The crisis in Yemen has been ongoing since at least 2011, when, still in the context of the Arab Spring, the popular uprising deposed the thenpresident and plunged the country into a series of clashes that led to armed conflict. In addition to political problems, the country has also been confronted with serious economic problems and sectarian conflicts for years.
In this context, the Houthis are a Shiite group from northern Yemen. They began in the 1990s as a religious and cultural movement aimed at defending the Zaydi community against its marginalization, but as the Yemeni conflict worsened they gained progressive power. The group even took over the capital in 2014 and was a central force in the attempt to dissolve the country's parliament in 2015.
However, as we have already said, beyond the internal implications of all this, the Houthis' action involves multiple regional and international actors with overlapping agendas.
Saudi Arabia, for example, intervened with the support of other Sunni majority actors in Yemen to support the ousted government. This further deepened the crisis and culminated in a humanitarian catastrophe, including a hunger, refugee and cholera crisis. Today it is a central player in the dispute and the resulting general instability.
Iran is already embroiled in the conflict, accused of offering support to the Houthis, who in turn supported Hamas in the conflict against Israel that began on October 7. They even threatened to attack any Israelibound ships that passed near the coast.
Finally, there is a general bias directed against the United States and allied with actors such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and terrorist groups such as AlQaeda and the Islamic State, which indirectly benefit from the chaos in the region to expand their networks.