Saudi Arabia Forms Sunni Alliance Against Houthis

Saudi Arabia has responded to the rise of Yemen’s Houthi rebels – a Shiite movement reportedly backed by Iran – by forming a 10-nation Sunni military alliance against them, according to David Ottaway in the latest edition of the Wilson Center Middle East Program’s Viewpoints series. The following is an excerpt from Ottaway’s article.

“Saudi Arabia’s decision to commit its military might to preventing a total takeover of Yemen by Houthi rebels represents a watershed moment in its struggles with Iran both for regional dominance and to halt a creeping Iranian encirclement of the kingdom.

This is not the first time the Saudis have committed their air power, and perhaps soon their troops, too, to aiding their Sunni allies in Yemen against the Houthis who belong to a Shi’ite sect drawing inspiration and military support from Shi’ite Iran. But the Saudi intervention is taking on far larger dimensions than ever before and turning into a broad alliance of Sunni nations against Iran that could become a model for future Arab military interventions to combat Iranian encroachment elsewhere in the Arab world.”

"Just how far Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Arab allies are willing to go in their military intervention in Yemen is unclear. Thus far, they have committed their air forces to widespread attacks on Houthi positions pretty much across the entire country from the capital of Sana’a and the Saudi-Yemeni border in the north to around Aden in the far south. Whether they will risk putting “boots on the ground” to help restore ousted President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to power remains to be seen. Hadi fled Aden and arrived in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Thursday, March 26."

“Yemen, a poor, tribally-segmented country with a weak state, has long been a thorn in the side of the Saudi kingdom that keeps drawing blood. Yemeni leaders have again and again supported its enemies or been too weak to prevent them from operating from there even while the Saudis have poured billions of dollars into Yemeni coffers. Yemen supported Iraq against Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War of 1990-91, sided with the Muslim Brotherhood which the Saudis labeled a “terrorist group,” and proved helpless to stop al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula from making Yemen its headquarters after it was driven out of Saudi Arabia in the mid-2000s.”

“The history of Saudi-Houthi relations illustrates all the complexities, and the ephemeral nature, of Yemeni politics in which the Saudis have long played a prominent role. The Houthis are Zaidis, a Shi’ite offshoot which helped to attract Iran to its cause, first for local autonomy and then for its seizure of Sanaa last September. They account for about 35 percent of the country’s population of 26 million and are collectively called Houthis after the name of the family that has led seven uprisings since 2004. Their current leader is 33-year-old Abdul Malik al-Houthi, a reclusive leader who resides in the Houthi stronghold in Saada.”

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