By Zarmeen Hassan The Houthi-Saudi conflict has escalated sharply after the informal ceasefire that followed the 2022 UN-brokered truce broke down. In July 2026, the Houthis declared a “maritime embargo” and naval blockade on Saudi-linked vessels in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, citing a Saudi siege on Houthi-controlled areas and an airstrike on Sanaa International Airport that they blamed on Riyadh. The roots run deeper. The killing of Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi by Yemeni forces in 2004 gave the movement a new turn, and a decade later the Houthis took over Sanaa. In 2015, Mohammed bin Salman launched Operation Decisive Storm, and the years of war that followed pushed Yemen to the edge of famine. The conflict is no longer only Yemeni. It is now a front in the wider US-Israeli war on Iran, the Houthis main backer and has turned a local insurgency into a threat to Gulf energy routes. That puts Pakistan in a delicate position: bound to Riyadh by a defense pact, yet already acting as a mediator between Washington and…