Allison Minor is the director for Middle East Integration at the Atlantic Council.
Articles & Testimony
The latest Houthi offensive has shattered the status quo along Yemen’s west coast, upended a years-long truce, and set the stage for further consolidation of their control in the north—but the victory is also Iran’s.
Seizing opportunity amid the war in Iran, the Houthis have launched a major new bid for military dominance in and around Yemen. On Tuesday, the Iranian-aligned group unleashed a wave of drone and ballistic missile strikes on Saudi Arabia, setting fire to oil facilities in the country’s south and injuring more than 70 people. Then on Thursday, after days of heavy fighting along key frontlines inside Yemen, the Houthis routed Saudi-backed government forces along the Red Sea coast and captured the strategic port of Mokha. And on Friday, the Yemeni government reported that the Houthis had seized Perim Island at the mouth of the Bab el Mandeb Strait, the narrow waterway that connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. The takeover marks a profound shift in the balance of power in Yemen, with potential consequences for the entire region...