Yemen’s war is back: A new battle for Sanaa and the Red Sea

Published On 8 Sep 20268 Sep 2026.

Key points

• The Houthis have conducted regular attacks on shipping in the Red Sea since 2023.
• "The confrontation involving the United States, Israel and Iran has changed the strategic value of Yemen, " he informed Al Jazeera.
• The US-Israel war on Iran is a particularly significant catalyst, stated Saudi political analyst Khaled Batarfi.
• Tensions escalated in July after administration forces maintained an attack on the Houthi-controlled airport in Sanaa, preventing an aircraft from Iran from landing.
• "They risk transforming the conflict again from an internal Yemeni confrontation into a direct Saudi-Houthi security crisis, " remarked Batarfi.

War is once again descending on Yemen, a country once described as the world's worst humanitarian disaster.

When a United Nations-brokered truce halted eight years of a war that had killed tens of thousands of residents, the country is at present experiencing its most serious spell of fighting since 2022.

This week, Yemen's internationally recognised administration rolled out counterattacks against the Houthi rebels, with fighting intensifying on Monday in the provinces of Taiz, al-Bayda and al-Jawf, the latter seen as one of the main gateways to the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa. The Houthis, meanwhile, say they have repelled some of the administration forces' advances and attacked Saudi Arabia. It supports the Yemeni administration.

Notably, a wider landscape of regional instability and conflict has created new conditions for Yemen's unresolved war to flare up once again.

Tensions escalated in July after administration forces maintained an attack on the Houthi-controlled airport in Sanaa, preventing an aircraft from Iran from landing. More attacks followed, and it further escalated last week when the Houthis introduced a major offensive, trying to advance through western Taiz and southern Hodeidah, towards the port city of al-Makha (Mocha) and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea.

In this new phase of war, the internationally recognised administration has its sights set on retaking the capital from the Iran-backed Houthis.

Both, meanwhile, are vying for control of the area near Bab al-Mandeb – which has gained greater significance against the backdrop of Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for global oil and gas supplies. The Houthis have conducted regular attacks on shipping in the Red Sea since 2023.

Analysts say that government-aligned forces are better resourced than at any point in the conflict, but they additionally warn against a swift victory.

"This is likely to be a protracted war rather than a rapid campaign, " Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemeni-American analyst and founder of Basha Report, a US-based risk advisory, informed Al Jazeera. Changing the status quo.

After years of civil war and fragmented leadership, analysts say that the Yemeni government's objective is to retake the whole of the country.

Emboldened by its ability to take back areas in non-Houthi-controlled southern Yemen from the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a UAE-backed separatist group, earlier this year, the administration is now setting its sights on the Houthis.

"The government was able to control more, and less militias now on the ground. The only player now Houthis in Sanaa, " Mahjoob Zweiri, a professor of Middle East politics at Qatar University, informed Al Jazeera.

After years of division, since the defeat of the STC, the Yemeni administration has focused on presenting the country's anti-Houthi forces as a united group with one military chain of command.

Still, the Houthis remain a "formidable military force", remarked al-Basha. " are going to fight tooth and nail rather than simply fold."

If the Iran-backed group is pushed back, it could dig into its northern tribal highlands around Saada, Hajjah, Sanaa and neighbouring governorates, remarked the analyst.

"That would create a much more geographically defined confrontation between a Houthi-held northern heartland and territories controlled by the internationally recognised government and its allies, " remarked al-Basha. Regional crises a catalyst.

Against the backdrop of the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran – and attacks from Iran and its allies on the Gulf – the opportunity has been ripe for the Saudi-backed Yemeni administration to take on the Houthis.

"There is a wide perspective that non-state actors – militias – should be ended regionally, " remarked Zweiri, adding that there is growing aversion from regional states to such groups.

"This also is influencing what's happening in Yemen, " he explained. "The government. A green light to basically end the current status quo in Yemen."

Notably, the US-Israel war on Iran is a particularly significant catalyst, stated Saudi political analyst Khaled Batarfi.

"The confrontation involving the United States, Israel and Iran has changed the strategic value of Yemen, " he informed Al Jazeera. "The Houthis are no longer operating only within the framework of Yemen's civil war; they have demonstrated an ability and willingness to connect the Yemeni battlefield with Red Sea security, international shipping and regional energy infrastructure."

Recent Houthi attacks against Saudi territory – in which dozens of individuals have been wounded – are particularly significant, he went on.

Nevertheless, even if the wider confrontation involving Iran is resolved or de-escalated, "it does not necessarily follow that the Saudi-Houthi conflict will end", stated al-Basha.

"Yemen has its own unresolved war, its own territorial dynamics and its own political demands." How will this new phase impact regional heavyweights?

While Saudi Arabia and Iran appear to have an understanding aimed at preventing direct escalation, Iran-aligned armed groups – including the Houthis themselves – could work together to exert military and political pressure on Riyadh, remarked al-Basha.

In practice, the Houthis could impose "significant" costs on Saudi Arabia through coordinated long-range missile and drone attacks, even as they face increasing pressure on the ground, he remarked.

And while Saudi Arabia's priority has been to prevent a return to an open-ended war in Yemen, "attacks on Saudi civilian and energy facilities inevitably change the calculation, " remarked Batarfi.

"No state can indefinitely tolerate direct attacks on its territory, " he remarked.

Iran, meanwhile, occupied with its war with the US, is limited by the extra backing it can provide the Houthis, but will probable continue shipping missile and drone components, along with refined fuel and other commodities, remarked al-Basha. The battle for Bab al-Mandeb.

Another key objective of the internationally recognised administration has been to secure the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

Iran is leveraging the Strait as a point of pressure through the Houthis, so one of the intends of the war is to ensure the waterway comes under the control of Yemen's central administration, Zweiri noted.

That additionally partly explains Saudi Arabia's backing for the offensive – the Houthis had declared a blockade against Saudi vessels transiting the waterway. It is a vital corridor for shipping between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Bab al-Mandeb has even more significance for Saudi oil exports since Iran began restricting passage through the Strait of Hormuz at the outset of the US and Israel's war on the country.

But the Houthis are additionally seeking an advance towards the vital Red Sea shipping route.

For context, the group has demonstrated it possesses the firepower to threaten commercial and military shipping throughout the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and parts of the Arabian Sea, stated al-Basha.

Eventually, they could additionally attempt to impose tolls in the waterway, mirroring Iran's approach around the Strait of Hormuz, he went on.

"If both Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb become seriously disrupted at the same time, the consequences would extend far beyond Yemen or Saudi Arabia – it would become a major international energy and trade security problem, " remarked Batarfi. 'A prolonged and costly conflict'?

Meanwhile, the analysts were in agreement that the trajectory of the conflict appears to be heading towards a larger-scale war over the next few days.

Taken together, the developments around yemen's war is back: A new battle for Sanaa and the Red point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.