March 25, 2025
U.S. Airstrikes Alone Can’t Dislodge the Houthis
Almost 18 months after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the Middle East looks decidedly different. The Assad regime, which ruled Syria brutally for more than five decades, is no more. The senior leadership of Hezbollah and Hamas, including operational commanders, has been decimated. Amid these tectonic changes, Yemen’s Houthis are benefiting from the vacuum created by the Assad regime’s dissolution and the weakening of Hezbollah, which now finds itself in the crosshairs of its erstwhile ally, the Syrian army.
With the precarious cease-fire between Israel and Hamas falling apart, the Houthi threat is yet again front and center; the Iran-aligned group claims to have attacked the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier with drone and missile strikes, and the United States has launched a fresh wave of airstrikes against the group, which has vowed to escalate by resuming its attacks on international shipping.
But any resolution to the Houthis, as tangled as they are in wider regional and global problems, needs a local solution.
While the Houthis have close ties to Iran—and the Trump administration has threatened to hold Iran accountable for their attacks—the Houthis are also weaving a web of ties to Russia and China, complicating matters. The United States, Israel, and allied partners should attempt to counter the group’s efforts to forge international alliances but should understand that the Houthis are unlikely to be deterred, let alone displaced, easily.
The Houthis, who have ruled Yemen since seizing power in 2015, are politically independent from Iran but have taken actions that further Tehran’s regional ambitions because they share similar aims. Notably, in 2019, the Houthis targeted Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure, taking offline half of the country’s oil production for two to three weeks, and have also targeted the United Arab Emirates with drones and missiles thought to be supplied by Iran.
Read the full article on Foreign Policy.
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