RIYADH: Yemen’s armed forces have transformed their ability to confront the Houthis, coordinating their response across multiple fronts and overturning the Iran-backed militia’s assumptions about how government forces would react to renewed attacks, according to the military’s newly appointed spokesman.
“What they have seen on the ground, I am sure that has changed their perception of the equation,” Staff Colonel Majed Al-Nuzaili told Arab News.
Appearing on the current affairs program “Frankly Speaking,” Al-Nuzaili said Yemen’s internationally recognized government still viewed a political settlement as its preferred outcome, but warned that its military was prepared if the Houthis chose further escalation instead.
His comments come after several weeks of renewed fighting, missile strikes and drone attacks across Yemen, raising fears that the country could slide back toward full-scale war after several years of relative calm.
Al-Nuzaili said one of the most significant changes since previous rounds of fighting was the development of a more unified command structure among Yemeni government-aligned forces.
“All forces are united under the umbrella of the Ministry of Defense,” he told “Frankly Speaking” host Katie Jensen.
“They receive one order, one directive, there is one single command and control room that monitors, synchronizes and coordinates the actions of all units on the ground.”
Al-Nuzaili told ‘Frankly Speaking’ host Katie Jensen that Yemen’s internationally recognized government still viewed a political settlement as its preferred outcome, but warned that its military was prepared if the Houthis chose further escalation instead. (AN Photo)
He said the military had also improved its training, capabilities and understanding of modern warfare, allowing units to operate in a more coordinated fashion.
“What you see in the success on the ground is a united, a unified and coordinated operation,” he said, adding that individual units had clearly defined missions and targets.
Al-Nuzaili said the Houthis had previously calculated that an attack on one front would not necessarily provoke responses elsewhere. “This is what the Houthi thinks and expects, that when he attacks up front, the remaining fronts would be contained and will stay quiet. But that equation has changed,” he said.
The scale of that response was illustrated on Aug. 16, when, according to Al-Nuzaili, government forces carried out 180 operations against Houthi positions in 24 hours.
“You could see the recent action that started from Arhab front up in the north to the eastern and southern fronts, and concluded in the western fronts,” he said. “The whole action will synchronize and any attack on one of the units of the Yemen armed forces means the response will come from all units. This is what we see and this is what’s happening on the ground. I can assure you the equation has changed on the ground.”
Referring to Rashad Al-Alimi, the president of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Al-Nuzaili said: “The president himself stated clearly that to every escalation, there will be consequences. So, our response is just. The Houthis are paying the consequences for their actions and their escalations.”
How far the fighting develops, he added, would depend on Houthi actions. The military’s long-term objective, however, extended beyond responding to individual attacks.
“Actually, we are proud of what our force has done on the ground, and our objective remains, and is still and will continue to be, to restore the state’s institutions and authority, end the coup and end the suffering of our people,” Al-Nuzaili said.
“What you see on the ground is just one step toward that objective.”
Asked if there was one central commander today that everybody was answering to, he said it was the political leadership. “We have the supreme commander, Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi. And from the Ministry of Defense, we have the minister of defense, Dr. Taher Al-Aqili. We follow orders. As an armed forces, we follow orders from the political leaders.”
Appearing on the current affairs program “Frankly Speaking,” Al-Nuzaili said Yemen’s internationally recognized government still viewed a political settlement as its preferred outcome. (AN Photo)
Despite his confidence in the government forces’ improved organization, Al-Nuzaili acknowledged the scale of the military challenge posed by the Houthis, whose capabilities have expanded significantly since the UN-brokered truce began in 2022.
Responding to a question on why the Houthis had chosen a path of military escalation now, he said: “They have a regional motivation to show their loyalty and to relieve the pressure on the Iranian regime and to the Revolutionary Guards (from the US and Israel). This is one of the motives.
“The other motive is a domestic one: they try to escape from their failure on the ground to provide the essential things for the public. There is public dissatisfaction due to the unpaid salaries, the deteriorating services and the deteriorating economic situation. Whenever the Houthis face difficulty and challenges on the ground, they escalate to deescalate things on the ground. That’s kind of their strategy.”
Al-Nuzaili also accused the Houthis of exploiting periods of reduced fighting to regroup and rearm rather than pursue a lasting political settlement. “Since 2022, this is what we are seeing on the ground. This is a result of the truce, that they have benefited from it, and the direct support from Iran providing them these capabilities.”
At the outset of the interview, Al-Nuzaili made it clear that the latest escalation was the sole responsibility of the Houthis. “The political solution is our first option and is our political leadership’s first option. But it’s not the only one. We have the experience with the Houthis, and we know that they are not that serious about the political solutions,” he said.
“They have been repeatedly given the opportunity to form a political party and go through the political process, but they didn’t do it. After 2011 they participated in the National Dialogue yet at the same time, their forces were advancing on the ground and gaining territory, which ended by carrying out a coup against the legitimate government.”
Supporters of Yemen’s Houthis attend an anti-Israel rally in solidarity with Gaza and Lebanon in Sanaa on November 1, 2024. (AFP/File Photo)
Al-Nuzaili attributed much of that expansion to Iranian assistance, saying the weapons now available to the Houthis were markedly different from the capabilities Yemen possessed when he began serving in the armed forces in 2004.
“We know what capabilities and what things that we had before. And what we see now is completely different. And this is all documented in the UN expert panel on Yemen.”
Al-Nuzaili also raised concerns over what he described as connections between the Houthis, Al-Shabaab and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, warning that military expertise and technology could potentially spread further.
This networking could enable the Houthis to “transfer the expertise and the knowledge and the capabilities to Al-Qaeda in Africa. And God knows where this will lead,” he said.
Iranian support, he argued, was fundamental to the Houthis’ ability to sustain their operations.
Asked if the Houthis could sustain their current level and geographical range of missile, drone and maritime operations without Iranian help, he said: “For us, the direct support of Iran is no longer an accusation; the evidence is already there and documented. The Houthis, without Iran, cannot sustain (their level of attacks) for a long time. The source of the Houthis is the Iranian regime and their agenda to disrupt and disturb the region.”
Al-Nuzaili said Iranian assistance went beyond the provision of weapons and technology, claiming experts were also involved in transferring know-how and participating in strategic decision-making.
The consequences, he said, were no longer confined to Yemen.
Al-Nuzaili said one of the most significant changes since previous rounds of fighting was the development of a more unified command structure among Yemeni government-aligned forces. (AN Photo)
“It’s already well beyond Yemen,” he said, pointing to Houthi attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea. “The threat is already transnational. It’s not regional and subnational anymore.”
That threat is particularly acute around Mokha port and the Bab Al-Mandab, one of the world’s most strategically important maritime passages.
Al-Nuzaili said recent attacks on Mokha reflected an Iranian-backed effort to establish influence near the strait.
“The attack on Mokha, this is proof of what we said,” he said. “They are just executing the agenda of the Iranian regime to have a footstep next to Bab Al-Mandab, and control Bab Al-Mandab.”
He insisted government forces remained capable of protecting Mokha, while arguing that Houthi attacks were causing greater harm to civilian infrastructure and ordinary Yemenis than to military facilities.
The port, he said, provided access to essential goods for millions of people.
The challenge facing Yemen’s forces was therefore no longer simply defending territory, but also protecting international trade routes from missiles, drones and explosive boats.
Al-Nuzaili acknowledged that the scale of the threat now exceeded Yemen’s capabilities alone, particularly because of the weapons and expertise he said were being supplied by Tehran.
According to him, the Houthis are now capable of a form of “hybrid warfare” combining conventional and unconventional tactics, including ballistic missiles, drones and anti-ship weapons.
Asked what the Yemeni military needs to defend the country and exploit the Houthis’ vulnerabilities, Al-Nuzaili said: “In general, we know the capability of the Houthis and we do our assessment, and continuous assessment, and we know their weaknesses and their strengths and we take our mitigation measures. Each of our units has its own defensive plan which is suitable for the threat that they are facing. Everybody is in his area of responsibility.”
Ultimately, he argued, protecting shipping in the Red Sea required addressing the source of the attacks inside Yemen rather than relying exclusively on maritime defenses.
“The threat to this navigation comes from the ground and we know the source of the threat,” he said.
Al-Nuzaili lauded Saudi Arabia’s role in supporting the internationally recognized Yemeni government, describing the Kingdom’s assistance as extending far beyond military aid.
“First, we express our gratitude and deep appreciation for what Saudi Arabia, and for what the coalition led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has afforded us, and supported us in a very critical moment and difficult moment of Yemen’s modern history,” he said.
He highlighted Saudi deposits in Yemen’s central bank intended to support the currency, alongside humanitarian, health, education and development initiatives carried out by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center.
But Al-Nuzaili rejected the suggestion that Yemen was seeking a return of Saudi forces to direct combat operations against the Houthis.
“This is our fight. This is our fight. We are not asking anybody to come and fight on our behalf,” he said. “But what we need is, just let us stand on our feet again, and we are capable of doing the job that we need.”
He said Yemen’s forces understood how the Houthis operated and argued that the distinction between the two sides was that the government military operated as the armed forces of a recognized state and was bound by the law of armed conflict and international humanitarian law.
Despite the renewed fighting and increasingly sophisticated weaponry, Al-Nuzaili insisted the door to negotiations had not been closed.
“The political solution is our first option and is our political leadership’s first option. But it’s not the only one,” he said.
He accused the Houthis of repeatedly exploiting political agreements and truces to advance their military position, citing their conduct after Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference and the 2022 truce.
“To have peace, you need a partner for peace,” he said. “It needs both partners to be committed to achieve peace. That’s not what we see. What we see on the ground is only the legitimate government and the Yemeni armed forces who are committed to that, to this commitment to achieve the peace. But the other side just used the truce to prepare for another confrontation. And this is what we are now facing.”
Al-Nuzaili said Yemen’s government remained committed to a political settlement but would no longer accept pauses in fighting that simply allowed the Houthis to prepare for another confrontation.
Asked directly how close Yemen was to a return to full-scale war, he said the answer depended principally on what the Houthis did next.
“That depends on them. That depends on their actions,” he said. “For us, as the armed forces, we are ready for all scenarios. If they want peace, the choice is still there.”
If that path was rejected, he added, “as armed forces, we are ready and prepared for all scenarios.”
For Al-Nuzaili, however, military operations remain a means toward a much broader objective: reversing the Houthi takeover, rebuilding state institutions and ultimately ending a conflict that has devastated Yemen for more than a decade.
“For us, when we plan, we plan for long-term objectives, not only for short-term objectives,” he said.
“Our long-term, again, and our end state, our long-term end state is to regain and restore the state and institutions and authority, and to end the coup.”
Beyond that, he said, was a more ambitious vision.
“In the future, we see a Yemen, a peaceful and prosperous Yemen, and contributing to the peace in the region and in the world.”
