Scott Ritter – Mission Impossible: Why Yemen’s Houthis Can’t Be Beaten

by Scott Ritter [6-11-2025 published] Scott Ritter(bio).

Since emerging as a political force inside Yemen in the early 2000s, the Houthi rebels, also known as the Ansarullah (“followers of Allah”) movement, have today grown into a major regional actor whose actions carry global consequences. Whether overthrowing the old order in Yemen, resisting a Saudi-led Arab coalition or fighting the US to a standstill, the Houthis have shown a resilience which, given the disparity of power that exists on paper between them and their opponents, is as shocking as it is impressive. Wrongly labeled as a proxy of Iran, the Houthis have demonstrated independence in their domestic and external actions that have made finding a solution to their continued resistance in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds a mission impossible.

The Houthi movement of Yemen derives its name from the Houthi tribe that dominates its organizational and governmental ranks, including the most senior positions. The Houthis are rooted in a Zaydi-Shiite religious identity that extends beyond the spiritual and into the very essence of their cause — the duty to resist injustice.

This lies at the very heart of the Zaydi faith, founded on the 8th century revolt led by Zayd ibn Ali against the Umayyad Caliphate and which holds that any learned descendant of Ali can become an imam by asserting and fighting for his claim. This is in opposition to the classic Shiite belief that imams must be divinely appointed. This theological divergence is one of the main reasons why the Houthis will never be subsumed by Iran: The very precept of Velayat-e Faqih, the concept underpinning Iran's supreme clerical rule, is anathema to the Houthis.

The Houthis have branded their movement Ansarullah. This is no mere title, but rather a reference to the people of Medina who welcomed, supported and protected the Prophet Muhammad and his followers during the early years of Islam. The term Ansarullah carries with it a strong commitment to faith and a willingness to stand up for what is right. While in the West religious fervor is often derided and/or downplayed, the sincerity of the Houthis’ faith, and the degree to which it defines their very existence, lies at the foundation of both the stubbornness of their convictions and resilience of their struggle.

A History of Struggle

The modern-day manifestation of the Houthis’ resistance-driven revival began in the 1990s as a Zaydi cultural and religious awakening called “The Young Believers” evolved into an armed uprising by 2004 after the Young Believers’ leader was killed by security forces while being arrested. The essence of the Houthis resistance rests both in religion and the more secular notion of independence from outside interference (in particular the influence of both the US and Saudi Arabia on the affairs of Yemen.)

The Houthi movement of today is founded on three basic principles — sectarian (Zaydi) identity, local autonomy and a rejection of foreign intervention. The Houthis rose up against former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2014. After seizing control of the capital of Yemen, Sanaa, the group transformed itself from a classic insurgency into a legitimate political entity that has proven its ability to assume the tasks of defining and building the structures of state beyond simply the military.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia, together with a coalition of Arab states and with the full backing of the US, initiated “Operation Decisive Storm,” a massive aerial assault against the Houthis designed to crush them as a military and political movement and install a pro-Saudi government in their place. The failure of the operation to achieve the desired results led the Saudis to escalate by carrying out a ground incursion into Houthi-controlled Yemen.

Almost immediately, the Saudis were confronted by the reality that the Houthis were not so easily intimidated. Houthi resistance expanded from thwarting the Saudi-led incursions to taking the fight to Saudi Arabia, striking critical energy infrastructure with missiles and drones, while launching their own ground attacks into Saudi territory. By 2023, the Saudis were looking to end their war with the Houthis. Indeed, conflict termination with the Houthis was a driving factor behind the Chinese-brokered rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the spring of 2023.

The US Bows Out

The Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, served as the justification for the Houthis to initiate military operations against Israeli shipping with the goal of instituting a de facto naval blockade of the southern Israeli port of Eilat. The Houthis linked their actions to a demand that Israel accept a ceasefire against Hamas and permit humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza. From November 2023 until January 2025, the Houthis attacked over 100 merchant ships transiting the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas brokered by the US in January 2025 brought a temporary respite to the Houthis’ attacks on shipping, but these resumed in March 2025 when Israel broke the ceasefire. In addition to attacking shipping, the Houthis fired drones and ballistic missiles into Israel, threatening to impose an aerial blockade by preventing commercial flights in and out of Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.

The US, backed by the UK and joined by Israel, began a massive air campaign designed to punish and deter the Houthis from carrying out these attacks. The damage done by these strikes on the civilian infrastructure of Houthi-controlled Yemen was substantial, resulting in hundreds of reported civilian casualties. But the military impact of the US-led bombing raids was less impressive, with the Houthis threatening US Navy ships operating in the Red Sea while continuing to strike Israel with ballistic missiles.

While many observers portray the Houthis as a compliant arm of an Iranian-directed “Axis of Resistance” whose mission is to confront Israel, the US and the Gulf Arab States, the level to which the Houthis exert independence of operation is quite high. Indeed, the decision to begin interdicting Israeli shipping following the events of Oct. 7, 2023, was done without the approval of Iran. Moreover, the ceasefire reached in early May between the US and the Houthis, in which the Trump administration agreed to halt air strikes in exchange for the Houthis agreeing to stop attacking US shipping, was brokered in large part because the Houthi-US conflict was undermining the US’ efforts to negotiate a deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

But the kicker in the US-Houthi agreement is that it did not require the Houthis to terminate their missile attacks against Israel. The fact that the Trump administration carried out this deal independent of Israel underscores the reality that Houthi resistance could not be broken by US firepower and that continued military action against the Houthis would be detrimental to the national security interests of the US.

The Houthis have emerged from their conflict with the US stronger than ever, both in terms of domestic legitimacy and from an international perspective, where the Houthis have fought the world’s strongest military to a standstill while imposing their will on the global geopolitical reality. The unbreakable spirit of the Houthis has proven to be an unsolvable problem for those nations who have come into the crosshairs of the Houthis’ sense of resisting injustice.

Scott Ritter is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer whose service over a 20-plus-year career included tours of duty in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control agreements, serving on the staff of US General Norman Schwarzkopf during the Gulf War and later as a chief weapons inspector with the UN in Iraq from 1991-98. The views expressed in this article are those of the author.

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