Anti-Houthi factions in Yemen could be vying for US support to attack the movement’s territory, analysts and experts told media, following intensified air strikes on Houthi targets by the United States.
The war in Yemen has largely been frozen for the last three years. Still, groups aligned with the Yemeni government have started signalling that they could launch operations against areas controlled by the pro-Iranian Houthis, including the crucial port of Hodeidah.
A similar campaign on Hodeidah, a critical entry point for food and goods on the Red Sea coast, seemed imminent in 2018, only to be aborted after intervention from the United Nations and the international community, who feared a humanitarian disaster in Yemen.
But experts and analysts expressed doubt that an attack by anti-Houthi groups on their domestic rival would be successful, despite some likening it to the offensive that unseated another Iran ally, former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in late 2024.
“Pro-ROYG [Republic of Yemen Government] voices have been asserting that ground operations against the Houthis – in Hodeidah and potentially elsewhere – are imminent,” Hannah Porter, an independent Yemen analyst, told media.
“My impression so far is that these comments are just meant to garner external support from the US or Saudi [Arabia] for a takeover of Hodeidah.”
The Houthis, or Ansar Allah as they are officially known, marched into and took over the Yemeni capital Sanaa in 2014. Soon after, a Saudi Arabian-led coalition intervened on behalf of Yemen’s internationally recognised government to fight the Houthis.
Anti-Houthi forces achieved some success in the early years of the war, but the failed Hodeidah campaign seemed to slow their momentum, and the Houthis have largely been on top militarily since then.
Saudi Arabia announced in March 2022 that it would stop hostilities in Yemen, and a UN-brokered truce stopped much of the fighting the following month.
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