Yemen- How Should We Deal With the Houthis?
24 November 2016
By Abdulrahman Al-Rashed
The relationship between a small group of Houthis living in north Yemen and
Iran began nearly two decades ago with the encouragement of the then president
Ali Abdullah Saleh. This was part of the game to establish balance in the
context of other religious denominations like the Salafis competing against
each other in the region. After a few years, the Iranians turned the Houthis
into a proxy group that was politically loyal to them, and they become a
problem for the government of Saleh who linked them to religious groups in
Iran and got them involved in five wars.
Saleh, whose presidency lasted nearly forty years, was ousted as a result of
the uprising known as the Arab Spring in 2011 and the injuries that he
sustained from an assassination attempt. After that, he allied himself with
his opponents, the Houthis, and together they seized power. Today, they rule
nearly half of Yemen. This is a summary of the Houthis' story, and the group
is now a party involved in the war in Yemen. This raises questions that cannot
be underestimated during serious negotiations to find a solution to the war
there.
Perhaps the most important question that should be asked is about the future
of the Houthis because they are a dangerous team and are serving Iran's
interests in a large regional game. Iran is using its proxies in Iraq, Syria,
Lebanon, Bahrain and Palestine in this game.
On the ground, the Houthis are a strong military team that have advanced until
they reached Aden in the south which is 800km from their centre in the
province of Sa'da. The first thing they did after the coup was to seize the
Yemeni army's weapons cache and transport it to their region. Overnight they
became the owners of a large military arsenal. It is clear that the Iranians
had been preparing them for this day, and there are reports that confirm that
Hezbollah trained about 3,000 Houthi fighters in the period that followed
their war with Saudi Arabia in 2009.
It launched television stations and websites and helped them to manage their
local areas. The Iranians are trying to manipulate the Houthis' situation in
Yemen so that they become like Hezbollah in Lebanon; a loyal military force
that is managed from Tehran. The Houthis are an Iranian project in Yemen and
southern Saudi Arabia. They are similar to Hezbollah which controls the
Lebanese state and is used militarily by the Iranians against Israel for
political purposes. This picture has become clear and is accepted by many of
those who were sceptical about the authenticity of it at the beginning of the
war in Yemen, just as they were sceptical about accounts of Iran's military
presence in Syria. Tehran later officially admitted its military presence
there.
Despite this, the Houthi project is a failed one and the Houthis will not be
like Hezbollah for a number of reasons. Tehran has done everything required to
create similarities between the two organisations; it gave the Houthis' armed
organisation a similar name to Hezbollah (Ansar Allah) and taught them to use
similar propaganda slogans like ''Death to America, death to Israel''. Its
religious curriculum was taught in Houthi schools, and it took over the
training and selection of their leaders. It also provided them with military
training and weapons.
Despite Iran's persistence, the Iranians face a big obstacle, and that is the
fact that Yemen is not like Lebanon, it is substantially different. Houthis
are a small minority in a large society, and whether the war continues or
there is peace in the coming years, it will not be easy for them to impose
themselves as a dominant force. This is because they only account for five per
cent of the total population and live in the province of Sa'da which is very
far from the centre of the state. This will make their ability to play a
central and dominant role in the country which has a difficult terrain an
almost impossible task. Taking control will be almost impossible without fully
seizing power in suitable circumstances. In addition to the fact that they are
far away from the centre of Yemen and are a minority, they are part of a small
sect that differs with Zaidi consensus, and most people follow Zaidism in
northern Yemen.
The secret of Hezbollah's influence is that Israel's occupation of southern
Lebanon has given it justification and legitimacy to resist. This is not the
case with the Houthis as Saudi Arabia is Yemen's biggest supporter, both when
it was a monarchy and also after it became a republic.
Millions of Yemenis do not have an alternative to their neighbour Saudi
Arabia. All of this puts the Houthis in a different situation to that of
Hezbollah's in Lebanon. I am confident that stability in Yemen will make them
weaker as the war is what gives them a role and value. By cooperating with
Yemen's political and religious leaders, it is possible to reduce their
presence and tame them.
Al Rashed is the general manager of Al -Arabiya television. He is also the
former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al- Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly
magazine, Al Majalla. He is also a senior Columnist in the daily newspapers of
Al Madina and Al Bilad. He is a US post-graduate degree in mass
communications. He has been a guest on many TV current affairs programs. He is
currently based in Dubai.
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EsinIslam.Com
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