What do the bombings achieve for the Huthi militia?

The United States and the United Kingdom bombed positions of Yemen's Houthi militia in the early hours of Friday. The operation, in retaliation for this group's attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, clashes with Washington's declared intention to prevent the extension of the Gaza war to the rest of the Middle East. The reality is that the conflict has already expanded throughout the region and that the measure is unlikely to stop the rebels; In their support for the Palestinian cause they not only have the support of Iran, but also of a large sector of Yemenis, and the sympathy of the Arab populations.

The bombings, which the United States repeated in the early hours of this Saturday, will degrade the offensive capacity of the Houthis in the short term, but the militia will once again be equipped by the Iranian regime. As expected, Tehran condemned the punishment of its ally as a “clear violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yemen” and international law. Nobody expects him to take a step forward: he is not interested in a direct clash with the United States and has already managed to involve it on several fronts. More significant was the call for containment by Saudi Arabia, an ally of Washington, but which after eight years measuring its forces with the Islamic Republic through its war against the Huthi militia, is in the middle of a thaw process with the first. and peace talks with the rebels.

In addition to the risk that its disengagement from the war in Yemen will fail, Riyadh, like the rest of the Arab capitals, also measures its words because its population is viewing with sympathy the challenge that the Houthis pose to Israel. It matters little that the missile and drone launches against the coasts of the Hebrew State have not caused significant damage; or that some of the merchant ships attacked in the Red Sea have no apparent connection to Israeli interests. They are the only ones they see act in the face of the tragedy that the Palestinians are experiencing and that they follow almost to the minute through their mobile screens.

The Houthi movement is often defined as a “pro-Iran militia.” They are, but not only. The group, whose name is Ansarullah or Ansaralá (depending on whether the transcription is made from Arabic to English or Spanish, and which means Supporters of God), emerged from an evangelizing movement at the end of the last century with the aim of reviving Zaydism (the branch of Shia Islam followed by a third of Yemenis). Inspired by the Lebanese Hezbollah (Party of God) and against the background of their political marginalization, they evolved towards social care and created a military branch that faced the Government of Ali Abdullah Saleh in successive wars. It was then that they began to be known as huthis (pronounced júzis, with a soft jot) after the name of the clan that led those revolts. After Saleh's departure, following the popular protests of 2011, Ansaralá allied himself with the part of the Army that supported him and took power in Sana'a; That prompted Saudi Arabia to intervene in favor of the expelled president and unleash a civil war that still keeps the country divided, with the internationally recognized government installed in Aden, the southern capital.

Unlike Hezbollah, the Yemeni militia movement was not a creation of Iran, although it soon enlisted its help, which served as an alibi for the Saudi cross-border intervention. For the Islamic Republic, Yemen was not a priority country in its regional strategy. When the Houthis took Sanaa in early 2015, they acted against Tehran's advice. However, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard quickly understood that the rebel group was an asset to keep its Saudi rivals in check, without too high a cost. Since the Israeli intervention in Gaza, in response to the Hamas attack on October 7, Ansaralah has proven himself as one of the most daring agents of the so-called Axis of Resistance, the network of pro-Iran militias whose common denominator is the rejection of Israel and the US presence in the region.

Now, Arab governments hope that the storm will pass and the attacks on shipping will cease. It is unlikely. The Houthis maintain that because of the war in Gaza, they are preventing ships linked to Israel from crossing the Red Sea. As suggested by the crowded demonstrations last Friday in Sana'a, Taiz and Hodeida (the main Yemeni cities under the control of the militia), these actions that have put international trade in check have broad popular support. Furthermore, their spokesmen have promised to “deal a painful blow” to the United States and the United Kingdom in retaliation for the bombings. The risk is that one of the rebels' missiles will hit a warship of those countries squarely, causing an even greater lesson against Yemen, one of the poorest nations in the world.

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