Iran's Angle in Yemen

Haytham Mouzahem (Syria Pulse)

May 14, 2013

A supporter of the Shi'ite al-Houthi rebel group shouts slogans during a demonstration in Sanaa, against the deportation of Yemeni labourers from Saudi Arabia, April 5, 2013. Saudi Arabia has begun deporting thousands of Yemeni labourers following new regulations requiring foreigners to work only for their sponsors, a Yemeni official said on Monday, a move that could "significantly damage" the poor country's economy. Some two million of Yemen's 25 million citizens work abroad, more than half of them in larg — A supporter of the Shiite Houthi rebel group shouts slogans during a demonstration in Sanaa, against the deportation of Yemeni laborers from Saudi Arabia, April 5, 2013. — REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

On May 10, the president of the political council of the Houthi movement (Ansarullah) in Yemen, Saleh Habra, met the Iranian ambassador in Sanaa, Mahmoud Hassan Ali Zadeh, in a first public meeting between the two sides.

The Houthi movement, which was founded in 1992, takes its name from formal leader Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, who was killed by the Yemeni army in September 2004.