Yemen’s unfinished war: The Houthis in Yemen and Saudi Arabia
By Dr. James E. Sulton Jr.
JA International Correspondent
For four years, Yemen seemed to be a war that had quietly paused. The United Nations-mediated truce reached in 2022 held longer than most observers expected, and Saudi and Houthi negotiators had moved on to discussing a political roadmap. In September 2026 that calm ended. Understanding why requires revisiting to the war’s origins.
The Houthi movement, formally known as Ansar Allah (“Partisans of God”), is a Zaydi Shia revivalist political and insurgent movement that took shape in the northern governorate of Saada. From 2004 to 2014, the movement fought repeated rounds against Yemen’s central government and, at times, against neighboring Saudi Arabia. After the 2012 uprising that removed President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, the Houthis rejected the outcome of the national dialogue meant to design a new government. In 2014 they seized Sanaa and pushed toward Aden.
In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition, with United States logistical and intelligence support, launched airstrikes and an economic blockade to restore the ousted government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Saudi Arabia saw a movement aligned with Iran taking power on its southern border. The Houthis saw foreign aggression. That clash of views, one side calling it a Yemeni civil war and the other a war with Saudi Arabia, has shaped the conflict ever since.
The war has three layers. It is a civil war over who governs Yemen. It is a regional contest between Saudi Arabia and Iran. And it has become a maritime crisis, because the Houthis control territory overlooking the Bab al-Mandab, a strait that carries about 12 percent of world trade in peacetime.
The human cost has been severe. The United Nations estimated 377,000 deaths occurred by early 2022, about 60 percent from indirect causes such as hunger and disease. In 2026, 5.2 million Yemenis are internally displaced and millions more too are in need of humanitarian assistance. As of May 2026, the United Nations reports less than 13 percent of its aid appeal is funded.
The anti-Houthi camp has also been divided. In December 2025 and January 2026, Saudi Arabia struck forces of the United Arab Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council, which had tried to take control of southern and eastern Yemen. The United Arab Emirates withdrew and the council was expelled from the governing Presidential Leadership Council.
The regional war that began when the United States and Israel attacked Iran in February 2026 changed the situation. With the Strait of Hormuz constrained, the Red Sea became the main alternative route for Gulf oil, which gave the Houthis new leverage. In August, United Nations envoy Hans Grundberg warned that Yemen faced its most serious risk of returning to large-scale war since the truce, after missile attacks on Abha airport and Saudi oil facilities.
In September, the Houthis launched a rapid offensive. They captured Mokha and islands near the Bab al-Mandab, pressed on Marib and Taiz, and displaced about 125,000 people. They also fired missiles and drones at Saudi energy infrastructure. Saudi Arabia responded with heavy airstrikes, and government forces report recapturing some positions around Taiz. The United States, however, has held back. After U.S. officials met Houthi representatives in Muscat, the Houthis gave assurances American shipping would not be attacked, and the administration declined to intervene on Saudi Arabia’s behalf.
Saudi Arabia has reportedly proposed a two-week truce followed by direct talks. The Houthis have responded coolly. They want the conflict treated as a war with Saudi Arabia rather than an internal Yemeni dispute, and they want the blockade lifted “in all its forms.”
As United Nations envoy Grundberg warned, four years of calm can be lost in weeks. Restoring it will require agreements not only in Sanaa, Yemen and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but in Washington, D.C. and Tehran, Iran.
