How Saudi Arabia Is Trying to Cut off Houthi Rebels’ Maritime Supply Lines

By Sebastien Roblin,The National Interest

On June 12, 2018, the thunder of artillery, the rattle of armored trucks and the screech of jet fighters heralded an offensive by Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces aimed at Al-Hudaydah—a port city through which seventy percent of the humanitarian aid feeding Yemen’s beleaguered population arrives.

After a week of intense fighting, Hadi loyalist forces finally seized Hudaydah International airport, opening the way for further advances on the port facilities. However, though the Saudi-backed coalition hopes Hudayah’s capture may mark a turning point in their war with Houthi rebels, it also could potentially put hundreds of thousands of Yemenis at risk of death from starvation.

Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East, and for a good part of the twentieth century it existed as two perpetually warring states. Yemen’s first president after unification, Ali Abdullah Saleh, first fostered and then turned against an Islamist movement called the Houthis, who were associated with the Zaidi sect of Shia Islam.

In 2011, amidst the upheaval of the Arab Spring, Saleh was forced to step down and his rival Abdrabbuh Hadi assumed the presidency. However, Hadi was not able to consolidate political support, and in 2014 the Houthis—now with Saleh’s backing—seized the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, adding a general civil war to a country already afflicted by Al Qaeda and ISIS-aligned insurgents. Saleh’s allies brought a large portion of the Yemeni Army in support of the Houthis, including its ballistic missiles force.

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