09/17/2026
Despite what you may have heard on Fox News or CNN, Ansar Allah, commonly known as the Houthis, cannot be understood simply as an Iranian proxy.
We recently published a short video essay examining Ansar Allah and the historical conditions that produced the movement. I highly recommend watching it if you want to understand how we got here. Link below ⬇️⬇️
Ansar Allah is allied with Iran and receives material support from them, the movement has its own history distinct political/religious outlook, and political goals.
Iran’s Islamic Republic is rooted in Twelver Shia Islam, while Ansar Allah follows the Zaydi Shia tradition.
Twelver Shia Muslims recognize a specific succession of twelve Imams, understood as divinely designated leaders. Zaydis follow a different conception of the Imamate.
The traditions diverged after the fourth Imam. Zaydis recognize Zayd ibn Ali as an Imam, emphasizing his uprising against Umayyad rule in 740.
This gets to the heart of an important difference between the traditions. Classical Zaydi doctrine holds that a qualified descendant of Hasan or Husayn can claim the Imamate by openly calling for leadership and rising against unjust rule. Twelver Shiism instead recognizes a particular divinely designated succession culminating in the Twelfth Imam.
If Ansar Allah were nothing but an Iranian proxy they would also follow the Twelver tradition, but instead they have a religious outlook that is deeply rooted in the beliefs of the Yemeni people.
The movement grew out of Yemen’s own history, particularly the Zaydi communities of the northern highlands. Hussein al-Houthi and his followers developed their movement within the specific political conditions of Yemen, and the Houthis fought the Yemeni government through six wars between 2004 and 2010.
Ansar Allah is an organic political resistance movement whose goal is not to act as mere proxies of Iran, but to liberate their country from Saudi occupation. They are the dialectical antithesis of that occupation, representing the inherent contradiction that exists between colonial domination and national sovereignty, and their mission is to struggle for the latter.
Iran gives them support because their interests are often aligned, and the Iranian Revolution believe in fighting against imperialism & Zionism wherever possible. But Ansar Allah does not take orders from Tehran.
If you want to understand how Yemen went from revolution and a Marxist government in the south to reunification, civil war, Saudi intervention, and the rise of Ansar Allah, we put the whole story together in our latest video essay:
🎥 How Yemen Became the Graveyard of Empires
Timestamps:00:00 Introduction1:35- Two Yemens5:15- The Houthis...
