Houthis: Zineb Riboua on Why They Target Saudi Arabia

Zineb Riboua is a research fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East, where she specialises in great-power competition, Chinese and Russian involvement in the Middle East and North Africa, and Israeli-Arab relations. A native of Morocco, she has written for publications including The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, The Jerusalem Post and Tablet.

In this episode, Riboua joins Zoe Sankey for a wide-ranging discussion about Iran’s weakening position, the ambitions of the Houthis and Turkey, Israel’s changing role in the Middle East, and the spread of Islamist radicalism in Europe. They also discuss third-worldism, the growing appeal of anti-Western politics, AI doomerism, and the demographic challenges facing the Middle East and the West.

Transcript

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.