Yemen’s former PM says battle for Taiz puts Western security at stake

Yemen’s former prime minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed said the battle for Taiz had become a struggle over the future of Western security. He said the city’s fall to Iran-backed Houthi forces would threaten the Bab al-Mandab strait in the Red Sea and the route to Aden, where Yemen’s internationally recognised government is based.

Saeed, now an adviser to President Rashad al-Alimi, called for more Western assistance to government-backed forces. He said he believed the Houthis aimed to seize all of Yemen, though those assessments were his own claims.

Taiz became the war’s new frontline after the Houthis launched a campaign last month to capture Yemen’s Red Sea coast. The offensive ended four years of relative calm following a UN-brokered ceasefire that froze the frontlines in 2022.

Houthi offensive around Taiz

Saeed said the Houthis were already seeking control of parts of the south, including the former Soviet camp at al-Sabiha in Lahij governorate, and could eventually target Aden. He said the group was allowing some fuel and commodities into the city while expanding control over rural areas and smaller towns.

He warned that a full siege of Taiz could begin “in a matter of days”. The city is home to more than 500,000 people. Saeed also said government forces had only light weapons and that the Houthis were attacking from four different directions.

Divisions among government forces

Saeed attributed the pressure on government forces to poor coordination, rivalry between Gulf states and a failure to prepare for the Houthis’ use of long-range drones and missiles. He said communication had been insufficient between the National Shield Forces, National Resistance Forces and the Giants Brigades.

He said the government and army had not reorganised adequately between the 2022 truce and the resumption of fighting this year. Saeed urged the different forces to unite against the Houthis first, leaving other demands and guarantees for later negotiations.

On Tuesday, the exiled leader of the southern secessionist movement, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, called for southern troops to mobilise against the Houthis while demanding a referendum on secession within two years. He brought tens of thousands of supporters onto the streets the following day.

Houthis’ growing missile capability

Saeed said the Houthis’ military capability and negotiating power had changed substantially over the past decade. In December 2020, a missile strike on Aden airport killed 28 people and injured 107, including Saeed himself; the missile travelled 299km.

He said the Houthis attacked fuel trucks in Abu Dhabi more than 900 miles away in January 2022, then struck the Nushayma oil terminal and al-Dhabba port in Yemen in October that year. By March 2025, when the US attacked Yemen, Saeed said the group had dozens of targeted missiles, anti-ship missiles and drones.

Saeed described Iran’s support for the Houthis as a model for a new type of warfare in which semi-state groups use cheap technology and smuggled components to threaten stronger states. He called on Gulf countries to rethink their defences.