Yemen at a New Crossroads: The Houthis, Anti-Imperialist Resistance and the Challenge to American Hegemony The Houthi advance, the struggle for Bab al-Mandab and the changing balance of power in the Middle East

Sep 15, 2026 at 03:48 PM

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Lanka Leader

Yemen has once again become one of the most important geopolitical battlegrounds in the Middle East.

The rapid advance of the Houthi movement, Ansar Allah, along Yemen's Red Sea coast—including the capture of the strategic port city of Al-Makha (Mocha) and an island near the Bab al-Mandab Strait—has dramatically altered the regional balance of power.

The development is taking place against the background of a much wider confrontation involving the United States, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia and other regional actors. It also threatens to turn Yemen's already devastating humanitarian crisis into an even deeper catastrophe.

But the events in Yemen cannot be adequately understood by describing the Houthis simply as an "Iranian-backed rebel group" threatening international shipping.

Such a description leaves out the historical origins of the Houthi movement, the Saudi-led intervention that began in 2015, Western military support for that intervention, the Palestinian question, the Houthis' own ideological development and the deep social and economic crisis that has devastated Yemen.

From an anti-imperialist perspective, the present confrontation can instead be viewed as part of a broader struggle over Yemeni sovereignty, regional independence, control of strategic maritime routes and the continued dominance of the US-led security order in the Middle East.

At the same time, an honest analysis cannot ignore the serious economic, political and humanitarian consequences of Houthi rule itself.

The reality is therefore more complicated than either the Western description of the Houthis as nothing more than Iranian proxies or an uncritical portrayal of them as a purely liberationist movement.

A New Turning Point in Yemen

The latest escalation represents the most serious fighting since the UN-brokered truce of 2022.

Houthi forces have advanced rapidly along Yemen's western coastline, capturing Mocha, pushing towards the Bab al-Mandab area and taking control of Perim/Mayun Island, according to recent reports. Reuters described the Houthi advance as a major shift in the regional balance of power because it brings the movement substantially closer to the strategic maritime chokepoint.

Associated Press reported on 14 September that more than 82,000 people had been displaced since early September as fighting intensified along the Red Sea coast.

Government sources claimed that more than 500 government troops had been killed and more than 1,000 Houthi fighters killed in the recent fighting. These casualty figures are claims by parties to the conflict and have not been independently verified.

The United Nations and humanitarian organisations have warned of the danger of a return to full-scale war.

For Yemen's population, this is not an abstract geopolitical contest. Millions of people already live with hunger, displacement, destroyed infrastructure and a collapsed economy.

Who Are the Houthis?

The Houthi movement did not originate in Tehran.

Ansar Allah emerged from Yemen's own political and religious environment, particularly the Zaydi revivalist movement in northern Yemen. Its roots go back to the Saada conflicts of 2004–2010, years before the present regional confrontation.

The movement's ideology combines several elements:

• Yemeni nationalism;
• Zaydi religious identity;
• opposition to US influence;
• opposition to Israel;
• hostility towards Saudi intervention;
• anti-imperialist rhetoric; and
• support for the Palestinian cause.

Iran subsequently became an important source of political, financial and military assistance.

But the existence of Iranian support does not automatically mean that the Houthis are simply an Iranian creation.

MERIP's analysis of Ansar Allah stresses the importance of recognizing the movement's own political agency rather than reducing it entirely to the status of an Iranian proxy.

This distinction is essential to understanding Yemen.

A movement can simultaneously have an alliance with a major regional power and pursue its own national and ideological objectives.

The Anti-Imperialist Dimension

The Houthis' political discourse has always contained a strong anti-American and anti-Israeli component.

Their slogan and political rhetoric identify the United States and Israel as central sources of what they describe as foreign domination.

This ideology intensified dramatically after the outbreak of the Gaza war.

When the Houthis began attacking vessels associated with Israel and launching missiles and drones towards Israel, they presented their actions as support for the Palestinian people.

From the Houthi perspective, Yemen's geographical position gives it a unique ability to impose political and economic costs on Israel and its supporters.

The Red Sea consequently became a new front in the Palestinian struggle.

This is particularly significant because most Arab governments have not directly entered the war against Israel.

The Houthis have therefore attempted to fill a political space created by the gap between widespread Arab and Global South public support for Palestine and the limited direct military response of Arab governments.

Whether one accepts the Houthis' political claims or not, their intervention has changed the regional political equation.

The Forgotten Saudi War

Any serious discussion of Houthi military activity must also examine the origins of the wider war.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia launched a military intervention in Yemen at the head of a coalition seeking to restore the internationally recognized government after the Houthis seized Sana'a.

The intervention received military and logistical support from the United States and other Western states.

Yemen was already the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula.

The result was a devastating conflict in which one of the world's wealthiest oil-producing states intervened militarily in one of the world's poorest countries.

Air strikes, blockade conditions, economic fragmentation and destruction of infrastructure contributed to what became one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

This history is essential to understanding why the Houthis developed such a strong anti-Saudi and anti-American political narrative.

Yemen's Strategic Geography

Yemen's importance is largely determined by geography.

It sits at the intersection of:

• the Red Sea;
• the Gulf of Aden;
• the Arabian Peninsula;
• East Africa;
• the Indian Ocean;
• the Suez Canal trade route; and
• the maritime energy routes connecting the Middle East with Asia and Europe.

At the entrance to the Red Sea lies the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the world's most important maritime chokepoints.

The Houthi advance therefore has significance far beyond the territory immediately captured.

Control or effective military influence over the western coastline provides the movement with leverage over one of the world's principal commercial arteries.

Reuters has described the current Houthi position as a major strategic development because it gives the movement greater ability to threaten shipping and puts additional pressure on Gulf states.

From Resistance to Maritime Power

The Houthis have gradually transformed their geographical position into a form of strategic leverage.

Since 2023, the movement has attacked or threatened commercial shipping in the Red Sea, initially presenting the campaign as an effort to pressure Israel over Gaza.

The latest territorial advances consolidate rather than create that maritime capability.

Al Jazeera's analysis notes that the Houthis had already been capable of disrupting shipping for years; the new territorial gains strengthen their ability to exercise that power and expose the weakness of the internationally recognized Yemeni government.

In August 2026, a Houthi coordination Centre in Hudaydah issued new instructions concerning navigation in the Red Sea, saying that its safe-passage service was voluntary and free of charge while asking shipping companies not to share vessel information with unauthorised actors.

The Sana'a Center interpreted these developments as evidence that the Houthis are attempting to establish themselves as a new authority governing maritime security in the Red Sea.

This is a profound development.

The issue is no longer simply whether the Houthis can attack ships.

It is whether a non-state movement can establish itself as an alternative security authority over a strategically vital international waterway.

The Challenge to American Hegemony

This is where the Yemen crisis takes on global significance.

For decades, the United States has presented itself as the principal guarantor of freedom of navigation and security in the Middle East.

American naval power, military bases, intelligence networks and alliances with Saudi Arabia, Israel and other regional governments have formed a central pillar of this system.

The Houthi challenge exposes the limitations of that architecture.

A movement operating from one of the world's poorest countries has been able to threaten commercial shipping, increase insurance and transportation costs and force the United States and its allies to devote substantial military resources to protecting maritime routes.

The question is not whether the Houthis possess greater military power than the United States.

They obviously do not.

The more important question is whether overwhelming military superiority can guarantee political control.

Yemen suggests that it cannot.

Military Supremacy Is Not Political Supremacy

The United States possesses enormous military advantages: aircraft carriers, advanced aircraft, precision weapons, satellites, intelligence systems and an extensive network of military bases and alliances.

Yet military superiority does not automatically eliminate the political conditions that produce resistance.

This is one of the central lessons of the post-Cold War Middle East.

American military intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere demonstrated extraordinary destructive capacity, but military intervention repeatedly failed to produce stable political settlements that corresponded to Washington's original objectives.

Yemen presents another version of the same problem.

The United States can strike military infrastructure.

It cannot easily destroy the political grievances, nationalist sentiments and ideological motivations that sustain Ansar Allah.

This creates an important distinction between military power and hegemony.

Hegemony requires not merely the ability to destroy an enemy but the ability to establish rules, maintain alliances, shape political outcomes and persuade other states that the existing order is legitimate and sustainable.

The Yemen crisis increasingly calls that assumption into question.

The Economic Cost of Hegemony

Maintaining a global security architecture also has an economic cost.

The United States and its allies have to devote military resources to protecting the maritime routes on which global capitalism depends.

The more vulnerable those routes become, the more expensive the security system becomes.

The Red Sea is particularly important because it links Asian manufacturing centres with European markets through the Suez Canal.

If vessels are forced to avoid the Red Sea and travel around the Cape of Good Hope, voyages become substantially longer, increasing fuel, insurance and freight costs.

The consequences eventually reach consumers through higher prices.

The crisis has now moved into the energy sector.

The Saudi East-West oil pipeline, stretching approximately 1,200 kilometres to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, has a capacity of approximately 4 million barrels per day, equivalent to around 4 percent of global oil supply.

Satellite imagery reviewed by The Guardian showed extensive damage following a reported drone attack. Brent crude subsequently rose above $108 per barrel.

Thus the geopolitical struggle in Yemen has a direct connection with the global economy.

War in Yemen → disruption of shipping → higher insurance costs → higher transport costs → energy-price increases → inflation.

This is how a conflict in one of the world's poorest countries can affect households thousands of kilometres away.

Bab al-Mandab and the Global South

The consequences are particularly important for developing countries.

Asian economies depend heavily on maritime trade through the Red Sea.

African countries around the Red Sea are directly exposed to instability.

European economies depend on the uninterrupted movement of energy and manufactured goods.

China, India, Japan and South Korea have major economic interests in the stability of the route.

The Yemen crisis therefore raises a wider question for the Global South:

Should the world's strategic maritime routes remain primarily protected and controlled through a US-led military system, or should a more plural and multipolar security architecture emerge?

This question goes beyond the Houthis.

It concerns the future structure of international power.

The Saudi Dilemma

The Houthi advance has placed Saudi Arabia in a particularly difficult position.

Riyadh has spent years attempting to contain or defeat the Houthis.

Yet the military intervention did not produce the decisive victory originally sought.

The anti-Houthi camp itself remains divided among government forces, tribal actors, southern separatists and other political and military factions.

The present Houthi advance demonstrates the consequences of that fragmentation.

Reuters reports that Gulf states are increasingly confronted with the choice between military escalation and diplomacy, while the Houthi advance is strengthening Iran's regional position.

For Saudi Arabia, the economic implications are enormous.

The kingdom's ambitious Vision 2030 programme depends on investment, tourism, infrastructure development and relative regional stability.

A prolonged war threatening its oil infrastructure and Red Sea ports would undermine those objectives.

This creates an important contradiction in the US-Saudi relationship.

Washington may favour military deterrence.

Riyadh increasingly has to consider whether permanent confrontation serves its own economic transformation.

The Changing Regional Order

Saudi Arabia's strategic calculations are also changing because the regional balance is changing.

The Saudi-Iran rapprochement brokered by China in 2023 demonstrated that Beijing can play a diplomatic role in a region historically dominated by Washington.

China's expanding economic relationships with Gulf states have further diversified their external partnerships.

Regional governments increasingly have the option of maintaining relationships simultaneously with:

• the United States;
• China;
• Russia;
• Iran;
• India; and
• other emerging powers.

This reduces Washington's ability to dictate regional policy unilaterally.

The Houthi crisis is therefore taking place during a broader transition from a relatively unchallenged US-led regional order towards a more contested and multipolar Middle East.

Iran: Ally, Sponsor and Strategic Partner

Iran's role cannot be ignored.

Iran has provided the Houthis with significant political, military and financial support.

The relationship has become particularly important within the wider network known as the Axis of Resistance.

The Houthis' position along the Red Sea complements Iran's ability to influence the strategic environment around the Strait of Hormuz.

This creates a geographical pincer around two of the world's most important maritime chokepoints.

But it would also be simplistic to assume that the Houthis merely execute Iranian orders.

The movement has its own domestic political interests, its own military command structure and its own ideological identity.

Iran and the Houthis share strategic interests, but they are not identical actors.

This distinction is important in any serious analysis of the conflict.

The Palestinian Dimension

The Palestinian issue has become central to Houthi international politics.

The movement has used the Gaza war to frame its Red Sea operations as part of a broader struggle against Israel and Western support for Israel.

This has provided the Houthis with a political narrative extending far beyond Yemen.

For many people in the Arab world and Global South, the issue is not whether they support every Houthi policy.

It is whether the Palestinian people should be allowed to remain under occupation, blockade and military assault without meaningful international resistance.

The Houthis have exploited this political contradiction more effectively than many established Arab governments.

This helps explain why their political influence has expanded beyond Yemen despite the severe controversies surrounding their domestic rule.

Yemen's Economic Catastrophe

However, the international strategic importance of the Houthis should not obscure Yemen's economic reality.

Yemen remains one of the world's poorest and most humanitarianly vulnerable countries.

The country's economy has been fragmented between competing authorities, currencies, financial institutions and taxation systems.

Oil production and exports have been severely disrupted.

Infrastructure has been destroyed.

Public-sector salaries have been interrupted.

Inflation and currency depreciation have reduced household purchasing power.

The humanitarian system itself is struggling to survive.

The Sana'a Center has reported that the 2026 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan requested approximately US$2.16 billion to assist around 12 million people, while funding remained severely inadequate.

The previous year's humanitarian plan received only around US$687.9 million, approximately 28 percent of the US$2.48 billion requested.

These figures demonstrate the extraordinary gap between Yemen's needs and the resources available to address them.

The Houthi War Economy

An anti-imperialist analysis must also critically examine Houthi economic policies.

Resistance to foreign intervention does not automatically make every domestic policy legitimate.

The Houthi authorities have developed an extensive wartime economic system involving taxation, levies, customs, contributions and other forms of revenue collection.

The Sana'a Center has warned that the increasing burden of these measures falls heavily on an already impoverished population.

The movement has also faced criticism over political repression, restrictions on civil society and the concentration of power.

These realities cannot simply be dismissed because the Houthis oppose the United States and Israel.

The Yemeni people have a right to oppose foreign domination and a right to accountable government, economic justice and political freedom.

A genuine anti-imperialist position must therefore defend Yemeni sovereignty without romanticising internal authoritarianism.

The Social Cost

The ultimate victims of the conflict remain ordinary Yemenis.

The latest offensive has already displaced tens of thousands of people, with AP reporting more than 82,000 displaced since early September.

The displaced face shortages of food, water, shelter and medical assistance.

The escalation also threatens to destroy whatever economic and social infrastructure survived more than a decade of war.

For Yemen's population, the question is not which geopolitical bloc wins.

It is whether they can live in peace.

The Contradiction of Yemen's Strategic Importance

Yemen presents one of the most striking contradictions in international politics.

It is one of the world's poorest countries.

Yet its geographical position gives it enormous strategic importance.

Its coastline controls access to one of the world's major maritime corridors.

Its ports influence global trade.

Its proximity to Saudi Arabia gives it importance for the world's leading oil-producing region.

Its position opposite the Horn of Africa connects it to Africa, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean.

For decades, external powers have therefore treated Yemen primarily as a strategic asset.

The central anti-imperialist question is whether Yemen can become a sovereign state whose geography benefits its people rather than foreign powers.

A Challenge to the US-Led Security Order

The significance of the Houthi advance therefore goes beyond the question of territory.

The movement has demonstrated that a non-state actor can challenge the assumptions underlying the US-led security system.

The United States can protect individual ships.

It can launch military operations.

It can deploy aircraft carriers and advanced weapons.

But it cannot easily guarantee that strategic waterways will remain politically uncontested.

This creates a growing contradiction.

The more Washington is required to use military power to maintain the existing order, the more visible the vulnerabilities of that order become.

And the more regional states recognise those vulnerabilities, the more incentive they have to diversify their strategic relationships.

That is how hegemony can weaken—not necessarily through military defeat, but through the gradual erosion of political authority, economic leverage and strategic exclusivity.

From American Primacy to a Multipolar Middle East

It would be premature to declare that American hegemony has collapsed.

The United States remains by far the world's most powerful military state and maintains an extraordinary network of alliances, bases, financial institutions and technological capabilities.

But American primacy is increasingly being contested.

China has become a major economic and diplomatic actor.

Russia remains influential in the wider Middle East.

Iran has demonstrated its ability to survive sustained US pressure.

Saudi Arabia is seeking greater strategic autonomy.

Other regional states are increasingly pursuing multi-alignment rather than exclusive dependence on Washington.

The Houthi movement is one component of this broader transformation.

Its importance lies not in its ability to defeat the United States militarily.

Its importance lies in demonstrating that American military superiority no longer guarantees uncontested political control over the region.

Three Possible Futures

The current crisis could develop in several directions.

First: A return to full-scale civil war

The Houthi advance could trigger a prolonged Saudi-backed counteroffensive and destroy the fragile stability established since the 2022 truce.

This would deepen Yemen's humanitarian catastrophe.

Second: A new political settlement

The Houthi military gains could ultimately become bargaining leverage for negotiations involving Saudi Arabia, the internationally recognized government and the Houthis.

Such a settlement would require recognition that the Houthis cannot simply be eliminated militarily.

Third: A wider regional war

The most dangerous possibility is that Yemen becomes permanently integrated into the wider confrontation between Iran, Israel and the United States.

If the Bab al-Mandab and Strait of Hormuz are simultaneously disrupted, the consequences for global energy markets could be extraordinary.

Al Jazeera has estimated that simultaneous closure of the two routes could affect approximately 25 percent of global oil and gas supplies, while ships could face an additional 10–14 days of travel around the Cape of Good Hope.

Such a scenario would transform the Yemen conflict into a global economic crisis.

Conclusion: Yemen and the Erosion of Uncontested American Power

The events unfolding in Yemen in September 2026 should therefore not be viewed merely as another episode in a long-running civil war or as a narrow dispute over shipping security.

At their core is a struggle over sovereignty, imperial influence, Palestine, regional power, maritime control and economic resources.

The Houthis have transformed Yemen's geographical vulnerability into strategic leverage.

They have challenged a regional order backed for decades by Saudi Arabia, the United States and other Western powers.

They have demonstrated that a relatively small non-state movement can impose economic and strategic costs on much more powerful states.

But the success of a resistance movement cannot ultimately be measured only by the territory it captures or the ships it can threaten.

The ultimate measure must be whether the Yemeni people gain peace, sovereignty, economic security, political dignity and control over their own national resources.

The Houthis may not be capable of defeating American military power—and there is no evidence that they can.

But they do demonstrate something potentially more important for the future of international politics:

military supremacy does not necessarily produce political supremacy.

Yemen has become one of the places where the limits of the old US-dominated Middle Eastern order are becoming visible.

The United States still possesses enormous power. Yet Saudi Arabia is seeking greater strategic autonomy, China is expanding its diplomatic and economic influence, Iran remains a significant regional actor, and movements such as Ansar Allah have demonstrated the ability to challenge the established security architecture.

The significance of Yemen therefore lies not in the prediction that American hegemony has suddenly collapsed.

It lies in the evidence that American power can no longer operate in the Middle East without facing increasingly serious political, military and economic constraints.

The struggle around Bab al-Mandab is consequently part of a much larger historical transition—from an era of relatively uncontested American primacy towards an increasingly contested and multipolar international order.

And in that transformation, Yemen—despite being one of the poorest countries in the world—has emerged as one of the places where the future of the global balance of power is being fought out.

By Jeewantha Jayatissa