The Houthi militia that has been firing missiles from bases in Yemen at commercial ships in the Red Sea, imposing a de facto blockade as shippers have been forced to avoid the Bab al Mendab strait on their way to the Suez Canal, are a Shia Islamic movement that formally calls itself Ansar Allah, or Defenders of God, and traces its lineage to a community of Zaydi Muslims established more than 1,000 years ago.
The missile attacks, which have not sunk any ships, are an act of revenge for U.S. support of Israel in its war in Gaza. But as Eurasia Group analyst Gregory Brew explains in this episode of History As It Happens, the rebels who took control of the Yemeni capital of Sana’a in 2015 are also seeking to assert their primacy and legitimacy after a decade of civil war, foreign intervention and humanitarian disasters. Iran has supplied the Houthis with weapons and money for about a decade.
“They are authoritarian. They rule through fear, coercion and violence. They are certainly not democrats or believe in representative government by any means. And they’ve done a variety of very nasty things in Yemen. They’ve been blamed for the return of slavery,” Mr. Brew said of the Houthis, whom the Biden administration has returned to the list of designated terrorist organizations.
Yet Mr. Brew doubts whether U.S. and U.K. airstrikes meant to degrade the Houthis’ missile capabilities will be effective at either destroying their infrastructure or deterring future attacks. The retaliation for the commercial shipping attacks is aggravating fears of a wider regional war involving the U.S. and Iran, but Mr. Brew contends no one has any incentive to make that happen.
“I’m starting to see analysts say, aren’t we in a war already? We’re seeing every group involved firing missiles, drones, and launching attacks at each other. This looks like a regional war. But I push back against that a little bit, because most of the actors involved are so concerned with trying to keep this contained,” Mr. Brew said.
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