Fred Fleitz

John Bolton has a special relationship with The President and it is a relationship of trust and discretion.

The Saudis see a very dangerous situation -- there are the Houthi rebels, who are a Shiite group which may be becoming an Iranian proxy, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the most dangerous Al Qaeda franchise ... there is a question over whether they can get together an Arab coalition willing to send in ground troops, we’ve seen a slow motion civil war there for many years and now the pace is accelerating … Yemen is really dissolving into a kaleidoscope of conflicting factions.

The Saudis are very concerned -- I think they are going to play a significant role, but I think we need to look at exactly who are the Houthi allied to. There is a belief they are an Iranian proxy, we know the Houthis hate the Saudis … there is a danger the Saudi attack on the Houthis could drive them to the Iranians.

The Shiite Houthi rebels could enflame instability among the Saudi Shiite minority communities. It’s a big concern.