Saudi Arabia has no easy choices as it weighs how to combat Houthi threat

After Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea and seized territory commanding the strategic Bab al-Mandeb chokepoint, the kingdom reached out to the group to see what it would take to arrive at a negotiated halt to the hostilities. The answer it got back: $51 billion.

The Houthis said that was the sum needed to cover the cost of years of Saudi strikes and a long blockade, people briefed on the discussions said. Other figures have come up since, the people said, but the message was clear: The price of an exit would be in the tens of billions of dollars. For good measure, the Houthis would want the kingdom to officially recognize the militants as the rulers of Yemen, effectively accepting an Iranian-armed adversary on its southern border.