Saudi Arabia is quickly being pulled into a war it spent months trying to sidestep. Saudi and US jets hit back at Iraqi sites on Wednesday — prompting Iraq’s prime minister to scrap a planned meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It convened military representatives from 43 countries and proposed a maritime coalition covering the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb, and the Gulf of Aden. Thirteen states signed on — Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt, Türkiye, and Pakistan among them — though the UAE and Oman were absent. The stakes are rising because the Red Sea is now Saudi Arabia’s lifeline: Hormuz traffic remains thin, with just four commodities vessels transiting Friday.