Simon Collis

"The UK has a DIRECT INTEREST in supporting a key partner like Saudi Arabia." Former British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Simon Collis emphasizes the UK's strategic partnership with the Kingdom and its interest in regional stability amid ongoing Houthi attacks. @SimonCollis11

🔴 Former British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Simon Collis discusses Houthi attacks, the Mecca Defense Alliance's diplomatic efforts with Iran and the UK's role in regional security on Al Arabiya English's Global News Today with Tom Burges Watson. @SimonCollis11

The Economist is correct to note Saudi Arabia is under strain. Houthi missiles and drones have disrupted Riyadh’s airport and forced the postponement of the Future Investment Initiative, and the 2022 truce with Yemen has unraveled. However, any discussion should also give weight and spell out decade of military reform and to Riyadh’s diplomacy, including with Iran, the Mecca mutual-defense pact with Pakistan and Turkey, and building a growing coalition of support from Europe against Yemen. Further, the threat of conflict with Iran and its proxies has been a serious regional threat for years. Saudi leaders have long understood that their reforms would remain vulnerable to Iranian and proxy violence, and that American policy could shift. Decisions of this kind are developed and executed by experienced ministers, military officers, and advisers, whereas the article seems to personalize the discussion to one leader. Riyadh’s decisions on Yemen and the ongoing military campaign deserve scrutiny, but anyone who has dealt with Saudi officials knows their expertise on Yemen is deep. Expertise does not, unfortunately, equate to solutions. An answer to Yemen’s instability has eluded countless hard-working officials in successive Yemeni governments, regional powers, Western policymakers, and United Nations mediators for decades, and the problem has worsened since Iran’s involvement. It would also be useful to note that Yemen’s political and military leaders, including the Houthis, bear responsibility for their actions and the country’s future. Saudi Arabia shares an 800-mile border with Yemen and hosts more than 1.8 million Yemenis. As the article notes, even longtime critics of the war accept that the kingdom has little choice but to fight. The timing for involvement is set by Houthi and Iranian aggression. Like Tehran, the Houthis chose when to fire missiles and drones at Saudi cities, airports, and energy infrastructure. Also, the cumulative impact of Iranian support to Houthi military capability merits comment. Houthi capabilities did not appear overnight. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and associated networks have been a major source of the Houthis’ increasingly sophisticated missile and drone capabilities since at least 2013, expanding this work even as regional diplomacy continued. The 2022 truce reduced cross-border attacks for several years, but Houthi refusal to renew it formally meant no one could treat it as a lasting settlement. Last, the assertion that the army is “still built to protect the regime rather than wage war” unfairly overlooks a decade of meaningful reform, much of it concentrated where this war is being fought. As seen in the ongoing conflict, F-15s and Typhoons intercept aircraft, drones, and cruise missiles, while Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems provide dedicated ballistic missile defense. Riyadh has improved command and control, expanded its defense industry, and worked closely with American and European official and private-sector partners. The United States and Saudi Arabia have held four Red Sands exercises since 2023 to test defenses against drones. Riyadh also understands that it must reduce its reliance on foreign military technology. It reports that nearly 25 percent of military spending was localized by the end of 2024, up from 4 percent in 2018. Progress in these areas will come at different speeds, but it is real. The kingdom nevertheless faces two enduring challenges. The first is geography. Saudi Arabia is nearly 100 times the size of Israel and about 26 times the size of the United Arab Emirates. It must protect widely dispersed cities, airports, energy facilities, and military installations against threats from several directions. The second is the scale and persistence of the attacks. The Saudi-led coalition announced on October 15 that the Houthis have launched 1,104 missiles and 1,135 drones at the kingdom since 2015, targeting airports, oil facilities, and ports. Saudi air defenses continue to intercept most of them, and coalition strikes have destroyed Houthi launchers in Yemen. As events in Ukraine, Israel, and the Gulf have shown, no air-defense system guarantees complete protection against sustained missile and drone attacks. Those that get through, as at Riyadh’s airport on October 10, cause deaths and damage confidence far beyond their number. Riyadh’s task is to enhance defenses across its vast territory, improve early detection, and replenish interceptors while pursuing economic and social reform. Vision 2030 targets will likely hold even if timetables slip. Saudi success matters not only to the kingdom but to regional stability and the global economy.

Britain has an infrastructure costs problem. But what's causing this and how can we fix it? HS2 will cost up to £102.7bn for 140 miles. Spain built the second longest high speed network in the world, 2,500 miles, for less. It isn't just HS2 though. Underground extensions cost twice the per-mile average of France or Italy, and six times Spain's. Heathrow's third runway, excluding new terminals, is expected to cost 10 to 70 times more than other runways. British trams cost more than double the European average. Why are these projects so expensive? There are eight key reasons: 1. Planning: it took 14 years, £300m, and 360,000 pages for the Lower Thames Crossing to go from being designated a national priority to receiving permission. 2. Environmental and Habitats Regulations: these gave us the £216m bat tunnel and the fish disco, as well as an 18,000 page environmental statement to re-open just 3.3 miles of railway on an existing alignment. 3. Judicial review: of 36 legal challenges to approved major projects, only four forced a re-decision. All four were approved again, but fighting a legal challenge can add £120m+ to a project's cost and mountains of paperwork. 4. Funding: the Treasury pays, but cannot directly control a project's spend, so it instead requires long business cases. Once given funding, promoters don't have the incentive to build more cheaply. 5. Procurement: currently generalist teams rely on consultants and are more focused on social value than past performance and value for money. 6. Regulation: quangos and departments create regulation that they don't bear the costs of. E.g. new tram projects must pay for 92.5% of the cost of moving utilities, which means utility companies demand a completely new set of pipes and wires. 7. Lack of state capacity: Madrid trebled its metro at a tenth of London's cost led by nine in-house engineers. The DfT has the second highest staff turnover of any department and cannot effectively oversee a project from design through construction. 8. Centralisation: Mayors cannot fund and approve their own infrastructure. If they could, they'd have strong electoral incentives to build quickly and cheaply, as seen in France and Spain. The good news is that every one of these is a policy choice, which can be reversed. Some fixes need only a letter from the right minister and none require significantly more spending. My new @CPSThinkTank report lays out these fixes and how to lower infrastructure costs. If we implement them, Britain could once again build the infrastructure it desperately needs. cps.org.uk/wp-content/upload…

Just done a couple of broadcast interviews and been asked whether there was any tension in the England camp over the post-match interviews at Miami Stadium. No. Firstly, players inhabit a bubble largely away from furious online debates. Secondly, players spoke publicly last week, especially on the back of the Stones/Rice wind-up on Tuchel in the Azteca, of their liking for him, and his emotional intelligence. Thirdly, players know that anything Tuchel says about improvements is obviously for the best. He’s driving standards. Fourthly, England players all know how close they are to achieving something historic and nothing will distract them from that mission. Fifthly, if anybody is upset about a few home truths then they shouldn't be in an elite dressing-room. At points in England’s past, managers have tip-toed around issues. Not Tuchel. He identifies a problem, devises a way to address it during the match and then mentions it openly afterwards. He’s honest. He has a demanding, winning mindset. Like Jude Bellingham. It’s why England have a chance of beating Argentina. The elite mindset of Tuchel, Bellingham, Harry Kane and others. Challenging each other, driving them all on in a week that could define their lives and legacy. #ENG #FIFAWorldCup

A landmark moment for the UK and the GCC 🇬🇧 🤝 🇸🇦 🇶🇦 🇦🇪 🇴🇲 🇰🇼 🇧🇭

Sabastian Sawe has broken the men's marathon world record in London. The Kenyan is the first person ever to run a marathon in under two hours in race conditions — his time was 1:59:30. Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia, making his marathon debut, achieved the feat 11 seconds later — 1:59:41. Fittingly, like London buses, you wait an eternity for one, then two come along at once 🚌 Remarkable.

#LISTEN: The royal relationship runs at a deeper and longer wavelength than day-to-day politics, says @SimonCollis11, the former UK envoy to Saudi Arabia I Read more: arab.news/mkyad