Houthi Attacks on Ships and Retaliatory Anglo-American Airstrikes: The Background to the latest Middle Eastern Conflict
Yemen’s strategic location at the south-western corner of the Arabian Peninsula gives it control over the eastern edge of the southern entrance to the Red Sea, directly opposite Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa to the west. The 20-mile wide and 70-mile long strait of Bab al-Mandab (Gate of Tears) links the Red Sea, via the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea, to the Indian Ocean, while further to the north the Suez Canal connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean. The Red Sea is thus a key shipping route between Europe and Asia for several important commodities, including manufactured goods, agricultural products, and crude oil and natural gas.
Since November 2023, the Houthis have launched a series of attacks from Yemen, using drones and missiles and targeting container ships and tankers passing along the Red Sea towards Israel, allegedly in support of the Palestinian cause in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, but only to eventually invoke the wrath of the US and the UK and disapproval from others. Retaliation has been deemed necessary to protect global maritime trade and prevent increased shipping prices and consequent inflation, since about a quarter of international shipping passes through the Red Sea, and also to deter further attacks on American and British naval vessels. Anglo-American airstrikes apparently seek to reduce Houthi capability- targeting infrastructure, such as radar stations and command centres, and destroying arsenals of drones, cruise missiles, and helicopters.
The Republic of Yemen was formed on 22 March 1990 by the union of the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) and the People’s Democratic Republic (South Yemen)-the first and only Arab Communist state. South Yemen was under British control from 1839 to 1937, when it was divided between the Crown Colony of Aden and the Western and Eastern Aden Protectorates, in an arrangement that lasted until 1967. North Yemen was once part of the Ottoman Empire and was ruled by a succession of Shia Imams of the Zaidi sect, until the 66th Imam, Mohamed al-Badr, was deposed by a coup on 26 September 1962. The subsequent proclamation of a republic in the north inevitably led to a Civil War between Royalists loyal to the Hamid al- Din family and Republicans committed to the new political order, right through to 1967. The south, on the other hand, consisted of numerous tribal fiefdoms that were headed by Sunni sheikhs. Ali Abdullah Saleh, president of North Yemen since July 1978, was named first president of the new republic, which had Sana’a as its capital, in 1990. The War of Secession in 1994 was an early manifestation of continuing north-south tensions in the newly unified nation, generated by southern resentment of northern domination.
The people of Yemen have long been divided by tribal lineage and by religious affiliation, as well as by the uncompromising mountainous terrain of the country. Islamic Sharia law has coexisted with ancient tribal codes which validated such forms of punishment as revenge (thar) and diya (payment of blood money). The unification of Yemen was hindered from the very outset by many conflicting loyalties that prevented the emergence of a national ethos.
The present conflict in the country arose in the aftermath of an uprising-part of the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011- that forced President Saleh to step down in November 2011. His deputy, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, a southerner supported by the Saudis, took over as President in February 2012. Meanwhile, Saleh continued to exert considerable influence from the sidelines, supported by loyal northerners in the security forces.
The Houthi movement, officially known as Ansar Allah (Defenders of God), was formed as an alliance of northern tribes in the late 1990s. Houthis sought a revival of the unique Shia Muslim Zaidi sect, which is named for Zaid ibn Ali, the “rightful” fifth Shia imam and a direct descendant of Prophet Mohammed, through Mohammed’s daughter Fatima and her husband Ali. The Houthis opposed growing Saudi influence in Yemen and rejected Wahhabism. The founder of the Houthis, Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi, was killed in the northern province of Sa’dah in 2004, probably on the orders of President Saleh. The Houthis first encroached on Saudi territory in 2009 before being driven back. In 2014, ex-President Saleh had a change of heart and forged an allegiance with the Houthis, who took control of Sana’a in September that year. President Hadi meanwhile fled to Saudi Arabia, where he lives in exile in Riyadh. Saleh’s tryst with the Houthis ended in December 2015, and he was killed by his erstwhile allies shortly thereafter.
Separatist Sunni jihadists from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the local affiliate of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or Da’esh) made inroads in the south, while security forces loyal to Saleh added to the chaos. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates launched a bombing campaign against Houthi targets in March 2015, aided by Western-supplied aircraft, but have so far failed to gain the upper hand. Instead, a humanitarian catastrophe has developed, while the official internationally recognised government, the Presidential Leadership Council, is confined to the southern port of Aden and its environs. The Houthis now have de facto control over 70 per cent of Yemen, including the Red Sea coastline.
Yemen, one of the oldest centres of civilisation in the world and also the source of the ubiquitous coffee bean, now finds itself in a pitiable state. Best regarded as a failed state, it is internally divided and beset with internecine violence. The economy has collapsed, while corruption, nepotism, and political patronage are rife. Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world. Many Yemenis are hungry and malnourished, and lack access to water, basic healthcare, and education- yet the country has largely fallen under the radar of the rest of the world until now.
The Western powers may have oversimplified the internal situation in Yemen and concocted simplistic retaliatory military actions that have a poor track record of delivering the desired results. Blockades of, and attacks on, merchant vessels to disrupt maritime trade are unfortunately a feature of many recent as well as earlier conflicts, and are by no means unique to the Houthis. The volatile political situation within Yemen, a vacuum of leadership, a multiplicity of domestic players, and the many external actors with vested interests in the region, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan, all demand concerted multilateral peace efforts, which will be extremely difficult to achieve, if at all, given the deep distrust between the various parties involved. Meanwhile, innocent civilians on both sides of the divide will continue to pay the price for the military misadventures of the day.
Ashis Banerjee