Houthis
The Power of Geography
The question in Yemen is no longer who controls Sanaa, or which faction holds this or that city. It is who can project power over one of the world’s most important maritime choke points, and through it over international trade, Red Sea security and the calculations of global powers.
‘From Damascus, Here Is Sanaa’
In a large online propaganda campaign in September, Yemen's government and its Saudi backers invoked Syria's revolution to promise Sanaa’s liberation. Within days, the Houthis had taken the coast of Bab al-Mandab.
The Seven-Day Lightning Offensive That Changed Yemen’s War
The Houthis’ lightning offensive and seizure of key positions around the Bab al-Mandab Strait is a significant turning point. By extending their reach to one of the world’s most vital maritime choke points, the Houthis have given Iran additional leverage against the U.S.
Saudi Arabia Bets Everything on Restraint
As Houthi attacks squeeze Saudi Arabia's access to global trade, Riyadh is struggling to avoid being drawn into a wider war. From the Red Sea’s oil terminals to its luxury resorts, a New Lines report offers a firsthand look at how the kingdom’s postoil ambitions have become a strategic vulnerability.
Is It Time for Saudi Arabia To Find New Yemeni Allies?
The collapse of the de facto Saudi-Houthi truce in July 2026 has reopened a question long treated as taboo in Gulf commentary: whether Riyadh's decade-long reliance on the internationally recognized Yemeni government still serves its interests, or whether the Southern Transitional Council should be given a larger role.
Inside Hezbollah’s Two-Decade Project To Shape the Houthis
In 2007, two operatives, one Iranian, one from Hezbollah, sat down to dinner at a restaurant outside Damascus and started discussing Yemen. What followed was nearly two decades of military assistance, mediation, media training and political network-weaving that turned a marginal movement into the most powerful actor in Yemen.
A Pact Between Al-Shabab and the Houthis Threatens Red Sea Shipping
A growing covert alliance between the Houthis in Yemen and al-Shabab in Somalia is creating a new axis of piracy, smuggling and asymmetric warfare along the Red Sea.