Yemeni forces opposed to the Houthis are in talks with the US and Gulf Arab allies about a possible land offensive to oust the militant group from the Red Sea coast, according to people involved in the discussions.
The conversations come about a month into a US-led aerial assault against the Houthis ordered by President Donald Trump, an operation yet to achieve its aim of ending the Iran-backed group’s attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, a vital trade route, and Israel.
A Yemeni ground offensive, which could include an attempt to recapture the capital Sanaa after more than a decade under Houthi control, would significantly broaden and intensify that campaign. It would not involve US troops, the people said.
The US and regional work to escalate military pressure against the Houthis has become more urgent due togrowing international concernover links between the Yemen-based group andal-Shabaab, an affiliate of Al-Qaeda based across the Gulf of Aden in the Horn of Africa, including Somalia. The Houthis are colluding with al-Shabaab on training and weapons smuggling, according to US Africa Command.
“This is now another reason for the world to confront the Houthis and liberate Yemen from their grip,” said Hamed Ghaleb, a top aide to Tariq Saleh, a member of the leadership council of Yemen’s internationally recognized government in the southern port city of Aden.
Trump has commented on the Houthi-Somali link, posting that the US “will support the Somali People, who should not allow the Houthis to embed (which they are trying to do!), to end terrorism.”
The head of US Central Command, Michael Kurilla, held talks in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh this month with the chiefs of staff of the Saudi and Yemeni armed forces.
The generals discussed “ongoing efforts against the Iran-backed Houthis,” the Pentagon said, without elaborating. Those involved in the meetings on the Saudi and Yemeni sides said the talks focused on how a Yemeni ground operation could leverage US airstrikes to further degrade the Houthis.
A spokesperson for CENTCOM, which oversees the US military in the Middle East, declined to give further information beyond the statement issued after Kurilla’s visit. The White House National Security Council didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
One scenario involves a multi-front assault, coordinated with the US military, with the aim of driving the Houthis out of the key port of Hodeida — a source of many of their attacks — and building pressure on them in Sanaa, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters.
“A land operation is a must to build on the great successes of the airstrikes,” said Saleh’s senior advisor Ghaleb, adding that discussions are taking place but no final decision has been made.
Tariq Saleh is the nephew of former Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who briefly allied with the Houthis after they captured Sanaa in 2014 but was later killed by them in a power struggle. He is based in Mocha, about 180 kilometers (112 miles) south of Hodeida, where he commands more than 50,000 fighters with support from the United Arab Emirates.
His forces have worked closely with the US military to help stop Iran shipping weapons to the Houthis, according to Ghaleb.
Saleh has been working on strengthening ties with Saudi Arabia, which in 2015 led a previous effort to oust the Houthis that included the UAE. The Riyadh-led coalition was later forced to abandon the campaign, due to both Western concern over the civilian deathtoll and the impact of missile and drone attacks on the kingdom, including its vital oil installations.
While both the UAE and Saudi Arabia have concerns they’ll again end up bearing the brunt of any escalation of military operations, there’s a sense that Trump’s willingness to up the ante against Iran and its proxies presents an opportunity to upend the balance of power in favor of their Yemeni allies, according to people with knowledge of the thinking in both Gulf capitals.
A spokesperson for the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not immediately provide comment. A Saudi Ministry of Defense spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
The stated objective of the US bombing of the Houthis has been to curtail the group’s attacks on Red Sea shipping, a campaign they began in solidarity with Hamas following the start of Israel’s war with the Palestinian group in 2023. Like the Houthis, Hamas is backed by Iran and designated a terrorist organization by Washington.
The US has been cagey about releasing battlefield assessments of the latest military effort in Yemen but it appears to be more intensive and sustained than the one started under former President Joe Biden in January 2024. A US defense official told Bloomberg News earlier this month that Houthi targets are being struck day and night, resulting in the killing of several of the group’s leaders, as well as the destruction of command and control facilities, air-defense systems and weapons manufacturing and storage sites.
Health authorities in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen say over 120 people have been killed since Trumpordered the strikesin on March 15.
The US is currentlyengaged in talkswith Iran about its nuclear program, with negotiations likely to extend to Tehran’s influence over its various allied militia. The most powerful of those was formerly Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which was severely weakened in an Israeli offensive in the second half of last year.
There’s a risk of overstating the losses suffered by Iran and its proxies since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and of underestimating the ability of the Houthis to fight independently, warned Matthew Levitt, who directs the counter-terrorism and intelligence program at the Washington Institute.
Iran “has had a big setback but at the end of the day not a single one of their proxies has been completely destroyed,” he said.
The Houthis have been defiant about their appetite for a protracted conflict with the US and its allies, having proved steadfast over more than a decade since their capture of Sanaa.
“We have chosen to be lions in confronting these enemies,” leader Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi said in a speech last week.
