They came down from the mountains - and bent the oil kingdom: How the Houthis became Saudi Arabia's nightmare
A historical analysis of the development of the Houthi movement in Yemen, from the days of the Zaydi Imamate to its transformation into a military threat to Saudi Arabia. The article describes the 1934 war between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the fall of the Imamate in 1962, the birth of the 'Believing Youth' movement in the 1990s, and the six rounds of war between Saleh's regime and the Houthis that turned a religious revival into an organized military force. The fighting spilled into Saudi Arabia in 2009, and since 2015 Riyadh has been waging a war of attrition against the organization.
A broad historical analysis of the development of the Houthi movement in Yemen, from the thousand-year-old Zaydi Imamate to its transformation into a military threat to Saudi Arabia. The article describes the 1934 war between the kingdom of Ibn Saud and Imam Yahya, which ended with the Treaty of Taif and cemented Najran, Asir, and Jizan on the Saudi side. After the fall of the Imamate in 1962, the Zaydi elite lost its status, and in the 1980s and 1990s Salafi and Wahhabi currents began to establish themselves in northern Yemen with Saudi support. Out of a sense of deprivation, the 'Believing Youth' movement was born in the 1990s under the leadership of Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, which turned from a religious revival into a political movement. Hussein was killed in 2004, but his death gave the movement a name and a martyr. His brother Abdul-Malik al-Houthi inherited the leadership, and between 2004 and 2010 Saleh waged six wars against them that turned the movement into an experienced military force. In 2009 the fighting spilled into Saudi Arabia, and in September 2014 the Houthis captured Sanaa. On March 26, 2015, the Saudi-led coalition launched Operation Decisive Storm, which turned from a short campaign into a prolonged war of attrition. Prof. Uzi Rabi of Tel Aviv University, quoted throughout the article, emphasizes that Saudi Arabia did not have a unified Yemeni ground force that could turn air superiority into political control.