By Lena Marchetti
WASHINGTON — The State Department has ordered non-emergency American diplomats and their families out of Saudi Arabia as Yemen’s Houthi rebels widen a campaign of missile and drone strikes on the kingdom’s airports and oil fields — a war on the Red Sea that has become one of the forces keeping fuel prices in Western New York near record levels.
The department “issued an ordered departure for non-emergency U.S. government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia only,” spokesperson Tommy Pigott wrote on X on Wednesday, CBS News reported, pushing back on a report that the order would extend to other Gulf states.
“Iranian-supported Houthis have increasingly engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure resulting in civilian casualties and severe travel disruptions,” Mr. Pigott said. A department spokesperson also warned that “the hostilities have the potential to escalate rapidly,” according to the BBC.
Airports and oil fields under fire
An ordered departure is the mandatory evacuation of designated diplomatic staff and family members for security reasons. CBS reported that several other U.S. embassies in the region have cut staffing under a “restricted operations” status the department introduced in August, without going as far as an ordered departure, and that the U.S. military has been quietly reducing its footprint at Middle East posts.
The deadliest attack came Oct. 10, when a strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport killed 12 people and injured more than 300, according to CBS. One American was among the dead.
The strikes have not stopped. Saudi authorities said debris from a drone intercepted over the Shaybah oil field, near the border with the United Arab Emirates, killed two people, while a strike on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam killed one and injured eight, the BBC reported. Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry did not say who launched the drone.
An informal ceasefire between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia that held for roughly four years unraveled in July, according to the BBC, after the Houthis declared a “maritime embargo” against the kingdom and began targeting its airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea. The Houthis say they are retaliating for what they call a Saudi blockade of their territory.
“We are fighting on behalf of everyone, because the threat and risk of the Houthis will expand,” Marwan Ali Noman, political adviser to Yemen’s foreign minister, told CBS News, adding that the internationally recognized Yemeni government is seeking help.
Britain has offered Saudi Arabia support, including defensive air operations. President Donald Trump did not rule out U.S. strikes on the Houthis after the Riyadh airport attack, telling reporters, “We may.” He said earlier this month, “We have communication with the Houthis, and we’ll see what happens. But what they did was very bad.”
Why it reaches the pump in Buffalo
The Houthis sit beside the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the narrow passage at the southern end of the Red Sea. With the U.S.-Iran war having effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia had been relying on Red Sea routes to export its oil, the BBC reported, and the Houthi embargo there “has contributed to a surge in global oil prices.”
Western New Yorkers are paying for it. AAA’s daily survey put the average price of regular gasoline in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area at $4.36 a gallon as of Oct. 22, up from $3.16 a year earlier. Diesel averaged $6.37, compared with $3.88 a year ago; the region’s record diesel average, $6.39, was set Oct. 7. Statewide, regular averaged $4.40 and diesel $6.50. AAA’s latest national update was headlined “National Average Falls 6 Cents, But Crude Oil Nears $100/Barrel.”
Diesel prices ripple through everything from grocery shelves to school buses to the trucks crossing the Peace Bridge.
What Americans in Saudi Arabia should do
U.S. embassies in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other countries issued warnings over the weekend urging Americans to exercise caution and prepare for travel disruptions, CBS reported. Americans in the region can enroll in the State Department’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive embassy alerts, and the department’s travel advisories are updated as conditions change.
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