The Houthis may not be like the fanatical Taliban - but their rise in Yemen can also become a problem

The Houthis are notorious as it was born from the ashes of Hussein Badreddin Al-Houthi, a Zaydi Shi'a and also former parliamentarian of the Yemeni Cabinet. The former parliamentarian, who himself got educated in Iran and even met personally with Ali Khamenei (the current Iranian Supreme Leader), entered the Cabinet during 1990s with hope to raise concern about government's corruption, but instead got nothing except rebuffs from the officials. Unsurprisingly, Hussein Badreddin attempted to create a political party that would go on to be known after his death, Ansarallah, or the Houthis after the former's surname.

He was killed in September 2004 when he clashed with government's troops, but his party persisted and even grew into a very powerful, notorious group. Of course, the group was not always at easy shape - the President of Yemen at the time of Hussein's death, ironically the Shi'a Ali Abdullah Saleh - tried to suppress the movement. However, the Houthis were able to exploit the state corruption within Saleh's regime - each time the Yemeni military was about to win, Saleh frequently recalled his army from making further offense, perhaps somewhat attributed to his Shi'a faith. Just because of the Shi'a belief, Saleh had missed out many opportunities to end the fight, even with Saudi backup.

Thus, thanked for exploiting this corrupt nature of Saleh's regime, the Houthis grew stronger and even honed battle experience. Then, an incident inevitably boosted the group's popularity.

In 2011, Yemen went into a massive revolution, as part of the wider Arab Spring, to topple the autocrats in the region. The Houthis were quick to throw support behind the movement, but later found itself sidelined by the Gulf Cooperation Council when the group brokered a deal in November the same year, hence it began to intensify the movement against the new government of Abdrabbuh Hadi. Eventually, it won the conflict when it succeeded when they took over the Presidential Compound in January 2015, forcing Hadi to resign from the position. Of course, Hadi pretended to resign, then fled to Aden, and later ended up exiling in Saudi Arabia.

The shocking takeover of Sana'a was a blowing point of the GCC, who could not expect such a swift takeover. Saudi Arabia then announced that it would fight on behalf of Hadi, assembled a number of Sunni states from the Arab World and even as far as Somalia and Malaysia to fight. The war was devastating, and the coalition killed a lot of Houthis. But while the Houthis indeed suffered plenty of casualties, it failed to topple the Houthi control of Sana'a.

On one side, Saudi Arabia has been fairly reluctant in deploying troops further, hence limited in mass bombing campaign. But misusing these weapons, many are bought from the West, culminated into the modern world's worst humanitarian crisis. To make the matter worse, Saudi Arabia is waging a war on Yemeni economy itself - despite claiming it is fighting on behalf of Yemeni people. The flame is even poured with more oil when Saudi Arabia and the UAE (another major player in Yemen's conflict) backed various proxies with their somewhat common understanding of making Yemen, already the poorest country in the Arab world, dump further.

On the other, the Houthis, with tacit backup from Iran, has been trying to make military advance to Marib, the last stronghold of the government in the north where most of Yemen's population lives. The Houthis are also brutal in their own characteristics: it has enforced many children into taking arms, weaponising starvation on the quest to conquer Yemen, as well as launching series of terrorist attacks, both at home and against Saudi Arabia. Yet, as much as they're brutal, the Houthis are very effective: it was able to rally allies on their causes, as well as their military capability, noted for being well-trained and well-organised despite inferior weaponry. Neutral Yemenis had also become increasingly disgruntled with the violence from Saudi-led bombings, also jumped to the Houthi camp.

It's not a secret that Saudi indiscriminating violence matches what the Houthis are eager for. Recently, the government's troops had retreated from the city of Hodeidah, without any clear conclusion if this is a tactical move, only to be filled with Houthi personnel, raising fears about Houthis making further gains, as the situation in Marib has also deteriorated.

I'd argue about the nature of the Houthis. Being from the most discriminated Islamic sect (Shiism), they hold a strong grudge against the government, as well as resenting Yemen's reliance on the United States and Saudi Arabia. Their disdain is even stronger when for years, Yemen remains the poorest and most corrupt country in the Arabian peninsula, as well as among the world's least developed - 33 years of reign of Ali Abdullah Saleh saw the elites gather wealth while the remainders live in caves. Arbitrary arrests, tortures and even imprisonments of political dissidents were norm - all fed up the Houthis to rebel.

Yet down to earth, the Houthis are also very well-mannered and well-informed about the territory they live. They're Zaydis, the Shiites who ruled the mountains of Yemen for a thousand year, even proudly fought against the powerful Sunni Ottomans as well as creating the Kingdom of Yemen in 1918. The Houthis were able to rally so many people because they continue with accordance of their customs. Moreover, it is worth noting that Abdulmalik Al-Houthi, the second leader after Hussein's death, realised that the Sunnis of Yemen outnumbered the Shiites, so it is better to implement a republican system rather than that of Iran (although it has still viewed Iran a spiritual leader). The Houthis also made clear that Salafis (backed by Saudi Arabia) are not tolerated in their territory, which has angered Riyadh. Adding with the development of self-made weapons from various former Soviet/Russian, Iranian, American, Chinese and Egyptian models, the Houthis are very fearsome in war.

But what made the Houthis so effective is their capability of establishing their own courts and regional authority, which are essential in gaining public favour. Even before the Yemeni uprising of 2011, it has functioned with a level of independence that even an AP reporter, Ahmad Al-Haj, mentioned in 2009 that,

"...the Houthis were winning hearts and minds by providing security in areas long neglected by the Yemeni government while limiting the arbitrary and abusive power of influential sheikhs."

Of course, it is not always true, but their ability to influence regional politics means they're not to be underestimated.

By contrast, the Houthis' opponents, Saudi Arabia and the UAE's allies, are still interested about preserving the old order, including corruption. An embedding problem with the Saleh Administration and currently Hadi's one, this is still unsolved when neither Saudi Arabia and the UAE ever try to press the official Yemeni leadership to reform and rebuild - because they prefer this undeveloped state of Yemen rather than any changes. This was seen before when Ibrahim Al-Hamdi, a reformist who ruled North Yemen from 1974-77, was assassinated by a Saudi-backed hit squad. And also mentioned, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are backing various proxies with common understanding to make the country further weakened (Saudi Arabia-Hadi and UAE-South Yemen separatists), which both are also fighting against each other, plays into what Houthis want for.

All kind of mischiefs Saudi Arabia did over Yemen for decades had brought to this misery and thus the rise of Houthis has been inevitable. While not everyone will buy Houthi propaganda, the way Houthis blend Yemeni nationalism on its ideological Zaydi Shiism as a way to deter Saudi Arabia can be a challenge. The United States have seen how Afghanistan collapsed so quickly to Taliban, and this can be the same to Yemen. As well as a strong enemy mentality persists, the Houthis are not likely to give up. And their determination is also a weapon Iran can feel useful.

It's not too late to save Yemen from the Houthis - but if Saudi Arabia, the UAE and allies still want to see Yemen on their side again, they need to allow Yemeni people to decide their future, to allow the Hadi regime to be reconstituted, rebuilt and restructured into a more effective government. Furthermore, they have to emphasise the demands of Yemeni people - something the Houthis did well with its populace. Let's remember that the Houthis' network of alliance isn't always rosy, many allied with Houthis only for personal or emotional reasons - yet the Houthis captured just that.

If the situation changes for nothing, a future Iran-aligned state in the Arabian peninsula - the first since the Pahlavi's control of Bahrain, can be a real nightmare for Riyadh. And not even the United States or Israel could save the Kingdom.