Why Do the Houthis Attack Saudi Arabia, and Who Backs Them?
The Houthis restarted their war on Saudi Arabia in July 2026 to break a blockade and win recognition, with Iranian arms behind them. Riyadh will not yield.
In this article
Why do the Houthis attack Saudi Arabia?
The Houthis attack Saudi Arabia to force it to lift its blockade of the areas they rule in Yemen, to win recognition as Yemen’s government, and to extract the money that recognition would bring. Their missiles and drones have hit Saudi airports, an Aramco refinery and Aramco’s headquarters since they ended a four-year truce in July 2026. They do it with weapons and training that UN experts have traced to Iran.
Silent Dossier’s view is that none of this will break the kingdom. Riyadh is taking the blows for now, but it has refused talks on Tehran’s terms, its forces are pushing back in Yemen, and the war will be decided on the ground.
Key takeaways
The Houthis are a Zaydi Shia movement from northern Yemen that seized Sanaa in September 2014 and has ruled most of Yemen’s people since. A UN-backed truce from 2022 held until July 2026, when strikes and a Houthi blockade of Saudi Arabia reopened the war. The ballistic missile that hit Riyadh’s airport on 10 October killed 13 people. UN experts have documented Iranian, Hezbollah and Iraqi help on an unprecedented scale; Iran denies any role in the current attacks.
Who are the Houthis?
The movement, which calls itself Ansar Allah, grew in the 1990s as a revival of Zaydism, the branch of Shia Islam followed by about a third of Yemenis. It takes its name from its founder, Hussein al-Houthi, who was killed by Yemeni forces in 2004, and is led by his brother Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, TIME reported. The Houthis took the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014. In March 2015 a Saudi-led coalition intervened at the request of the internationally recognised government. The United States designated the group a foreign terrorist organisation in March 2025.
A 2021 US government estimate put about a third of Yemen’s territory and 70 to 80 per cent of its population under Houthi control, including Sanaa and the Red Sea port of Hodeidah.
How did the 2026 war between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia start?
The truce that took hold in 2022 frayed after the Iran war began in February 2026; the Houthis joined it in March by firing on Israel. On 13 July a strike hit Sanaa airport; Yemen’s government said it carried it out to stop an Iranian plane landing, while the Houthis blamed Riyadh. The Houthis declared the truce over, fired missiles at Abha and on 20 July announced a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia, according to a compiled record of the attacks.
On 10 September they seized the Red Sea port of Mokha as missiles and drones hit Khamis Mushait, Abha and Jazan. On 5 October Yemen’s government launched an offensive backed by Saudi air power, and the Houthis stepped up their strikes on Saudi airports. On 10 October a ballistic missile hit the terminals of Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, killing 13 people and wounding 308. On 13 October a strike set off a fire at Aramco’s Dhahran headquarters, which the energy ministry called limited. Silent Dossier’s account of where the war will be decided is Taiz, Not Mokha, Will Decide Saudi Arabia’s War on the Houthis.
Analysis
What do the Houthis want?
In their own words, the strikes are retaliation for Saudi strikes on Yemen and pressure to lift the blockade. Spokesman Yahya Saree has said operations deep inside Saudi Arabia will continue. Analysts quoted by TIME go further. Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics says the Houthis want Riyadh to lift the blockade, recognise their legitimacy and let money flow into their coffers; Farea Al-Muslimi of Chatham House says their aim is to become a regional power.
That is the trap in any deal on their terms. Saudi Arabia sent an offer through Oman in October, and the Houthis refused to meet; Silent Dossier explained why that offer was a bid for time and not a surrender in Saudi Arabia’s Oman Offer to the Houthis. Paying the Houthis to stop would reward the attacks and lock in the land they took.
Analysis
Who supports the Houthis?
Iran, above all. A UN Panel of Experts found that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, Hezbollah and Iraqi specialists had transferred weapons and training to the Houthis on an unprecedented scale, and that the group’s fighters grew from about 30,000 in 2015 to 350,000 in 2024. In 2026 two Iranian sources told Reuters that Tehran had told the Houthis to attack Saudi Arabia and promised money and weapons. Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejects any claim that it played a role in the attacks.
Others are named with weaker evidence. Iraqi militias praised the October strikes and have been blamed for an attack on Saudi Arabia’s east-west oil pipeline. In 2024 the Wall Street Journal reported, from anonymous sources, that Russia passed satellite targeting data to the Houthis through Iranian intermediaries, and in 2025 the US State Department said a Chinese satellite company was directly supporting Houthi attacks. Moscow did not comment, and Beijing says it is careful with arms exports.
Analysis
Will the Houthis win?
No. They can hurt Saudi cities, and the kingdom’s air defences cannot stop every missile in a mixed salvo. But the Houthis cannot take Saudi territory, Saudi Arabia has refused Iran’s offer to mediate on terms that would legitimise them, and its partners in the Mecca Pact have pledged forces for its defence. Silent Dossier’s position, set out in Iran’s Houthi Mediation Offer Is a Trap, is that Riyadh was right to refuse, and that the war ends when the Houthis lose ground in Yemen, not when Saudi Arabia pays them to stop.
What to watch
Watch the front at Taiz and on the Red Sea coast, where the government offensive will show whether it can hold the ground it claims around Mokha. Watch Egypt’s parliamentary vote on 26 October on helping to defend Saudi Arabia, and whether Iran’s denials survive the next interdicted weapons shipment.
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