Yemen Civil War: Who are the Houthis that Saudi Arabia is holding talks with? Will this end the conflict?

On Sunday, a Saudi delegation visited Yemen’s capital of Sana’a to hold talks with the Houthi rebels. The move brokered by Oman come as part of a wider international attempt to resolve the nine-year conflict that has wracked Yemen. A Yemeni diplomat from The Gulf said officials were in Sana’a “to discuss moving forward to create peace in Yemen.” But who are the Houthis? What’s the history of Yemen’s civil war? And what is the significance of the Saudi-Houthi talks? Let’s take a closer look: Who are the Houthis? As per Brookings, the Houthis themselves are Zaydi Shiites or Zaydiyyah – a minority within the minority Shiite community in the Islamic world. The Zadiyyah are named after Zayd bin Ali – the great-grandson of Muhammad’s cousin. Ali revolted against the Umayyad Empire in 740 and was martyred in the cause. His followers settled in north Yemen in the ninth century and battled to control Yemen for the next thousand years.

The Houthi movement has its origins in northern Yemen, as per Britannica.

It takes its name from Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi – a politician and political activist who founded the movement in the 1990s. As per The Guardian, the Houthis’ slogan is “God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse on the Jews, victory to Islam.” The Houthis adopted this slogan after they were deeply radicalised in 2003 – a result of George W Bush’s invasion of Iraq, as per Brookings. History of Yemen’s civil war The seeds for Yemen’s civil war were sown in 2011 after unrest forced its long-time president Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down, according to BBC. Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, Saleh’s second-in-command, was left facing both economic turmoil and threats from jihadists. Also, his control over the army was far from assured. The Houthis took advantage of this – seizing Yemen’s capital Sana’a in 2014.

Hadi, meanwhile, resigned and fled abroad.

Saudi Arabia found itself alarmed by this turn of events in the country with which it shares a 1,300-kilometre border. What Riyadh feared most of all is that Yemen would become a catspaw for its great regional rival Tehran – which it says backs the rebels with both weapons and coin. [caption id=“attachment_12271752” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] On opposing sides of the conflict, Saudi Arabia and Iran are great regional rivals. AP[/caption] In 2015, a Saudi-led coalition backed by the West began making war on the Houthi insurgents. In September that year, Hadi took back his resignation and returned to Yemen’s temporary capital Aden. In 2016, the UN attempted to hold peace talks between the warring factions, but failed. That year, the Houthis and Saleh declared that a ‘political council’ would be established to govern Sana’a and northern Yemen. But in 2017, Saleh betrayed the Houthis and asked his followers to rise up against them. The Houthis killed Saleh and crushed his forces in just two days, as per CFR. The remnants of Saleh’s troops then joined Saudi Arabia and launched a fresh offensive against the Houthis, as per BBC. However, the fighting ended with a stalemate. In 2021, the Houthis launched a fresh attack on Marib, the Yemen government’s final stronghold in the north. The year 2022 witnessed the fighting devolve into all out brutality. The conflict has left tens of thousands dead and left 80 per cent of Yemen’s population dependent on humanitarian aid. The United Nations has called the Yemen civil war the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Significance of talks According to the BBC, it is possible that the wider rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia might be coming to an end – given the recently held talks between the two and the decision to re-establish diplomatic relations. As per the piece, that decision seems to have created the impetus for a ‘serious drive’ towards bringing the Yemeni civil war to an end. Abdulghani al-Iryani of the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, told Al Jazeera it is clear everyone on all sides of the conflict is tired of war. [caption id=“attachment_12353172” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Military helicopters, operated by the Houthis, fly over Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters file[/caption] “Houthis are happy talking to Saudis in the absence of other Yemeni parties, and that is quite a risk. Yemen is now controlled by different armed groups, and they control certain revenue streams.” Ahmed Nagi, a Yemen expert at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think-tank, said the Iran-Saudi Arabia rapprochement has given a boost to Saudi-Houthi negotiations, and that both sides are close to announcing the cease-fire’s renewal. However, the second track of the Houthi-Saudi negotiations — a potential roadmap to reach a permanent settlement to the conflict — would be a major challenge when discussed by Yemeni parties, he said.

“Each party has different interpretations and expectations,” he said.

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“Given the complexities of the situation, it is hard to see progress on this track very soon.” Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak said there were “positive signals” that a cease-fire deal would be announced, along with addressing other humanitarian and economic issues. “The (regional) circumstances are different,” he told an Egyptian satellite channel Al-Qahera in an interview aired on Friday. “It pushed towards achieving a solution.” Bin Mubarak, however, said there are “many fundamental issues” that Yemen’s warring sides need to address before reaching a settlement to the conflict. Hans Grundberg, the UN envoy for Yemen, described the ongoing efforts, including the Saudi and Omani talks in Sanaa, as “the closest Yemen has been to real progress towards lasting peace” since the war began. “This is a moment to be seized and built on and a real opportunity to start an inclusive political process under UN auspices to sustainably end the conflict,” he said. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.