Following Israel’s strike on Iran, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia has signaled strong support for Tehran and warned it could respond if the United States attacks Iran. As part of the Iran-led “Axis of Resistance” — which includes proxy forces such as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and various Shiite militias in Iraq — the Houthis view the US and Israel as adversaries.
“Recent remarks from members of Ansar Allah’s political bureau publicly warned the United States against launching military aggression against Iran, stating that such an attack would amount to war and that they are prepared to enter such a war,” said Elham Manea, head of Middle East and Gulf Studies at the University of Zurich. “So, at the level of rhetoric, the signaling is clear: alignment and readiness,” she added.
Washington-based Yemeni analyst Hisham Al-Omeisy, formerly with the US State Department, told DW the Houthis have been reinforcing positions recently, redistributing fighters and missile launchers. “They are beating their chests,” he said.
Entrenched in Yemen
A Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 to back Yemen’s government after the Houthis’ 2014 insurgency. The United Nations estimates more than 150,000 people were killed in the conflict that followed. A 2022 truce largely reduced fighting, but the country remains effectively divided.
The Houthis control northern, western and central Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa. The south and east are held by an internationally recognized government and a separatist faction. The situation grew more fractured in December when secessionists sought greater power, and the internationally recognized government’s new prime minister, Shaya al-Zindani, has since been based in Riyadh.
Manea said the tensions between the US and Iran have produced visible signs of unease in Houthi-held areas: tightened internal security, arrests in security institutions, increased surveillance of officials and military repositioning around maritime routes and strategic coasts. Those moves, she suggested, show concern that the Houthis themselves could be targeted and reflect preparations both for participation in a wider conflict and for survival.
What could the Houthis do?
The US designated the Houthi movement a terrorist organization in January 2024. During the nearly two-year war in Gaza following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the Houthis frequently struck at Israel and targeted commercial vessels in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea to demonstrate solidarity with Palestinians.
Luca Nevola, senior Yemen analyst at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project (ACLED), said Houthi leaders have warned they would resume attacks on commercial shipping if war breaks out. Manea noted that, given Houthi capabilities, plausible actions include strikes on US military facilities in Gulf states or on maritime assets in strategic waterways — actions the Houthis could justify as targeting US bases within a larger confrontation with Washington.
Al-Omeisy said Houthi responses to Israeli strikes could include attacks on Tel Aviv and on ships, a move he described as a desperate attempt to divert pressure from Iran but one likely to be costly for the Houthis. Any US or Israeli military response to Houthi actions would likely be limited and temporary, he added, pointing to past instances where US strikes were short-lived after Houthi attacks on shipping. “The Houthis have tested the tolerance of the Americans in the first bout, and they rely on the fact that the US does not want a long engagement in Yemen,” he said.
Independent weapons production
The Houthis retain significant long-range drone and missile capabilities despite repeated US and Israeli strikes, Nevola said. A February report by the US-based Century Foundation highlighted the group’s growing independence in arms production. The report found weapons, components and raw materials reach the Houthis from multiple sources through circuitous sea and land routes; once parts arrive, sometimes via smugglers or ordinary traders unaware of their cargo, the Houthis assemble them into a formidable arsenal.
Political analyst Peter Salisbury, one of the report’s authors, wrote that within a decade the Houthis have evolved from local insurgents into a disruptive global force.
Fears aggravate humanitarian situation
For ordinary Yemenis, who have endured years of civil war, internal tensions and widespread hunger, the prospect of the Houthis entering a wider US-Iran conflict is alarming. “We are living through a real famine in Yemen, and any regional escalation will only deepen the hunger crisis and the level of starvation,” said Yasser Hussein, a father of four in Taiz.
Jamal, a public sector worker who has not been paid in years, told DW he worries less about a US-Iran escalation than about deteriorating living conditions: stalled political negotiations, lack of prisoner releases, currency instability and irregular public salaries. He requested only his first name be used for fear of retribution.
Niku Jafarnia, a Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch, warned that when global attention shifts to broader regional conflict, the Houthis have previously increased human rights abuses. If history repeats, she said, a war involving Iran could provide cover for the Houthis to carry out further abuses against Yemenis.
Edited by: M Gagnon