The Houthis belong to the Shiite branch of Islam. The Houthi insurgency began in the early 1990s, spurred in part by growing influence of different Sunni branches of Islam.
Jeff Bachman, American University School of International Service
The Obama and Trump administrations have supported a military coalition that has inflicted profound and deadly damage on Yemen. A human rights scholar says the US is complicit in genocide.
The Saudi-Canadian row offers Canada an opportunity to adopt a new Middle East policy based on universal human rights that address the needs of the many and contributes to regional stability.
Yemen’s civil war is a stew of local and foreign interests, from Washington, Saudi Arabia to Iran. And the latest battle may cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians, if not millions.
Many Yemeni women are not victims of war or just escaping or hiding. In many and contrasting ways they are actively supporting it, and not only on humanitarian grounds.
The latest arrests of princes, ministers and military officials in Saudi Arabia might be in the name of anti-corruption but it also serves to bolster the Saudi royal family’s power.
When it comes to foreign policy, Saudi Arabia has recently become far more aggressive. A historian of the modern Middle East sees three possible causes for the shift.
At present, the Middle East and North African region contains 7% of the world’s population but only has access to 1.5% of its renewable freshwater supply through rainfall.