Last month, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels entered the Middle East conflict in dramatic fashion, seizing swathes of the Red Sea coast, firing missiles and drones at Saudi energy infrastructure, and even targeting the Saudi capital Riyadh over the weekend.
Now, their operations appear to be entering a new phase, with a major offensive aimed at cutting off government forces in central Yemen.
Some analysts say their ultimate goal is control of the entire country.
The Houthis’ latest advance comes as Saudi Arabia deploys fighter jets and missiles to try to stop the militants from moving south toward the port city of Aden, home to Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
Local diplomatic sources say Saudi appeals for U.S. airstrikes to reverse the Houthi victory have fallen on deaf ears.
However, Britain responded to Saudi Arabia’s request for assistance. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on Monday that Saudi Arabia had agreed to provide “defensive air-to-air refueling” to Saudi fighter jets for a limited time, according to Reuters.
In a joint statement on Monday, foreign ministers from the G7 countries called on Iran to stop supplying arms and support to the Houthis and for the militants to “cease all military operations and all threats and attacks against civilian vessels.”
The Houthis already occupy Yemen’s long coastline bordering the Red Sea, one of the world’s most important waterways, and control the Bab al-Mandeb chokepoint on its southern tip.
They are currently attempting to capture the mountainous region of Taiz, which includes key routes for government forces.
“Crossing these routes would threaten critical transport and supply connections between government-controlled areas,” said Yemeni analyst Mohamed Al-Basha.
Basha told CNN that the Houthis are facing fierce resistance from local tribes.
Basha said the situation on the battlefield remained fluid and there remained a risk that the Houthis could siege Taiz city. However, the kind of collapse seen on the West Coast Front, where large areas, including the port of Mocha, fell within hours, does not seem to have occurred yet.
Basha added that as of Monday, the government had still secured a key road crossing between Taiz and Aden, an area where hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people live.
Heavy fighting is also occurring further east in Marib province, according to several Yemeni analysts. Marib is an oil-rich region that has long been the focus of the Houthis.
Yemeni government forces are using artillery and rocket systems to repel Houthi forces in the region, backed by intensifying Saudi airstrikes, analysts said. One senior commander claimed that his troops had launched the attack.
Yemen’s internationally recognized government announced on Monday that its forces were targeting Houthi fighters and supply lines in the strategic Bab al-Mandeb region overlooking the Red Sea and in central Yemen’s Baydah province. Military spokesman Colonel Majd al-Naziri said government forces attacked Houthi positions, personnel and supply routes, and the Ministry of Information released footage showing attacks on Houthi positions and equipment. These claims could not be independently verified.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Salih claimed on Monday that Saudi Arabia had carried out 157 aircraft and missile attacks across Yemen’s four provinces, bringing the total number of attacks since the latest escalation began to 917. He vowed to retaliate against the attack.
Saudi authorities had no immediate comment, and CNN was unable to independently verify the Houthi claims.
The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington, reported Friday that “the Houthis may seek to seize the region as they seek to extract and export oil through the Red Sea, which could help finance their political and military activities.”
Taiz and Marib cities are important strongholds and “if the Houthis capture both, it’s game over,” Basha told CNN. “But their defenders continue to put up a strong fight.”
The Houthis control much of western Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, where more than 70 percent of Yemen’s population lives. Government forces occupy parts of southern Yemen and the sparsely populated east.
It is unclear whether the Houthis intend to apply pressure on Aden itself. Much depends on whether government forces can improve coordination after the disastrous West Coast withdrawal.
“The Houthis do not need to, and almost certainly cannot, defeat Saudi Arabia militarily,” said Ibrahim Jalal of the Middle East Institute in Washington.
“But they need to influence how much money, intelligence, logistics, air defense, and potentially airpower Riyadh is prepared to commit to Yemeni forces that can reverse gains on the ground.”
To that end, Jalal told CNN, the Houthis are trying to avoid getting drawn into urban fighting and surround government forces.
CNN has reached out to Houthi officials for comment.
The New York Times reported on Monday that US President Donald Trump agreed to launch airstrikes against the Houthis following a call last week from Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. But Trump changed his mind on Sunday, according to the Times.
President Trump said last week that the Houthis are “letting us know they don’t want to fight us” and are allowing “most ships” through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, but added that they are “frustrated” with one country — apparently Saudi Arabia.
Two months ago, the Houthis announced they would attack Saudi shipping.
“President Trump’s best option is to stay away from the Yemen quagmire, because remote warfare will increase supply chain disruptions while the balance on the ground remains the same,” said Andreas Krieg, CEO of MENA Analytica, a London-based political risk firm. “It would also derail the diplomatic line between Iran and Hormuz,” Krieg wrote in X on Monday.
But “the incoherence of the US position on Iranian proxies means that the Yemeni government and Saudi Arabia have been left to deal with the Houthis almost on their own,” said Yemeni analyst Fatima Abo Arrasrar in an article for the US research institute Stimson Center.
So far, Saudi Arabia does not appear to have invoked the recently agreed trilateral defense pact with Pakistan and Türkiye. And Turkish officials are careful not to make too many offers.
“We see what we see as a very serious attack on the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Saudi Arabia,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hasan Fidan said on Saturday, referring to Houthi drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia.
“We are seriously united in this regard. … They may have military needs, especially regarding some technical issues. We will have no problem meeting these,” Fidan told Turkish channel NTV.
“Saudi Arabia is realizing how isolated it is in its time of need,” analyst Natik Malikzada said on Monday. “For years, we have built our security on the expectation that the United States will protect us.”
“For the United States, as for other countries, Saudi security is less important at times like this when U.S. interests are not directly at risk,” Malikzada wrote to X.
Jalal said Saudi Arabia could count on support from regional allies, Pakistan and possibly Egypt.
But for now, they are carrying most of the burden.
Iran is counting on the Houthis as “the last resilient proxy to improve its negotiating position and influence,” Jalal said in the online publication Al-Majara, while the group is now seeking to rewrite the rules of the game, consolidating its interests and expanding its territory, as well as intensifying its attacks on Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis “will continue to punish Saudi Arabia until they receive billions of dollars in reparations funds,” Basha told CNN on Monday. They have long demanded compensation from Saudi Arabia for the long-term blockade of Saudi-held territory in Yemen.
But the Houthis’ ambitions could go even further. Their ultimate goal is to control all of Yemen, Jalal said.
Jawan Online, an Iranian publication affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), recently suggested that the Houthis are close to uniting Yemen under a “single center of power.”
In doing so, Javanese commentators said they would become a regional power capable of forcing their opponents to negotiate over Red Sea security and the future of the Arabian Peninsula itself.
It’s Saudi Arabia’s nightmare.
CNN’s Nadeen Ebrahim and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed reporting.
