The President's Daily Brief
PDB Special Bulletin | The Houthis: Iran’s Deadly Proxy in the Red Sea | PDB Special Report
23 Mar 2025
In this Special Edition of The President’s Daily Brief, Mike Baker breaks down the rise of the Houthis—from a rebel movement in Yemen to one of Iran’s most dangerous and disruptive proxy forces. Backed by Tehran, the Houthis have launched missile and drone attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, threatening global trade and U.S. interests. What do they want? How did they become such a major threat? And what does their growing power say about the broader shadow war between Iran and the West? This is your in-depth look at the Houthis—who they are, how they fight, and why the world should be paying attention. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
Welcome to a special edition of the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. In this special edition of the PDB, I want to focus on a group that's been making headlines and drawing US military action. And that, of course, would be the Houthis of Yemen. You ask yourself, who are they, where'd they come from, and why is the U.S.
currently engaged in military operations against them? Those are all very good questions. Hopefully, we'll be able to provide you with some answers. Now, if you're a regular listener to the PDB, you should know that this isn't a news story, but it's escalated in ways that affect global trade, U.S. security, and U.S. naval operations.
So, let's break it down step by step, starting with who these guys are, their role in Yemen, their ties to Iran, and why they've created such waves in the Red Sea. Oh, see what I did there? Pun intended. The group we all know as the Houthis are officially called Ansar Allah, or Supporters of God. They're a movement that emerged in Yemen in the 1990s.
They're named after Hussein al-Khouti, that's a Zaydi Shia cleric, who founded the group to push back against Yemen's government and what he saw as foreign interference, particularly from the United States and Saudi Arabia. Now, the Zaydis are a Shia Muslim sect unique to Yemen, distinct from the larger Shia branch that's tied to Iran.
Think of it like the difference between Methodists and Anglicans in Christianity. Both are Protestant, but they've got their own histories and practices and flavors of belief. The original founder, Hussein, was killed by Yemeni forces in 2004, and his brother, Abdulmalik al-Khouti, now leads the group.
Their roots go back to Yemen's northern highlands, where Zaydi Imams once ruled for centuries until a Republican government took over in the 20th century. By the 1990s, the Houthis were organizing to revive Zaydi influence and resist a central government that they viewed as corrupt and beholden to outside powers.
Their stated goals include controlling Yemen, defending their community, and opposing the United States, Israel, and their regional allies. Now, that opposition isn't just talk. It's literally written on their flag. It's on their flag. Their official slogan, called the Sarka, reads, God is the greatest, death to America, death to Israel, curse be upon the Jews, victory to Islam, end quote.
That's quite the slogan. It's not particularly inclusive. It's a clear declaration, frankly, of their stance and who their enemies are. Now, let's talk about how they went from upstart rebel group to basically running the show in Yemen. The Houthis rose to prominence during the Yemen Civil War, which began back in 2014.
Yemen's political situation had been unstable since the Arab Spring in 2011, when longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced out. His successor, Mansour Hadi, struggled to hold the country together. and in 2014, the Houthis allied with Saleh, despite their past conflicts, and seized the capital Sana'a, driving Hadi's government south to Aden.
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