The Iran war has a new front in Yemen. Here’s how it could escalate | CNN

After a month of threats, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels finally entered the Middle East conflict on Saturday, firing two missiles towards Israel. And in recent days they have also warned they could close a key waterway at the southern entrance of the Red Sea – raising the prospect of even greater disruption to global shipping and oil supplies. Whether the Houthis will extend their attacks to Saudi Arabia or Red Sea shipping remains unclear, but doing so would mark a dramatic escalation of the month-long war. The Houthis represent Yemen’s Shia Muslim minority, the Zaidis, and are formally known as Ansar Allah – “Partisans of God.” They emerged as an armed group in the 1990s and fought a series of rebellions against Yemen’s central government over two decades. After the Arab Spring in 2011, they seized a northern province and later the capital Sanaa, which they still hold, along with most of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline. In the process they became part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” across the region, receiving weapons and missile technology. After Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza began in October 2023, the Houthis launched missiles against Israel and began ta