The Middle East has become a theatre of war while the world sits back and watches. The latest bad news from the region is a major drone attack on two facilities of Aramco, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)’s largest oil company. The attack started horrible fires at Abqaiq, the company’s biggest oil processing unit. The company has, however, reported no causalities and the Kingdom’s official news agency says that the fires have been put out, which is an encouraging sign. Though the facility has a capacity to process seven percent of the world’s oil, the less worrying factor is that the attack happened at a time when the global market is already sluggish with diminishing demand. However, since the attack happened on the weekend, there are no credible estimates about the impact that this attack may potentially have on international prices. Earlier in 2006, Al Qaeda made an abortive attempt to hit this facility by its suicide bombers but failed. This time, however, Houthis rebels claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that they used 10 drones in it and threatened more in the future. For several years now, KSA-led coalition aircrafts have been dropping bombs on towns and cities of Yemen which has resulted in tens of thousands of human deaths. Situation on the ground is so bad that the UN has calls it the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. On these grounds, the rebels try to justify their strike on the Aramco facility, claiming the right to react. As expected the US accused Iran of this attack. The Kingdom is holding its cards close to its chest, which means the region must brace for a storm that is hidden behind this silence. The rebels too have made their calculations well before launching this mega offensive and it is feared that any strong reaction will go in their favour as they intend to bring this war inside the Saudi territory. If they succeed, ripples of unrest from this region will beset the entire world. The war has been raging for years but no meaningful attempt has ever been made to settle it other than sporadic UN resolutions. The world leaders should understand that if they continue sitting back, the situation can slip out of their hands so they must stand now and stop it. *