Who are Yemen's Houthis?

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement has been battling a Saudi-led military coalition since 2015. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently said the Congress would be notified of his intent to designate the movement as a foreign terrorist organization, in what would be one of the final acts of the outgoing Trump administration before Joe Biden's inauguration as President on January 20.

Here are some details (cited by Reuters) about the group, also known as Ansar Allah.

HISTORY
-- In the late 1990s, the Houthi family in far north Yemen set up a religious revival movement for the Zaydi sect of Shia Islam, which had once ruled Yemen but whose northern heartland had become impoverished and marginalised.
-- As friction with the government grew, they fought a series of guerrilla wars with the national army and a brief border conflict with Saudi Arabia.

LINKS WITH IRAN

-- They built ties with Iran, but it is not clear how deep that relationship goes. The Saudi-led coalition accuses Iran of arming and training the Houthis, a charge both deny. The coalition also says Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah is helping the Houthis, an accusation it rejects.
-- While Iran champions the Houthis as part of its regional "axis of resistance", Yemen experts say they are motivated primarily by a domestic agenda though they share a political affinity for Iran and Hezbollah. The Houthis deny being puppets of Iran and say they are fighting a corrupt system.

WAR

-- The Houthis joined a wider national uprising in 2011 against the rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was persuaded by Gulf states to step down.
The group later partnered with their erstwhile foe to seize the capital Sanaa in 2014 and oust the Saudi-backed government. Saleh was killed by the group in 2017 when he switched sides.
-- After the Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015, the Houthis and Saleh's forces were driven from Aden and its environs in south Yemen, and from central Marib.
Years of military stalemate have followed, with the Houthis maintaining their hold on Sanaa and most big urban centres.

CAPABILITIES

-- Despite years of coalition air strikes against them, the Houthis continue to launch drones and missiles towards Saudi cities. The Houthis, who took over swathes of Yemen's conventional military, say they are manufactured domestically.
UN investigators said in a report this year that the Houthis receive military support in the form of arms and that some of those weapons have technical characteristics similar to arms manufactured in Iran.
-- The Houthis have hundreds of thousands of fighters under their control.
According to humanitarian agencies, US President Donald Trump's move to designate the Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organisation could disrupt peace efforts and hamper the delivery of life-saving aid in a country where fears of famine are rising.

Here are some of the possible implications of the move:

-- The UN is trying to restart political talks to end the war between the Houthis and a Saudi-led military coalition and the designation could create legal impediments to including the Houthis, who control the capital Sanaa and most big urban centres.
-- The Houthis could break off back-channel talks with Saudi Arabia on a nationwide ceasefire.
-- The move may lead to an escalation in violence and push the Houthis closer to Iran, which posted an ambassador in Sanaa in October 2020.

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

-- Pompeo said the United States is planning to put in place measures to reduce the impact of the designation on certain humanitarian activity and imports, of items like food and medicine, into Yemen.
-- The more than five-year war has left 80% of the population reliant on aid and millions on the verge of starvation. With a funding shortage this year, the UN has warned that Yemen is facing what could be the world's biggest famine in decades.
-- Aid agencies worry their work would be criminalised. The Houthis are the de facto authority in the north and humanitarian organisations have to get permits to carry out aid programmes, as well as work with ministries and local financial systems.
-- The designation - with the increased burden on banks' compliance mechanisms - could also impact Yemenis' access to financial systems and remittances from abroad, as well as complicating imports and raising goods prices further.

(REUTERS)