This week marks the Naked Capitalism fundraising drive. 229 donors have already contributed to our mission of reducing corruption and predatory practices, particularly in the financial sector. We invite you to support us through our donation page, which details ways to contribute via check, credit card, debit card, PayPal, Clover, or Wise. Learn about our fundraising aims, including the rationale behind this fundraiser, our achievements over the past year, and our current goal of supporting the commentariat.
Yves here. Dimitri Lascaris and several other commentators on YouTube argue that it is misleading to label Ansar Allah merely as rebels. This group comprises nearly 90% of the population and governs the capital, two factors typically sufficient for a group to be recognized as a government. Furthermore, contrary to claims of them being disorganized, Ansar Allah effectively manages the territories it controls.
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies, authors of War In Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, now available in a revised, updated second edition.
Medea Benjamin is cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace, and is the author of several books, including Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic.
Nicolas J. S. Davies is an independent journalist and researcher for CODEPINK, and the author of .
Recently, the Trump administration came alarmingly close to initiating a bombing campaign in Yemen. A report from the New York Times on September 20 revealed that U.S. commanders had identified targets, American soldiers were preparing munitions for deployment, and an attack on Ansar Allah was imminent until President Trump unexpectedly halted the operation.
For two weeks, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urged Trump to engage, as Ansar Allah forces advanced through positions held by Saudi-backed troops along Yemen’s Red Sea coast. Initially hesitant, Trump directed the Pentagon to ready for airstrikes after another urgent call from the crown prince. However, by Sunday, he reversed his decision once more, at least for the moment.
The New York Times also noted that many of Trump’s closest advisers were against supporting Saudi actions. Military officials were skeptical about the effectiveness of renewed bombing, given that Ansar Allah had withstood over 1,000 U.S. strikes during a prior campaign in 2025, which cost nearly $1 billion in munitions and resources during its first month alone.
Meanwhile, Ansar Allah has reassured Washington that it does not plan to target American vessels. U.S. officials recently met with representatives of Ansar Allah in Oman in a bid to reinforce this understanding. A new bombing campaign could undermine this diplomatic progress and jeopardize shipping through the Bab al-Mandab Strait while the Strait of Hormuz remains severely affected.
The crisis stemming from the U.S. conflict with Iran expanded to this precarious front on July 13, when a ceasefire established in 2022 between Saudi Arabia and the de facto Ansar Allah government disintegrated due to a Saudi missile strike on Sana’a Airport, Yemen’s capital.
This Saudi strike aimed to thwart an Iranian Mahan Air civilian flight returning from the funeral of Iran’s slain Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei in Tehran, forcing it to divert to Hodeidah, 140 miles away along the Red Sea coast.
In retaliation, Ansar Allah attacked the Saudi airport in Abha, situated near the Yemeni border, deploying missiles and drones. Consequently, hostilities have significantly intensified.
Ansar Allah has secured the strategic port city of Mocha and much of the Red Sea coastline, previously held by Saudi-backed forces. They continue efforts to solidify control of the Kahbub mountains, which overlook the approaches to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, while concurrently restricting Saudi vessels from navigating through the Red Sea.
The Saudis have retaliated with numerous airstrikes on Yemen. Ansar Allah, in return, has targeted Saudi airbases and oil facilities with missile and drone strikes. Either the Yemeni forces or their Iraqi allies struck pumping stations on Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline, which served as an alternative route for oil exports, leading to the disruption of operations for at least a month.
The United States has deployed around 200 additional troops to Saudi Arabia to provide intelligence and targeting support for Saudi airstrikes, utilizing systems such as Palantir’s Maven AI, which is also employed by the U.S. and Israel in Gaza. U.S. officials have acknowledged that this technology was involved in the tragic February massacre at the Minab girls’ school in Iran.
The U.S. State Department has also endorsed a $5 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia that includes 5,000 bombs weighing 2,000 lbs each and another 5,000 bombs weighing 500 lbs, in addition to JDAM guidance kits and fuses. Moreover, a proposed $24 billion sale of 48 F-35 fighter jets is under consideration, following a record $110 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia in 2018 and $142 billion in 2025.
Congress has not yet approved these latest arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which would inevitably result in more death and devastation for Yemen’s population. Senator Markey, along with Senators Merkley and Sanders, has introduced a Joint Resolution of Disapproval that, if supported by enough votes, could halt the sale. Here’s a link that enables you to urge your senators to back it.
The U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s military actions in Yemen is predicated on the recognition of the Saudi-supported Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), chaired by Rashad al-Alimi, as the legitimate government of Yemen. This council was formed in 2022, following the resignation of former Yemeni president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi after a UN-brokered truce.
However, the renewed conflict raises an essential question: Why does the United States continue to acknowledge a Saudi-based council as the legitimate Yemeni government while denying recognition to the government that actually controls the capital and serves the majority of the country’s population?
Since 2015, the international acknowledgment of Saudi-backed exiled governments has been used to justify years of warfare and economic strangulation against the 80% of Yemenis who live under the authority of Ansar Allah, including in Sana’a, the capital.
From 2015 to 2022, with U.S. backing, Saudi Arabia and its allies dropped over 69,000 bombs and missiles on Yemen, many targeting civilian sites, leading to at least 8,983 civilian deaths, according to the Yemen Data Project. By the end of 2021, the UN estimated that the combination of war, blockade, and the resulting humanitarian crisis caused 377,000 deaths.
How did Yemen arrive at such a dire state? How is it that the United States, other nations, and even the UN, persist in recognizing exile governments that have spent over a decade bombing and starving their own people?
The roots of this crisis stem from Yemen’s failed political transition after the Arab Spring. In 2011, a largely peaceful uprising ousted Yemen’s corrupt, oppressive U.S.-backed president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. His vice president, Hadi, was appointed interim president for a two-year term in 2012. Ansar Allah, rooted in Saada in northern Yemen, played a critical role in the uprising against Saleh and participated in the National Dialogue meant to pave the way for the transition.
However, Hadi failed to organize the planned elections by February 2014. His term was extended for another year, yet the transition remained stalled. This prompted Ansar Allah to move south from its Saada base, combining popular grievances over fuel prices with an armed push toward Sana’a. In September 2014, Ansar Allah’s fighters entered the capital, overpowering government forces. They were afterward granted seats in a UN-endorsed interim government formed under President Hadi.
Quickly, however, the power-sharing arrangement faltered. Tensions arose between Ansar Allah and Hadi’s administration regarding a new constitutional framework and the allocation of political influence. In January 2015, Ansar Allah seized the presidential palace; Hadi resigned and retreated to Aden. Ansar Allah established a ruling council in the vacuum left behind.
Yet a month later, supported by Saudi Arabia, Hadi rescinded his resignation and attempted to reclaim the presidency. Shortly thereafter, he fled to Riyadh, and in March 2015, the Saudi military intervened in Yemen, backed by the U.S. This initiated a devastating bombing campaign lasting seven years, during which several Arab countries alsojoined to provide military support. However, the Saudis were unable to restore Hadi to power or seize the country’s most populous regions.
Hadi’s claim to the presidency and Saudi Arabia’s military intervention lacked legitimacy from the start. The Saudi operation was not sanctioned by the UN Security Council, thus violating the UN Charter’s prohibition on military force.
As the Saudi-led, U.S.-backed conflict raged on, divisions appeared both within the anti-Houthi forces and amongst their supporting nations. The UAE provided support to a separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Aden, which aimed for an independent South Yemen.
Ultimately, the UAE withdrew its troops at the end of 2025, and the Saudi-backed PLC triumphed over the STC in Aden. Nonetheless, the Saudi-funded mercenaries, primarily from Sudan, alongside several fragmented Yemeni factions still controlling territories in the south and east, lacked the strength and coherence to counter Ansar Allah’s advancement along the Red Sea coast.
In contrast, Ansar Allah has become increasingly potent. Skilled Yemeni engineers have developed the ability to manufacture missiles and drones using components sourced mainly from China, and their forces succeeded in defending Yemen against aggression while asserting control over shipping routes in the Red Sea despite intense U.S. bombings in 2024 under Biden and 2025 under Trump.
Additionally, Ansar Allah has garnered international support for their stance on the Palestinian cause, launching missiles and drones at Israel while disrupting Red Sea shipping amid the ongoing crisis in Gaza.
Ansar Allah is now recognized as a well-established and seemingly popular nationalist government, which challenges the Western narrative that it is merely an Iranian puppet.
In truth, Ansar Allah is deeply embedded in Yemen’s social fabric and has roots in the Zaydi religious and ethnic group of northern Yemen, which historically ruled the region for centuries.
Zaydis encompass approximately 35% to 45% of Yemen’s population and have historically lived peacefully alongside their Sunni neighbors. It is both legally and morally indefensible to assert that a group of Ansar Allah’s adversaries holed up in Aden and Saudi hotels constitutes Yemen’s legitimate government while disregarding the authority that has governed the country and defended it against years of external aggression.
As the UN General Assembly convenes this week in New York, global leaders have an opportunity to confront this injustice and its devastating effects on Yemen’s long-suffering populace. China and other nations have consistently called for a political resolution. In 2018, a bipartisan majority of 63 U.S. Senators voted to withdraw U.S. backing for the conflict following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Additionally, in 2022, the UN successfully negotiated a ceasefire that resulted in several years without large-scale hostilities.
UN delegates and world leaders should seize this moment to pursue a diplomatic resolution.
Acknowledging Ansar Allah as the legitimate interim or transitional government of Yemen would be a crucial step towards aligning international responses with the reality on the ground and addressing the urgent plea of the Yemeni populace for peace and self-determination.
At the very least, it is overdue for the United States, the United Nations, and the media to cease referring to a self-appointed assembly of Saudi allies as Yemen’s “internationally recognized government.”
