Beirut, Lebanon – The Houthis, Yemen’s most prominent group, have soared in popularity in the region after attacks on Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea that threatened to disrupt the world’s main shipping routes.
In recent weeks, Iranian-linked groups have mobilized hundreds of thousands of people to the streets of Yemen’s capital Sanaa for Friday rallies in support of Gaza. Internationally, the group’s profile has increased following US and British airstrikes for disrupting Red Sea shipping, an act it said was an act of support for Palestinians suffering from Israeli aggression in Gaza. claims.
However, the Houthis are not the only force in Yemen. In fact, they are not the internationally recognized government of Yemen.
How did the Houthis rise to power?
In September 2014, the Houthis overran Sana’a and took control of large swathes of the country, forcing then-President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee.
In March 2015, a nine-nation coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened on behalf of Hadi’s government. The war has plunged Yemen into what the United Nations calls “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”
With the ceasefire on April 2, 2022, the gunfire fell silent. The Houthis currently control much of western Yemen.
presidential leadership council
Five days after the ceasefire was signed, Hadi resigned and handed over power to the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), an eight-member council that included several key Yemeni figures.
The PLC, backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, is the main opposition force against the Houthis in Yemen.
“The purpose was to utilize this council. [PLC] To engage with the Houthis either militarily or through negotiations,” Reiman al-Hamdani, a Yemeni researcher at ARK Group, told Al Jazeera.
“Furthermore, the PLC lends legitimacy to various armed groups that have operated without formal government control.”
However, the PLC’s union is an expedient to counter the Houthis, and the group has many competing and sometimes irreconcilable differences within its ranks.
“The People’s Liberation Army rarely reaches unanimous agreement,” al-Hamdani said, “and often requires guidance from foreign supporters on the best position to take.”
So who are the groups that make up a PLC?
Southern Transitional Council
Major General Aidars al-Zubaidi, former governor of Aden, Yemen’s second largest city, is the leader of the 26-member STC and a member of the PLC.
Other members of the STC are government ministers and governors from southern Yemen.
Their forces are supported by the United Arab Emirates like Abdullah Barbud I have written To the Malcolm H. Carr Carnegie Middle East Center.
It currently controls southwestern Yemen, but has larger ambitions, including separatist goals for southern Yemen. “They want everything in old South Yemen,” Yemen analyst Nicholas Brumfield told Al Jazeera, referring to South Yemen, which was annexed by the north in 1990.
“In the past few years, whenever there was a lull in fighting with the Houthis, the main story in Yemen was the fighting between the STC and the Yemeni government or al-Islah. [an Islamist group that dominated the Yemeni government until 2019] They are trying to occupy eastern Yemen. ”
However, the STC has sought to soften its separatist objectives in order to fight the Houthis and maintain regional support.
giant brigade
The group, also known as the Southern Giants Brigades or “al-Amarika,” is a pro-government armed group primarily made up of tribesmen from southern Yemen who also has separatist goals for the south.
The group has more than 15,000 fighters, led by Abd al-Rahman Abu Zarah al-Muharrami. Yemeni experts believe that Yemen is supported by the UAE.
They are particularly active in Taiz Governorate, north of Aden.
Saleh and the Guardians of the Republic
Tariq Saleh, nephew of the late President Ali Abdullah Saleh, controls a group known as the “Guardians of the Republic.” His unit is made up of former special forces members who are close to his uncle.
Barboud and his military say Saleh is also supported by the UAE. It is said that he received training At an Emirati military base in Assab, Eritrea.
They are based in Al Makah (Mokha) on the west coast.
Al Isra
“[Al-Islah] “They are an Islamist group that controlled the internationally recognized government for most of the conflict until 2019,” al-Hamdani said. Two members of al-Islah, which Yemeni experts believe is backed by Saudi Arabia, belong to the PLC.
The first is Sultan Ali al-Arada, governor of Marib, an area where the Houthis are building up their forces.
The second person is Abdullah Al Alimi Bawajir, who is close to Hadi.
Al-Islah has previously clashed with many of the PLC’s members, including the STC.
“A town in the north controlled by the government” [Marib, Taiz] Islam dominates. In the south, the UAE kicked them out in most places,” Al Hamdani added.
individual member
Other members include Sheikh Rashad Al Alimi and Saada leader and parliament member Osman Hussein Majali. and Faraj Salmin al-Basani, a former military commander and former governor of Hadramawt in eastern Yemen.
Can the Houthis counter the PLC?
After years of fighting, the Houthis’ initially rudimentary military capabilities have become more sophisticated. At the same time, the People’s Liberation Army was not fully united, and internal disagreements among its members played into the hands of the Houthis.
Its members have conflicting ambitions and ideologies, and some were in military conflict before the establishment of the People’s Liberation Army in 2022. These divisions have allowed the Houthis to maintain control over important territory and present themselves as the legitimate actor in ceasefire negotiations with Riyadh.
Their arsenal includes a mix of Iranian-made sniper rifles, Chinese and Russian AK-47 assault rifles, and rocket-propelled grenades made in Bulgaria and North Korea. “The majority of their weapons come from Russia, China and Iran, but North Korean weapons and weapons produced in former Warsaw Pact countries also exist in their arsenals,” said Australia-based Weapons Research Service. Director NR Jenzen Jones said. , Said Voice of America.
International party fighting against Houthis
The two main actors in the region fighting the Houthis are Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Both groups support the PLC, but are aligned with different factions within the coalition.
The UAE supports STC as well as other PLC members such as Giants Brigades and Saleh. Both Saleh and the STC “have been vocal about their critical position in thwarting Houthi attacks.” [on shipping vessels in the Red Sea]” Brumfield said.
Saudi Arabia supports figures within the PLC who want to unify Yemen, including al-Alimi, chairman al-Alimi, and al-Isra, which has two PLC directors.
Saudi Arabia “aims to avoid being remembered for dividing Yemen,” al-Hamdani said. A point of contention between Saudi Arabia and the UAE arose when STC threatened to move into areas along the porous Yemeni-Saudi border, which accounts for much of Yemen’s oil production. “Saudi Arabia is very protectionist and doesn’t want to have any group, even an Emirati, controlling the Yemeni side,” Brumfield said.
But Brumfield said those differences appear to have subsided in recent months, as “the UAE seems to recognize that Yemen is much more important to Saudi Arabia than it is to itself.”
But he added that its importance does not mean they want to stay in the country forever. “Saudi Arabia is desperate to get out of Yemen.”