The Houthis are the armed wing of the developing Iran-Russia military axis in the Arabian Peninsula.

origins

Houthi movement emerged 90s launched in Yemen a religious and political leader He would later lend the name Hussein Bedreddin al-Houthi. Its aim was to promote a segment of Shiite Islam in the Arab country called Zaydism, accepted by more than a third of the population. fan Ruhollah KhomeiniAl Huthi, the late Ayatollah and leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, spent part of his life in the country of Iran. When he returned to Yemen between 1993 and 1997, he served as a member of parliament. Islamic Truth Party, in favor of the monarchy. And at the end of his political term, he founded his political-religious group. Faithful Youthand started pushing religious centers without official permission. As time passed, the perception in the Yemeni government that Al Huthi was an organization emerged. security threat The state’s movement, especially when it began to model its movement in the image and likeness of Lebanese Shiite militias Hezbollah, while intensifying his criticism of the Executive due to its closeness to the United States. In 2004, Yemeni security forces launched an operation in Saada province, their northern refuge, and the founder of the Houthis lost his life in this operation. Some of his followers still think that Al Huthi is actually alive.

Ideology and religion

Zaydism, accepted by more than a third of the Yemeni population, groups the imam’s followers Zayd ibn Ali, who was born and lived at the end of the Hijra 7th century After Christ and early VIII In the western coastal region called Hejaz Saudi ArabiaIt is where the most relevant holy places of Islam are concentrated. This religious scholar, admired by his contemporaries for his knowledge, started a rebellion against the Islamic religion. Caliph HishamFrom the Umayyad dynasty in what is now southern Iraq. Betrayed by his people, he died in the middle of the battle when an arrow pierced his forehead. The Zaydis, theologically the closest branch of Shiism to Sunni Islam, share criticism of the early Sunni caliphs, although this is a much milder and less severe condemnation. In fact, different interpretations of the Muslim religion are not seen as heresy by Zaydis, unlike Shiism. mainstream.

Zaydis traditionally ruled the country for centuries until the middle of the last century, especially until 1962. Looking at the Houthis’ ideology and way of doing business, the influence of the Lebanese Shiite militia group Hezbollah is very clear, especially in terms of their political activities. populism and her anti-Americanism. It even carries the slogan — “Allah is the greatest, death to America, death to Israel, curse on the Jews, victory of Islam” — written in Arabic, in red and green letters on a white background. It bears great similarities to the slogans heard in demonstrations in countries with large Shiite populations, such as Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. And it is in perfect harmony with the propositions of his Lebanese and Iranian co-religionists.

A ten-year war, albeit in limbo

Entry of the Houthis Territorial expansion in Yemen’s capital and subsequently in a significant part of the country, Saudi ArabiaTurkey’s largest Sunni power Arabian peninsulaThey formed a coalition of Gulf countries to counter them. proxies Tehran regime in the region. This alliance eventually fell apart and formed A separatist movement sponsored by the United Arab Emirates He called the Southern Transitional Council, which advocated the division of the country into two states, North Yemen and South Yemen, as happened between 1967 and 1990 in the last century, and eventually took control of significant Yemen. port of adenIt is the second most populous city in the country. Bombings carried out by the Riyadh-led coalition killed nearly 20,000 people. overwhelming international condemnation. In April 2022, both sides reached a two-month ceasefire agreement, the terms of which they abide by today. humanitarian situation Devastating. Some predictions talk about this 120,000 dead on the battlefield and 227,000 As a result hunger and deprivation.

international alliances

Originally a local guerrilla, Houthi rebels have transformed themselves into a sophisticated armed force within a few years, according to senior researcher Eleonora Ardemagni. Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI). And he did this with the help of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, one of the branches of Iran’s religious militia, which provided him with “smuggling” of “weapons, ammunition and military training” for years. Houthi rebels’ television, Al Masirah broadcasts from the south of Shiite-majority Beirut, with technical support from Hezbollah’s television channel Al Manar. The expert describes the alliance with Iran as a “marriage of convenience” in which the Houthis enjoy a higher level of autonomy than Tehran’s other allies due to their financial independence.

Moreover, all this belongs to the Kremlin. Strengthens relations with Iran and its allies –Hezbollah, Hamas– to the detriment of the almost personal ties they have established finally years president Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Russian diplomacy is on its way attacker (to counteract the de facto break with the EU and the USA due to the invasion of Ukraine), and a critical element of this is developing in the Middle East,” writes Emil Avdaliani, professor of International Relations at the European University of Tbilisi (Georgia). Thus, the Houthis are trying to communicate with the West through the mediation of the country of Iran. They include themselves in the logic of the global conflict between the Moscow-Iran axis.