Sections type: Analysis

The formation of the National Political Bloc last November has raised pressing questions about the future of political parties and coalition-building in Yemen. The country has seen several such initiatives over the past two decades, most notably the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), launched in 2003, which effectively mobilized partisan opposition against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime in the years leading…

On March 15, US President Donald Trump ordered a series of “decisive and powerful” airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthis in response to the group’s attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea. The operation marks the most significant US military engagement in the Middle East since Trump retook office, with the stated aims of degrading Houthi capabilities and sending…

When they first emerged from the “Believing Youth” movement in 2004, no one could have imagined the Houthis—a small group of local rebels fighting with traditional weapons— would evolve into a military and political force with influence extending across the regional and international landscape. But the Houthis’ development was not merely a matter of geographic expansion or enhanced military capabilities;…

On February 13, 2025, the National Resistance forces, led by Presidential Leadership Council member Tareq Saleh and based on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, announced the seizure of a smuggled shipment of military equipment intercepted en route to the Houthi group (Ansar Allah). The shipment included devices and equipment that suggest the Houthis are working to enhance their drone capabilities by…

“Our main challenge as women in Yemen is simply the fact that we are women,” - Sahar Ghanem, Yemeni Ambassador to the Netherlands. “How can women have a strong presence [in diplomacy] when we aren’t in decision-making positions at all?” - Female Yemeni diplomat. The underrepresentation of women in Yemen’s political and public sphere existed before the war and has…

A year of war across the Middle East has profoundly reshaped the region, shifting power dynamics and redrawing the lines of local conflicts. For Yemen, the Gaza war and its repercussions have served as an intensifier to the conflict, driving peace to a stalemate and exacerbating local divisions. The end of 2024 saw an increase in fighting on several fronts,…

The sudden collapse of the Assad regime in Syria and rise to power of Islamists marks a pivotal turning point in the regional landscape. The new government is headed by the former rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, previously known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. Before forming HTS, Al-Sharaa was a…

This article was originally published by the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI). Conflict in Yemen over the past two decades, including the war since 2015, has been dominated by parties with ideologies rooted in religion. Religious ideologies play a key role in the policies adopted by these movements toward the recruitment of fighters into their ranks. There are…

Away from the Red Sea crisis that dominated the headlines of 2024, the space for female political and social actors in Yemen has continued to shrink, largely unchecked. Today, the distinction between the repression in areas controlled by the Houthis and those under the internationally recognized government is becoming increasingly blurred. In Houthi-controlled areas, a campaign of terrifying arrests of…

Tit-for-tat operations have seen a surge in missile and drone attacks launched by the Houthis toward Israel as part of what the group calls the fifth phase of escalation in support of Gaza. The conflict has cast a wide net over both parties and continues to evolve gradually. Israel has carried out retaliatory airstrikes inside Yemen in response to Houthi…