It is a rather unsettling spectacle to watch one of the world's wealthiest countries, armed with sophisticated American weaponry and protected by decades of security cooperation with Washington, discover that a movement born in the mountains of northern Yemen can make its airports, oil installations and maritime interests vulnerable.

Ansar Allah, better known as the Houthis, has accomplished what many conventional armies would struggle to achieve. It has made Saudi Arabia's security predicament an international problem, and the world's shipping companies, energy markets and naval powers unwilling participants in a quarrel that began in one of the poorest countries in the Arab world.

The story of Ansar Allah is not one of an obscure ragtag militia waking up one morning with a missile arsenal and an ambition to terrorise global commerce. It began with the revival of Zaydi religious identity in northern Yemen during the 1990s, gained momentum under Hussein al Houthi, and took on its present political and military character through years of confrontation with the Yemeni state. The movement survived six rounds of fighting between 2004 and 2010, seized Sanaa in 2014 amid the disintegration of the state, and consolidated its position after Saudi Arabia intervened militarily in 2015. What Riyadh expected to be a campaign to restore the recognised government became a war of attrition that exposed the limits of air power, money, and military hardware when confronted by an adversary with local roots, difficult terrain, and an extraordinary capacity for survival.

Iranian assistance subsequently helped the Houthis improve their missile and drone capabilities, although the movement is not merely an Iranian puppet assembled in some workshop in Tehran. It has its own leadership, domestic constituency and political ambitions. The relationship suits both parties. While Iran acquires a means of pressuring its regional adversaries without having to deploy its own conventional forces, the Houthis acquire technical expertise and weapons that would otherwise be beyond their reach. It is an arrangement that offers the benefits of an alliance without the burden of........

© Mathrubhumi English