Updated Jan. 20, 2024 at 4:30 p.m.
-Analysis-
SANA’A — With the Houthi-U.S. conflict on the verge of exploding, the first point to note is that the war in Yemen is in its ninth year. Although the description of a “civil war” applies, the conflict in fact has always been regional, given that multiple countries in the region are backing one of the warring parties.
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Iran is providing financial and military support to the Houthis, while the Saudi-led coalition has supported the internationally recognized government, with years-long U.S. military and logistical support.
The protracted nature and complexity of the conflict has hampered diplomatic efforts to broker a lasting ceasefire and find a political solution. This has turned Yemen to a failed state and created a humanitarian disaster, one of the world’s worst.
Yemen’s war broke out in 2014 when the Houthis swept down from their stronghold in northern Yemen and seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, launching a grinding war.
A Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 to try to restore Yemen’s exiled, internationally recognized government to power. In recent years, the conflict turned into a stalemate between Iran and Saudi Arabia, only exacerbating the humanitarian toll.
The U.S. and UK airstrikes that began last week have come in response to the Houthis’ growing number of attacks on shipping routes in the Red Sea, which have disrupted global trade and supply chains.
Disrupt and degrade
“This action is intended to disrupt and degrade the Houthis’ capabilities to endanger mariners and threaten global trade in one of the world’s most critical waterways,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement following the Jan. 12 strikes. “Today’s coalition action sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will bear further costs if they do not end their illegal attacks.”
The West wants to counter attempts – namely by Iran and China – to benefit from the chaos in the region.
Ali al-Dhahab, a military and strategic expert, argued that the Western influence in the region and the West’s efforts to maintain it has been a factor in the rapidly escalated developments in the region. The West, he said, is working to counter other nations’ attempts – namely Iran and China – to benefit from the chaos in the region.
Following the launch of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the Houthis announced their support to the Palestinian group, and launched dozens of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. They seized one vessel.
Who are the Houthis?
Axis of Resistance
The Yemeni group said it targets Israel-linked vessels, as a sign of its support of the Palestinian people. They said they would target any vessels heading to Israeli ports as Israel continues blocking the entry of humanitarian aid and medicine to Gaza’s people. They also fire ballistic missiles and drones on Israel, marking the first-time long-range missiles launched toward Israel in many years.
The Iranian-backed group, which seized Yemen’s capital of Sanaa in 2014, views itself as part of the “Axis of Resistance,” which includes other Iranian-backed groups in the region, including the Assad regime in Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon and other militant groups in Syria and Iraq.
The Houthis organized weekly pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Sanaa and other areas they control in Yemen since the war between Hamas and Israel started.
Deterrence message
The war was triggered by Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. The attack prompted Israel to launch an earth-scorched campaign on Gaza, inflicting unprecedented destruction in the tiny coastal enclave and triggered a humanitarian catastrophe. At least 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s attack, while over 24,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war started.
Majed al-Madhaji, a Yemeni writer and researcher, said Yemen’s conflict has taken on a new dimension, where the Houthis are now clashing with international parties – the U.S. and the U.K.
The U.S.-led strikes were limited and a “deterrence message” from the U.S. that they “can reach and target all potential sites across Yemen,” al-Madhaji said. “The message is: We can also undermine the Houthi military capabilities, and this is a form of tough diplomacy.”
Religion and nationalism
But the Houthis vowed they would respond to the U.S. and U.K. strikes — and they did. On Monday, Houthi forces successfully fired on a U.S.-owned and operated dry bulk ship with an anti-ship ballistic missile. Though U.S Central Command said there were no reports of injuries or significant damage, it was nevertheless yet another audacious attack.
The Houthi slogan, “God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse the Jews, and Victory to Islam,” sums up their anti-Western sentiments and what the rebel group says is a desire for a more just political system.
The Houthis have regularly tapped into religious and national sentiments to gain and mobilize public support to their cause. And now, more than ever, the Palestinian cause — which occupies a considerable position in the Arab and Islamic worlds — is at the heart of the Houthi narrative.
