The Houthi attack shook Saudi Arabia after the defeat of the Yemeni forces that it had helped to support and train.
Hot Topics
Musk proposes a framework for AI safety: "Let companies test each other's models
Amazon Kindle Book : A Practical Guide for Married Couples
The happened during the Houthi lightning attack, where some Yemeni army fighters buried their weapons in the desert and others sold them in local markets, while everyone else fled in the hope of survival.
As the Houthis rained missiles and drones down on their opponents, Yemeni government forces withdrew south overnight, opening the way for the Iranian-backed rebels to seize the Red Sea port of Mocha last week and advance toward the Bab al-Mandab Strait , tightening their grip on this strategic waterway.
The pro-government fighter, as saying: “We discovered that most of our comrades had already fled. We had no choice but to leave Mocha that same night and withdraw.” The collapse of Hassan’s faction has embroiled Saudi Arabia, which helped arm and train anti-Houthi forces and is now struggling to repel the rebels’ lightning offensive this month, in its biggest crisis in years. The collapse has reignited a conflict from which Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has long sought to extricate the kingdom and has contributed to pushing crude oil prices to their highest levels since mid-May.
Hassan, who asked that his real name not be used, added that he and his fellow members of the National Resistance Forces buried their AK-47 assault rifles in the desert rather than be forced back to the front lines. They pretended to be displaced civilians as they sought refuge in government-controlled provinces in the south. “When we saw that our leaders had fled and that we had become victims of the war, we escaped toward Aden,” he said.
the Houthis have endured a years-long bombing campaign by a Saudi-led coalition that intervened in the Yemen war in 2015, and months of US airstrikes after they began attacking ships in the Red Sea following the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2013.
They are a ruthless force, accused of recruiting children and imposing repressive rule on the areas under their control.
They face a coalition of disparate armed groups that feign loyalty to the weak Yemeni government but often compete with one another. Analysts estimate that Saudi Arabia had recruited up to 400,000 Yemeni fighters before the latest offensive, though their effectiveness is questionable, and those stationed along the coast have proven unable to match the Houthis.
The newspaper quoted Farea al-Muslimi of Chatham House in London as saying: “There was a lack of cohesion, disregard for the other side, a lack of intelligence, poor coordination, and a very weak communications system between the various factions.” He added that “the Houthis do not care about the population under their control; all their revenue is spent on the war effort.”
He added that the Houthis financed their operations by importing fuel and gas from Iran, collecting customs duties and taxes, and investing in telecommunications networks, among other things, using these funds to bolster their arsenals. While the Yemeni government sent reinforcements to Mocha, which was then under the control of the National Resistance Front, previously backed by the UAE, Rami, a pseudonym for a pro-government fighter, felt “betrayed” when he arrived on the battlefield. “While we were fighting on the front lines, there was no one supporting us from behind, and we realized too late that our commanders had fled,” he said. He added that some of his comrades surrendered to the Houthis, while others sold their weapons on the market and fled, while he chose to keep his Kalashnikov rifle. He paid smugglers to take him through the mountainous terrain to safety in Taiz province.
Saudi Arabia has intensified its bombing campaign against Houthi positions across Yemen, with the rebels reporting that the kingdom launched more than 300 airstrikes in the past week. When the Houthis last controlled the area around Bab al-Mandab, after their advance south in early 2015 and their capture of Aden, the Saudi-led coalition pushed them back to the Red Sea port of Hodeidah.
It took more than 18 months and exacerbated a civil war that the United Nations has described as the world's worst man-made humanitarian crisis. A UN panel of experts reported in 2018 that all parties to the conflict had committed violations that could amount to war crimes, with the Saudi-led coalition accused of blockading ports and killing thousands of civilians in airstrikes.
Analysts say the Houthis are mostly acting in their own self-interest, seeking to force Saudi Arabia to allow free movement of traffic at airports and ports under their control, demanding that Riyadh pay the salaries of workers in Houthi-controlled areas and grant them access to Yemeni oil revenues.
However, their escalation also aligns with their ally Iran's efforts to maintain pressure on global energy markets in its trade war with the United States. But Yemenis fear a return to the darkest days of the war. Families forced to flee their homes by the fighting continue to stream into the governorates of Aden, Lahj, and Taiz, with many ending up in overcrowded makeshift camps lacking basic services.
The United Nations reported that at least 125,000 people have been displaced from their homes since the beginning of the month. It added that nearly 5 million of the country's 42 million inhabitants are internally displaced due to the conflict, and that almost half the population is suffering from acute food insecurity.
Ahmed Naji, a Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group, said that Saudi-backed forces could still defeat the Houthis. But analysts warn that the task would be extremely difficult. The Saudi-led coalition has more Yemeni troops on the ground than it did in 2015, but the Houthis are also stronger and have more fortified positions. “The Saudis don’t have good options on the table,” Naji added. “They could pursue the political track, but even that would be very costly because they would be negotiating from a position of weakness. The Houthis will increase their demands because they control more territory, and for them, this is a major victory that must be reflected in any political agreement with the Saudis.” Saudi Arabia's options also appear limited after the Trump administration refused to participate in an operation against the Houthis. A report by diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour in The Guardian indicated that US officials met with Houthi leaders over the weekend at the US embassy in Muscat, leading to the US decision not to intervene to help Saudi Arabia halt the Houthi advance in Yemen.
The Iranian-backed armed group reassured the United States that the 2025 ceasefire agreement between the two sides remains in effect and that the movement has no intention of attacking US ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis emphasized that only ships linked to Saudi Arabia are considered targets due to its blockade of Yemen.
The meeting helped explain Donald Trump’s decision to condemn the Houthi advance along Yemen’s west coast for threatening freedom of navigation through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, but he has so far refused any military response to support Riyadh.
The United States designated the Houthis a foreign terrorist organization in March 2025, but U.S. officials have recently met with leaders from Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance confirmed on Monday that the United States is in direct contact with the Houthis.
Nabil Khoury, the former US deputy ambassador to Yemen, said that a “kind of tacit understanding” had been reached between the Trump administration and the Houthis. Khoury added, “The Houthis are assuring the US administration that American and international shipping in the Red Sea will not be affected, but the only danger lies with Saudi ships or those carrying Saudi oil.”In a separate development, Israeli officials leaked details of a secret meeting held last week in Germany between military leaders from the United States, Israel, and several Arab countries to discuss the war Israel and the United States are waging against Iran.
Ravid, citing Israeli officials, reported that the meeting was attended by the chiefs of staff of the Israeli, Saudi, Emirati, Bahraini, Kuwaiti, Qatari, Jordanian, and Egyptian militaries. This was the first such meeting since the United States and Israel engaged in a war with Iran more than six months ago. Israel has offered to intervene in Yemen on behalf of Saudi Arabia.
The Guardian, in its editorial, commented that the Houthi advance had shocked observers, even though the turbulent region is accustomed to surprises. It noted that Riyadh, which had painstakingly withdrawn from the war in Yemen, had hoped to calibrate its response to the July flight from Iran to Houthi-controlled Sana'a—the first in over a decade—enough to salvage the 2022 ceasefire.
But the bombing of Sana'a airport gave the Houthis an opportunity to escalate the situation while blaming Riyadh. The report indicated that the Houthis are not merely proxies for Iran, but that their interests are increasingly converging, thanks to Trump's illegal war on Iran. They need to maintain Iranian support, and the Strait of Hormuz crisis has provided a new opportunity to exert economic pressure and potentially create a new source of income through strategic gains along the coast.The forces opposing them, including the government and southern separatists, are more divided than ever. The United Arab Emirates, which had been at odds with its former close ally Saudi Arabia, withdrew its forces from Yemen at the beginning of the year.
The Saudi airstrikes alone would not be enough to defeat the Houthis. However, Trump rejected requests for assistance. The Saudis now face a choice between negotiating with an emboldened enemy that now makes more stringent demands, or returning to a full-scale war of the kind they previously regretted. While Yemen's recent history demonstrates the futility of a military solution, ultimately, its citizens deserve a government that is not beholden to either Riyadh or Tehran.
Tags:
asiawest
