{"id":14172,"date":"2021-03-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/02-03-2021\/houthi-missile-attack-thwarted\/"},"modified":"2021-03-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T00:00:00","slug":"houthi-missile-attack-thwarted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/02-03-2021\/houthi-missile-attack-thwarted","title":{"rendered":"Houthi Missile Attack Thwarted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News: <\/strong>The Saudi-led coalition said it <strong>intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile<\/strong> targeting the kingdom, including the <strong>southern cities of Khamis Mushait and Jizan.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Iran-backed Houthis have <strong>escalated attacks on the kingdom to get control from the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The assaults came as Saudi Arabia hosted a <strong>Formula E championship<\/strong> on the outskirts <strong>of Riyadh, which state media <\/strong>said was attended b<strong>y de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/600067999993028900_image.png\" style=\"height:423px; margin-left:100px; margin-right:100px; width:526px\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>(Image Courtesy: BBC)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Points<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Yemen Crisis <\/strong>&#8211;\n<ul>\n<li>Since April 2015, Yemen has been in the grip of a war where the <strong>Saudi-led coalition and the internationally recognised government <\/strong>are battling with the<strong> Houthis to control key ports and cities in the country.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The conflict is also seen as part of a <strong>regional power struggle between Shia-ruled Iran and Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Houthis-<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Houthis, officially known as <strong>Ansar Allah (Partisans of God)<\/strong>, are an <strong>Iranian-backed, Shiite Muslim military <\/strong>and <strong>political movement in Yemen.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Its members, who subscribe to the minority <strong>Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam, advocate regional autonomy for Zaidis in northern Yemen.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>They fought a series of <strong>rebellions against Saleh<\/strong> during the previous decade,<strong> and took advantage of the new president&#8217;s weakness<\/strong> by taking control of their n<strong>orthern heartland of Saada province and neighbouring areas.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The intervention of the Saudi-led coalition <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the Houthis ousted the internationally <strong>recognised government from power in the capital, Sanaa<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The coalition received logistical and intelligence support from the US, UK and France.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Houthis response &#8211;<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Houthis have not been <strong>dislodged from Sanaa and north-western Yemen<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>They have been <strong>able to maintain a siege of the third city <\/strong>of Taiz and to launch <strong>regular ballistic missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In September 2019, <strong>Saudi Arabia&#8217;s eastern oil fields of Abqaiq <\/strong>and <strong>Khurais<\/strong> were attacked by<strong> air, disrupting nearly half the kingdom&#8217;s oil production &#8211; representing around 5% of global oil output.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ceasefire<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>After six months of fighting, the warring parties agreed on a <strong>ceasefire at talks i<\/strong>n Sweden.\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>Stockholm agreement<\/strong> required them to<strong> redeploy their forces<\/strong> from <strong>Hudaydah, establish a prisoner exchange mechanism, and to address the situation in Taiz.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The UN hoped the agreement would clear the way for a political settlement to end the civil war, but in January 2020 there was a sudden escalation in <strong>hostilities between the Houthis<\/strong> and<strong> coalition-led forces, with fighting on several front lines, missile strikes and air raids.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Saudi Arabia announced a unilateral ceasefire in April 2020 due to a coronavirus pandemic but the Houthis rejected it, demanding the lifting of air and sea blockades in Sanaa and Hudaydah.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I<strong>mplications on <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>World <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It can greatly <strong>exacerbate regional tensions.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>\u00a0It also <strong>worries the West because of the threat of attacks <\/strong>&#8211; such as from <strong>al-Qaeda or IS affiliates &#8211; emanating from the country as it becomes more unstable.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Yemen is also strategically important because it sits on a <strong>strait linking the Red Sea with the Gulf <\/strong>of Aden, th<strong>rough which much of the world&#8217;s oil shipments pass.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>India &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>One of India\u2019s most important shipping routes passes through the <strong>Gulf of Aden, accounting for imports of $50 billion and exports of $60 billion<\/strong> every year.<\/li>\n<li>Indian nationals, including Hindus, Muslims and Parsis, have lived in Aden since the mid-1880s.\n<ul>\n<li>8 million expats living in the region with more than $80 billion of incoming remittance annually.<\/li>\n<li>Therefore the crisis in Yemen can <strong>affect the remittances and destroy\u00a0 the shipping routes.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/international\/saudi-led-coalition-says-it-thwarted-houthi-missile-attack-on-riyadh-state-tv\/article33952475.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source : TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News: The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile targeting the kingdom, including the southern cities of Khamis Mushait and Jizan. The Iran-backed Houthis have escalated attacks on the kingdom to get control from the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. The assaults came as Saudi Arabia hosted a Formula E championship on the outskirts [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/6191058current-affairs (1).jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}