He was not considered a diamond, until he recorded an achievement that Hezbollah never managed

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was eliminated, probably also his guilty successor Safi ad-Din, and not only the Lebanese Shia terrorist organization suffered severe blows – but the entire “axis of resistance” of Iran. In the absence of a senior and well-known figure to lead Hezbollah, whoever is gaining momentum as the senior figure in the axis The Iranian is the leader of the Houthis, Abdel-Malek al-Houthi.

Al-Houthi, who was born 45 years ago in March in northern Yemen, assumed the presidency in 2004 after he was promoted to the position and his older brother, Hussein Badr ad-Din al-Houthi, was killed. The latter’s relationship with then-president Ali Abdullah Saleh knew ups and downs until Hussein, who drew inspiration from Hezbollah’s activities, led a significant uprising against the central government in 2004, in the shadow of his ambition to place the Zaydis in power. Saleh placed a reward of about 75 thousand dollars on his head and within a few months he was killed. Since then, the organization whose official name is “Ansar Allah” (Defenders of God), received the nickname “Houthi rebels”.

managed to influence trade

In the Iron Swords War, the Houthis achieved a goal that Hezbollah never succeeded in: a broad influence on world trade. Until the war, about 12% of world trade passed through the Red Sea. However, since the hijacking of the “Galaxy Leader” roller coaster, which was carrying vehicles from Turkey on its way to India and is owned by the Israeli Rami Ungar, the Houthis are sticking to the ban on the passage of “companies that work with Israel” until a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

The Houthis are north of Bab al-Mandab, in a narrow area, and therefore have no difficulty locating merchant ships and damaging them. According to the data published by the Houthi regime in Sana’a, in the first year of the war, they launched more than a thousand missiles, both UAVs and UAVs, hit 193 ships “connected to Israel, the USA and Britain”, and intercepted 11 American drones. Most of them are MQ-9 Reaper drones, which cost about 30 million dollars per unit.

The US-led coalition for the protection of navigation in the Red Sea, which has so far failed to change the regional situation, was established due to the broad economic consequences. The meaning of the detour through the Cape of Good Hope is an addition of approximately 13,000 km between the Far East and Europe. In terms of days, this is at least two weeks, but considering the prolonged damage – the delays in the supply chains are more serious than that. This is a record, if you can call it that, for Abdel-Malek Al-Houthi, who over the years was not considered the “jewel in the crown” of the axis of resistance as Nasrallah was.

The main reasons for this are religious and historical. First, the Houthis and the Iranians are Shia, but not from the same faction. The Iranians are Jaafari Shias, the most common school of Shia in the world, while the Houthis are Zayids, a faction that makes up about 35% of Yemen’s population. The rest is occupied by Shafi’i Sunnis.

Today, the Houthis are seen as part of Iran’s axis of resistance, but unlike Hezbollah, which began its activities in the service of Iran in the early 1980s, al-Houthi only began receiving arms shipments from Iran in 2009. “Death to America, death to Israel, a curse on the Jews, “Victory to Islam” is the slogan that leads the Houthis, and also stands out in the parades they hold every Friday in the capital Sana’a.

Prof. Uzi Rabi, an expert on Middle East studies and head of the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, says that the Houthis have adopted the insights of the Islamic revolution, and defines them as tough and extreme. “The Houthis did not study political science and international relations at university, and they are getting used to the role of the sheriff. In Yemen’s cities, they have built separatism and seasoned it with Zaidi Shia. Although they do not seem to understand politics, they are playing a calculated game.”

The Yemeni GDP is in decline

In 2011, the Arab Spring protests did not pass over Saleh’s Yemen. He was deposed, and his cousin and rival Ali Mohsen, the commander of an armored division, gave the Houthis as gratitude the province of their roots, a march in northern Yemen. From that point and even earlier, they made the mountainous region they know so well the base of their guerrilla activity. In 2014, the opposite happened: the Houthis took control of Sana’a in cooperation with Saleh.

Since then, Yemen’s GDP per capita, according to the World Bank, has dropped from about $2.1 thousand to only about $957 last year. Meanwhile, the Houthis accused Saleh in 2017 of conspiring with the United Arab Emirates, an ally of the Transitional Council The Southern, a separatist body that established autonomy in southern Yemen. Those clashes with Saleh led to his elimination in just six days.

Prof. Ravi explains that during the civil war, al-Houthi pretended to be an asset, and took advantage of this to take the reins of Iranian support. “While the United Arab Emirates was involved and Saudi Arabia also had deep problems with Yemen, his idea was to make himself the dominant factor in Yemen.”

In the last year and a half, there has been relative peace in Yemen, thanks to a ceasefire agreement that also suits Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Al-Houthi currently controls about a third of the territory, but 70-80% of the population. It controls the Zada ​​area and, no less importantly, the capital Sana’a and the strategic port city on the Red Sea, Hudaydah.

At the present time he serves as a political and military leader. On the political side, under him are the general council, which includes bodies such as district administrations, the labor authority and the judicial authority. On the military side, there is the Jihad Council, which is actually the General Staff. There he is assisted by an officer from the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, while his deputy is a Hezbollah man.

Damage to the source of income

Al-Houthi’s men have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to launch ballistic missiles at Israel, and a drone even hit the heart of Tel Aviv. In response to that attack, as well as about a week ago, Israel twice hit oil facilities – the main source of income for the Houthi regime.

Yemen is indeed rich in oil, but the instability in it led to a drop in the rate of production from about 450 thousand barrels per day in 2001 to about 51 thousand barrels today. The Houthis, in the shadow of the international sanctions against them, created for themselves a large-scale oil smuggling industry through the port of Hodeidah, the focus of the Israeli attacks.

According to estimates, the Houthis’ income amounts to about 1.8 billion dollars a year. A report by UN experts from 2022 found that between the months of April and November of that year, 69 tankers docked in Hodeidah transported about 1.81 million tons of oil, which is worth about 279 billion Yemeni riyals (about 271 million dollars). For comparison , the Houthis’ income from various taxes on public services, hospitals and banks is about 45 billion Yemeni riyals (about 180 million dollars).

“Al-Houthi realized that the more he raises the level of identification with the Palestinians, not least after October 7, the more he creates legitimacy among large audiences in Yemen, on the Arab and Muslim street,” Prof. Rabi concludes. “His idea is to bring the Houthis to international recognition as a legitimate ruler, with a seat in the United Nations. They see the increased involvement in the war as a payment to Iran, but anyway it works out for them with the development of legitimacy. They are in a win-win situation: they don’t go berserk, but in appropriate situations launch volleys of sympathy. Their greatest enemy remains Saudi Arabia, but they understand that there is also pressure on it when they take actions against Israel.”