...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the
Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is
God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews...
rebels, Russian Ambassador to Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...Vladimir Dedushkin told TASS.
The diplomat noted that, although Yemeni politicians and military officials often make statements on the upcoming assault on Hodeidah, there is a huge distance between public promises and specific actions on the ground. "Sober-minded politicians, both Yemeni and foreign, do not believe in a massive assault on Hodeidah," the ambassador went on to say. "Military experts tend to believe that the Houthis can only be fully driven out the city at the cost of its complete destruction."
Dedushkin noted that by now the fighting for Hodeidah had become a trench warfare despite air support for the Arab coalition. It takes place on the city’s fringes, about 15-20 kilometers away from its borders. "The assault would inevitably lead to the destruction of the biggest and only deep-sea Red Sea port, which receives 80% of cargo, including humanitarian, for the majority of the population," he added.
According to the UN, there are about 350,000 refugees in Hodeidah, so the assault on the city would be a humanitarian disaster, the ambassador stressed.
"Turning one of the most beautiful cities of Yemen and the Red Sea into ruins similar to Stalingrad or Raqqa and djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
would be lunacy," he pointed out. "The press service of the Russian Foreign Ministry and Russian representatives to the UN Security Council have stated that on numerous occasions."
"I would like to hope that a step towards a peaceful solution on Hodeidah will be taken at the intra-Yemeni consultations brokered by UN secretary-general’s special envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths scheduled to be held in Geneva in September," Dedushkin noted.