From the road of Prince Sultan to the Battle of Bab al-Mandab

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More than a quarter of a century ago, Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, may God have mercy on him, looked at “Mount Sabr,” overlooking the Yemeni city of Taiz, and one of its most prominent natural and symbolic landmarks in the conscience of Yemenis, as an opportunity for development and strengthening ties between the Saudi and Yemeni peoples. In January 2001, the road was opened, which the Emir funded with about $12.5 million, linking the city to the mountain highlands, facilitating the movement of residents, and enhancing economic and tourism movement. After a quarter of a century, Taiz returns to the heart of Saudi calculations, but from a different angle imposed by the war, the security of the Red Sea, and the military balances in Yemen. What makes this city, which has been linked to a Saudi development project, of renewed strategic importance to Riyadh?

Back at the turn of the millennium, Prince Sultan entrusted the supervision of the project’s implementation to the Hayel Saeed Anam Group, one of the most prominent Yemeni economic groups hailing from Taiz. Sheikh Ali Muhammad Saeed narrated that the Prince personally handed him checks worth ten million dollars, before completing the financing of the project, whose final cost amounted to about 12.5 million dollars.

Prince Sultan's development presence extended to other Yemeni regions, through his presidency of the Saudi side in the Saudi-Yemeni Coordination Council, where he sponsored agreements that included projects for roads, education, health, and vocational training in various governorates, including support for Aden General Hospital and technical institutes, in addition to educational projects at Taiz University. These projects came within Saudi government funds, while the Mount Sabr Road represented a personal initiative by Prince Sultan, linked to the mountain’s status among Yemenis and its role in promoting economic and tourism activity.

At present, Mount Sabr is gaining strategic importance in the conflict over Taiz, by virtue of its location overlooking the city from the south, and the ability its heights provide to monitor military movements and supply routes. This importance is evident on the Al Shaqab front, which is witnessing confrontations between government forces and the Houthis, as part of the struggle to control the city and its entrances.

To understand the importance of Mount Sabr, one must look at the status of Taiz in Yemen. It is one of the most populous Yemeni governorates, with a population exceeding three million people, ahead of the governorates of Aden and Sana'a. It is known as the cultural capital of the country, in addition to its historical status as one of its most prominent commercial and industrial centers, where major economic groups emerged whose activities extended outside Yemen. It also includes the historic port of Mocha, whose name is linked to the global coffee trade. Its importance increases with its geographical location, which makes it a link between the central highlands and the western coast, linking it to the south with Aden and to the west with the areas near Bab al-Mandab. Thus, Taiz combines demographic and economic weight with a strategic location, which makes controlling or isolating it influential in the political and military balances between the Yemeni interior and the Red Sea coast.

The military confrontations during October 2026 brought Taiz back to the forefront of the scene, with the escalation of battles on its southern and western fronts, including Al Shaqab and Wadi Al Dabab. This escalation reflects the importance of the province in the broader conflict over the roads, heights, and sites connected to Bab al-Mandab, although control of Mount Sabr does not necessarily mean direct control of the strait.

As for Saudi Arabia, the importance of Taiz stems from its connection to the security of the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab, its demographic and political weight in the Yemeni balance of power, and its repercussions on the future of the Yemeni state. The Houthi expansion in the governorate may give the group additional pressure cards in negotiations with Riyadh, and complicate future security and political arrangements. On the other hand, the continued divisions between anti-Houthi forces may weaken their ability to form a stable political and military balance. Hence, the Saudi interest is not limited to preventing military expansion, but rather includes preserving the social and political balances that prepare for the establishment of a stable Yemeni state, especially since it is difficult for any sustainable political settlement to ignore a governorate with this demographic, economic and historical weight.

What a painful irony; The mountain that Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz wanted was a window from which visitors could view the beauty of Taiz, and a road was paved to its peaks to make it a destination for life and tourism. The Houthis turned some of its heights into military sites from which rifle barrels overlooked the city and its people, after they imposed a long-lasting siege on it. Thus, the function of the mountain changed from embracing visitors and tourists to a site from which the city and its residents were observed, and from a scene of beauty and peace to a square where the sounds of bullets echoed, in an irony that sums up the tragedy of Yemen, where the roads that were built to close the distances between people turned into lines of contact separating them.

A quarter of a century after Prince Sultan's initiative, the wounded Taiz appears to be evidence that geography, which was an arena for development, has become an arena for competing interests and the struggle for influence. Resolving the battle of Taiz may change the balance of military and political power in Yemen, and reshape the negotiating cards between the parties to the conflict. Perhaps the real challenge facing Saudi Arabia and Yemen lies not only in redrawing the maps of military control, but in creating the conditions that allow the return of development and stability, so that the path that once brought people together does not remain a witness to their division.

Quoted from "Asharq Al-Awsat"