directly to the kingdom’s aid. According to several corroborating sources, including the Reuters news agency and New York Times , U.S. diplomats met with Houthi representatives in Oman in early September to preserve the ceasefire agreed between Washington and the Yemeni movement and keep Bab el-Mandeb open to U.S. shipping.

They came out in force—teachers, parents, alumni and students of Collège Notre Dame de Nazareth (NDN)—to proclaim loud and clear their attachment to the identity, distinctive character, history, heritage and predominantly French-language educational system of a school that has stood for more than a century and a half—153 years—on the heights of Achrafieh, a neighborhood that, like the school, has withstood decades of hardships and existential crises. Gathered in large numbers in a warm, convivial atmosphere, they filled the iconic Courtyard of the Virgin from end to end, chanting slogans and holding signs declaring that “NDN is in our DNA,” “Our history is not for sale,” “Nazareth is a legacy to preserve,” and “Nazareth has a soul—let us preserve it.”

Republicans in the United States are not the only ones suffering from the war in Iran, nor are people around the world or countries still facing the actions of Iranian proxies. Indeed, the conflict could cost Donald Trump’s party a significant number of Senate seats, even under the most favorable projections. The world, meanwhile, is feeling the effects of inflation fueled by rising energy prices. In Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq, the mullahs’ hydra has lost several of its heads, but it still retains its capacity to wreak havoc. Today, however, Saudi Arabia finds itself on the front line of the conflict launched by the United States and Israel last February. Yemen’s Houthi rebels continue to harass its borders, strike its critical infrastructure and, above all, hamper its oil exports—the lifeblood of its economic power.

Thursday was a distinctly Lebanese day in Paris, where Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called on participants in the preparatory meeting for the international conference in support of the army to “draw up a roadmap and a precise timetable” for the conference, an initiative launched by President Emmanuel Macron. Its date, however, has yet to be determined. The meeting, held at the Hôtel des Invalides, was part of the Aqaba Process launched in 2015 by Jordan’s King Abdullah II to strengthen security and military cooperation against terrorism. Abdullah II attended the meeting alongside representatives of the United States, including US Ambassador to Beirut Michel Issa and the head of the Lebanon Military Coordination Group, General Joseph Clearfield, as well as senior officials from Arab countries and the European Union.

Marked by shifting flashpoints of tension, the regional crisis continues to escalate without, however, crossing a point of no return. The standoff over the Strait of Hormuz now appears to have taken a back seat as the world focuses on tensions in the Red Sea, and more particularly on the renewed military conflict between Yemen’s Houthis and Saudi Arabia. Riyadh on Wednesday accused the Iran-backed group of attempting to strike Mecca with a drone, which the kingdom considers a “red line.” According to the Saudi-led military coalition, cited by AFP, the drone was destroyed south of the city by Saudi air defenses just before “entering the prohibited airspace over Mecca.”

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun made a rare visit to southern Lebanon on Saturday, traveling to the city of Nabatieh accompanied by army commander-in-chief Rodolphe Haykal. “We stand with you and are looking at how to provide all the services needed so that you can remain here and to ensure your safety,” Joseph Aoun said. “Israel’s withdrawal, the return of prisoners and displaced people, and reconstruction are national imperatives that the state is committed to carrying out,” he pledged. By way of reminder, last Tuesday, Shiite opponents of Hezbollah, along with local dignitaries and other citizens, launched an “Appeal to Save Nabatieh” and put an end to the destruction caused by the conflict between the pro-Iranian militia and Israel. The appeal’s 400 signatories called on the state to deploy the army in the city and district, stressing its responsibility to do so.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized Yemen's Red Sea coast and the islands in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Friday, following a lightning offensive that strengthens their grip on this strategic passage linking Europe and Asia. Neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, now finds itself caught in a vise, with the Strait of Hormuz, on the other side of the peninsula, having been sealed off by Tehran since the war in the Middle East began. Saudi authorities also announced the temporary closure of the East-West oil pipeline following the attacks. Since the start of the war in the Middle East, Riyadh had stepped up its use of the pipeline, which connects Abqaiq, near the Gulf, to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, to bypass Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

On Thursday, September 10, it was the Yemeni front that drew the most attention in the Middle East. After days of fierce fighting between pro-Saudi government forces and the pro-Iranian Houthis, the latter seized control of the Red Sea city of Mokha on Thursday, marking a notable advance toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. This passage, which links Asia to Europe via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, has become increasingly important since the start of the war in the Middle East, following Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz on the other side of the peninsula. The Houthis have also reportedly seized Zuqar Island, located in the middle of the strait.

The Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula experienced another day of military escalation on Wednesday, marked by strikes and reprisals, statements and counterstatements between Iran and its proxies on one side, and the United States and its Gulf allies on the other. Two developments nevertheless dominated the news: surging oil prices and suspicions that Iran may be resuming the development of its nuclear industry. Iran said it attacked more than a dozen vessels attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, sending oil prices soaring, and announced that it would soon extend the area requiring navigation clearance beyond this strategic passage.