Bab el-Mandab showdown: Houthis’ pursuit of self-destruction
On the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula lies the country of Yemen. It is a land of contrasts: much of the country is made up of the harsh Arabian desert, but the western region enjoys a favourable climate, thanks to the moist air from the Red Sea pushed up by the Asir Mountain range. That small region supports over 60 percent of Yemen’s 30.5 million population.
When the Arab world erupted into the Arab Spring in 2011, the Iranian-backed Zaidi Shia minority group called Ansar Allah (Supporters of Allah), popularly known as the Houthis after their founder, citing oppression of the 5 percent Shia minority, rose against the Yemen government and took control of the capital Sanaa in 2014.
Iran’s support of the Zaidis attracted the interest of the neighbouring Sunni governments, particularly Iran’s geopolitical rival, Saudi Arabia. In 2015, a Saudi-led coalition intervened on behalf of the Yemeni government, launching airstrikes and a ground offensive. The war became one of the deadliest of the 21st century, leading to the loss of 377,000 lives.
The area which the Houthis control is strategic in many ways. Above everything, it is close to one end of the Bab el-Mandab Strait, the 20-mile-wide channel that connects the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal. This is the channel that makes world news nowadays.
Despite its narrowness, Bab el-Mandab is a very strategic global maritime link, connecting Europe and Asia. It is estimated that almost a quarter of goods in the world ship through this strait, including about 10 percent of global seaborne oil traffic. As a result, powerful nations such as the US, Russia, and China have placed their military bases in the region to ensure maritime security. Hence, when the Houthis started firing at some ships purporting solidarity with Palestinians, the outcome was very predictable.
In October 2023, the Houthis started launching missiles at Israel. In November, they hijacked a ship and announced that they would target ships associated with Israel. Equipped with both Iranian weapons and intelligence, their attacks have greatly disrupted the movement of goods in the channel, forcing many shipping lines to choose a longer route around South Africa, thus provoking the comprehensive American and British attacks against the Houthis last week.
One didn’t have to be a prophet to foresee that outcome. Nations don’t sink millions into military bases just for show. They’re a declaration: We will defend our interests, by force if necessary. Yet, the Zaidis of Yemen – a nation ravaged by a decade of proxy war, where the poverty rate is possibly 70 percent, the currency has lost 99 percent of its value since 2015, one in five people is internally displaced, and per capita GDP barely touches $650 – seemed blind to this reality. They poke the world’s most powerful, thus inviting destruction upon themselves.
What is most baffling is this: why did the Houthis start this war? They say that they want to stop the war in Gaza – but why do they take it upon themselves to stop that war? They cannot even stop their war in Yemen, so why do they take it upon themselves to enforce global peace? You would think that they have more urgent issues to deal with at home, huh?
Whatever we think of their actions, the Houthis stand no chance of winning this war – the best they can hope for is to cause significant disruption to global supply chains as they have done. Ultimately, the Yemen government will get more military support, more bombs will rain on Yemeni cities, and more misery will follow millions of Yemenis. So, again, why did they start this war?
It is an open secret that the Houthis are doing the Iranians’ bidding. Iran is playing a clever game by pulling the strings from afar without risking its people. But wherever the Iranians have put their hands, destruction followed. Look at Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, and now Yemen. So, knowing how high the stakes are, why would anyone choose to dance to their tunes?
When the news of the devastating Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 broke, one of the questions that must have lingered in any curious person’s mind was what Hamas was expecting to gain from their attack. Based on the wild celebrations in Gaza and beyond, killing 1,200 Israelis was a huge victory for Hamas, but didn’t they see that they had given the Israelis a licence to retaliate with the kind of vengeance probably hitherto unseen in the Middle East?
These actions are suicidal. The destruction wrought about in Gaza and the destruction that the Houthis are attracting to Yemenis – quite predictable. Is the death of a couple of Jews worth the misery that they attract on themselves? It feels like they love death, don’t they?
I am reminded of the words attributed by many to the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ms. Golda Meir, saying ‘Peace will come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us’. Probably Golda Meir had a point, didn’t she?
