A member of Yemen's Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthi movement, has told Newsweek the group is prepared to fend off any enemy operations amid reports that government forces were readying a large-scale offensive.
"We are closely monitoring and following all developments on the ground, and we are in a state of extreme readiness and preparedness for all possibilities," the Ansar Allah source told Newsweek. "This readiness has not just started now, but has been for a long time, because we anticipate and prepare for all developments."
Such contingencies include the possibility of renewed intervention by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which launched a joint campaign to support the internationally recognized Yemeni government after it was ousted from the capital by Ansar Allah a decade ago. The campaign resulted in a stalemate, however, and the warring parties have largely halted hostilities since an April 2022 ceasefire brokered by the United Nations.
But with Ansar Allah drawing intensifying U.S. airstrikes due to its ongoing missile and drone campaign against Israel and commercial ships amid the war in Gaza, President Donald Trump has warned of further action in Yemen. While Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have yet to express any willingness to once again attempt to take on the powerful militia, Ansar Allah has warned both would face major repercussions if they did.
"As for neighboring countries," the Ansar Allah source said, "if they become involved in any way in the aggression against us in defense of the Israeli enemy, whether by deploying their mercenaries or otherwise, the cost to them will be beyond their expectations, God willing."
Whispers of War Return
Yemen today remains divided between Ansar Allah, which controls about a third of the country and up to 80 percent of its population, and the government, which operates from the second city of Aden in the south. Rivaling Ansar Allah's Supreme Political Council in Sanaa, the Yemeni government is represented by the Presidential Leadership Council, consisting of several parties, including the UAE-backed, secessionist Southern Transitional Council.
Prior to the April 2022 ceasefire, Ansar Allah had conducted numerous attacks against Saudi Arabia and the UAE as the Saudi-led coalition backed operations against the group in Yemen. Hopes for reconciliation emerged in March 2023 after Saudi Arabia and Iran resumed diplomatic relations in a deal overseen by China, but Ansar Allah's intervention in the war in Gaza later that year has put the truce to the test.
Reports of an offensive being prepared by the Yemeni military first emerged last week in the Emirati newspaper The National, which cited Abdulaziz Sager, head of the Saudi Arabia-based Gulf Research Center. He claimed that some 80,000 Yemeni troops were being mobilized in a bid to seize the strategic coastal province of Al-Hodeidah, with plans to then retake Sanaa.
Yemeni Defense Minister Lieutenant General Mohsen Mohammed al-Daari further fueled speculation of a coming ground operation against Ansar Allah on Sunday, telling the Saudi newspaper Okaz that "war could erupt today or tomorrow" as Yemeni forces were at their highest level of readiness.
The Wall Street Journal then cited unnamed U.S. and Yemeni officials on Monday who appeared to confirm the developments. They alleged that the UAE had brought the war plan to the Trump administration, which was said to have expressed openness to support such a ground offensive, though a final decision had not been made yet.
Bloomberg also reported Wednesday on alleged conversations taking place between U.S. officials and partners in the Arabian Peninsula, citing unnamed officials familiar with the discussions.
UAE Assistant Minister for Political Affairs Lana Nusseibeh denied the reports, saying, "among all the wild unsubstantiated stories going around, that one surely wins the misleading-news-of-the-week award, by a wide margin" in a statement shared with Newsweek and Reuters.
Reuters also cited an unnamed senior Saudi official denying that the kingdom participated in talks regarding a ground offensive in Yemen.
Newsweek has reached out to the Embassies of Saudi Arabia and Yemen to the U.S., the Yemeni Prime Minister's Office and Yemen's Southern Transitional Council for comment.
Contacted for comment, a U.S. defense official told Newsweek they "do not have anything to provide on this subject."
U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said she could not remark on "reports regarding what may or may not be happening on the ground in Yemen as the Houthis' ability to resist is degraded," during a press briefing Tuesday.
But she said that "the United States has made its point clear, through the Secretary and through the President, through the ceasefire work, and the nonstop efforts regarding the issues in Israel and on the Gaza Strip, and certainly now in the remarkable fact that Iran is at the table regarding their condition, which has also been affected, of course, by the degrading of Hezbollah; certainly the disaster that Hamas has brought that region, including Iran."
Bruce again addressed the topic on Thursday, saying it "is not something we're involved in, of course." She told journalists she "can't speak to what the plans are," including "battle plans or attacks against the Houthis by other individuals or other governments or regimes."
The Axis on Edge
Yemen's Ansar Allah and Lebanon's Hezbollah are two factions of the broader Iran-aligned Axis of Resistance coalition that intervened in support of the Palestinian Hamas movement after its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel sparked a still-ongoing war in Gaza. Last year, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated in September amid intensified Israeli strikes and an invasion of southern Lebanon, leading to a ceasefire signed November 27.
That same day, the Axis of Resistance suffered another major blow as an Islamist-led coalition of rebels launched a surprise offensive that ultimately ousted President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Iran's closest ally in the Arab world. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has since halted its drone campaign against Israel, leaving Ansar Allah as the most active member of the Axis of Resistance.
Just as Ansar Allah resumed its strikes after a brief pause following a Gaza ceasefire deal that was scrapped last month by Israel, Trump ordered a widespread series of strikes against the group's positions in Yemen. The U.S. leader has touted a "tremendous success" in the impact of the operations, which have continued on a regular basis.
But as observers note the steep cost and limited impact of such operations, Ansar Allah has dismissed reports of its leaders being killed or suffering major damage to its capabilities.
"The American strikes have not caused any real damage that could affect our operations at all," the Ansar Allah source said. "Rather, they are continuing in all their forms, and the aircraft carriers themselves have not even been able to enter a close location that would enable fighter jets to take off and land without refueling. That is, they are positioned at a very great distance, and their role is limited to protecting themselves or killing civilians."
"However, they have been unable to open the sea to Zionist ships, nor prevent missiles and drones from targeting the depths of the Israeli enemy in occupied Jaffa, the so-called 'Tel Aviv,' nor even prevent air defenses from tampering with MQ-9 aircraft," the source added. "The people are taking to the streets by the millions, supporting these operations and demanding more."
The latest conducted its latest strike against Ansar Allah late Thursday, targeting Yemen's major fuel port of Ras Isa.
"Today, US forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Houthi efforts to terrorize the entire region for over 10 years," U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement following the operation. "The objective of these strikes was to degrade the economic source of power of the Houthis, who continue to exploit and bring great pain upon their fellow countrymen. This strike was not intended to harm the people of Yemen, who rightly want to throw off the yoke of Houthi subjugation and live peacefully."
"The Houthis, their Iranian masters, and those who knowingly aid and abet their terrorist actions should be put on notice that the world will not accept illicit smuggling of fuel and war material to a terrorist organization," CENTCOM added.
Ansar Allah said the U.S. strikes killed 38 people, adding to a death toll of around 125 since the campaign began on March 15. The group has claimed to have downed 19 of the U.S. military's MQ-9 drones, the latest reportedly shot down on Sunday, throughout the campaign.
The conflict has had a major impact on traffic through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, which allow entry into the Suez Canal. As of last month, U.S. officials have recorded 145 attacks by Ansar Allah on commercial vessels and 174 against U.S. warships.
Ansar Allah has also continued direct attacks on Israel, whose military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen on Thursday.
While the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have accused Iran of aiding its Yemeni ally, both Washington and Riyadh have continued to engage Tehran diplomatically. Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman traveled to Tehran on Thursday to meet with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and U.S. Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff is due to hold talks a second round of talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday toward reaching a new nuclear agreement.
A Question of Capabilities
Even in light of the U.S. air campaign and losses suffered by other Axis of Resistance factions, analysts question whether a renewed Yemeni military offensive could truly challenge Ansar Allah after years of failure.
"A lot has changed since the ceasefire in April 2022; the Houthis are more entrenched, have acquired a wide array of new arsenals including longer range missiles and drones, and bolstered their numbers through intense recruitment drives," Hisham al-Omeisy, a Yemeni analyst and former information resource center director at the U.S. Mission to Yemen, told Newsweek.
At the same time, he noted that "the Houthis are more isolated than ever before because of their attacks on international ships and threatening global trade, their cynical authoritarian rule, increasingly brutal crackdown on dissent and kidnapping campaigns, and being designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization."
Omeisy questioned whether the new offensive would be a part of a broader effort to address the root causes of the conflict and the realities on the ground, or whether it would constitute another costly campaign with limited gains that may only exacerbate Yemen's woes and end up empowering rather than defeating Ansar Allah.
"Based on previous experiences, another bout of fighting without enough steam will end up in a ceasefire that will only further embolden the Houthis and allow them to regroup," Omeisy said. "This is one of those moments where you can't cross a chasm in two small jumps."
Meanwhile, Israel has pressed on with its campaign in Gaza, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserting that the war would continue until Hamas was destroyed, all hostages held by the group were returned and the Palestinian territory could no longer pose a threat to Israel.
The Ansar Allah source with whom Newsweek spoke argued that "the best solution is to stop the aggression on Gaza and lift the siege on it, otherwise everyone will get themselves into a quagmire from which they cannot escape."
"We are fighting in obedience to God, and we consider fighting in this battle a sacred act to defend the human values that are being trampled on in Gaza in front of the hypocritical world," the Ansar Allah source said. "We will never accept to remain silent about what is happening in Gaza, no matter the cost."
"We have great and absolute confidence that God will grant us victory, and He is already granting us victory now," the source added. "All of this aggression is a failure and will fail more in the face of our people's awareness, great conviction and absolute trust in God Almighty."
