Rashad al Alimi, the Riyadh-based chairman of Yemen‘s Presidential Leadership Council, used his September 25, 2025, United Nations speech to warn the international community that the “Houthis are only getting stronger.” Of course, his own behavior is in part to blame as he continues to take Saudi diktats and works to undermine any competitors who show themselves more competent or demonstrate greater on-the-ground legitimacy than he does.
The Saudis may, on paper, oppose the Houthis, but in actuality, they prefer to appease them in exchange for quiet.
Recommended Stories
- The Democrats shutdown theater won't get them anything
- Foreign communists are funding and training violent leftist radicals in US
- Portland has refused to enforce the law for five years
DEMOCRATS DECRY COMEY INDICTMENT AFTER PRAISING CASES AGAINST TRUMP: ‘NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW’
Beyond the factionalism and infighting inherent in the Presidential Leadership Council, another problem hampers the anti-Houthi fight: the refusal of the international community to provide those forces who actually do fight the Houthis with the drones necessary to stalemate, let alone defeat them. Consider: The Islamic Republic of Iran provides the Houthis with advanced drones. While the group’s drone attacks on Israel make headlines, the Iranian-backed groups also use drones against the Southern Transitional Council, the most successful military force against the Houthis, and the component of the legal government that governs most Yemeni territory.
The Southern Transitional Council must buy its drones, but can only do so commercially. None of the commercial drones the Southern Transitional Council possesses is superior to those the Houthis possess. Adding insult to injury, the companies that sell low-grade surveillance drones to the Southern Transitional Council report their serial numbers to China and/or the U.N. While in theory the U.N. opposes the Houthis and views the internationally recognized government as Yemen’s legitimate government, in reality the U.N. provides cover for Houthi supply through the misguided Stockholm Agreement and through the actions of individual U.N. members such as Iran, China, Russia, and Oman.
Nor have the United States or other countries responded to the Southern Transitional Council’s request for equipment to counter Houthi drones. The Houthis are so emboldened that locals in Aden say they sometimes send drones over government buildings in the south, mostly for surveillance but theoretically to target individuals.
The refusal to provide such technology belies the seriousness with which the U.S., Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and others say they take the Houthis’ threat. When doctors seek to reverse an infection, they prescribe antibiotics with a warning: Even after the symptoms fade, take the full course lest the infection rages back even stronger. The same holds true with firefighters battling wildfires: Never put out 90% of the fire and go home, lest the flame return with a vengeance. And yet, when countering the Houthis, the international community does just that.
If the U.S. wanted to go further and truly consolidate regional stability, it would establish a joint base in Aden, much as it operates joint bases with Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan, Qatar, and Turkey. Aden’s natural harbor has been a logistics hub for centuries. That was why the British initially established their presence in the city. To augment the Southern Transitional Council’s coast guard would both help protect the coast from weapons smugglers and signal to Saudi Arabia, Oman, and other countries seeking to play both sides of the issue that the U.S. is serious about ending the threat the Houthis represent. Presence alone, as in Somaliland’s Berbera, would enable the international coalition to restore freedom of navigation in the Bab-el-Mandab, one of the world’s most strategic waterways. Most importantly, southern authorities would welcome a U.S. presence.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT TRUMP’S OCT. 1 TARIFFS ON TRUCKS, FURNITURE, AND PHARMACEUTICALS
Peace comes not from signing ceremonies, but from careful preparation and denying oxygen to the enemy.
If President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth care about defeating the Houthis, it is time to take the next step: drones, drone defense, and perhaps even a permanent U.S. presence in Aden.
Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is the director of analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.