The following is the Feb. 20, 2026, Congressional Research Service report Yemen: Conflict, Red Sea Security and U.S. Policy.
From the Report
Yemen is a conflict-afflicted nation along the strategic Bab al Mandab Strait, one of the world's most active shipping lanes. Since 2015, a civil war has pitted the Iran-backed Houthi movement against Yemen's internationally recognized government, the government's foreign backers, and other anti-Houthi forces. The Houthis control most of northwestern Yemen, including the capital, Sana'a. Foreign intervention complicates the conflict, which has contributed to a long-standing and ongoing humanitarian crisis. An uneasy truce has frozen conflict lines since 2022.
The Iran-backed Houthis launched numerous attacks on international shipping from October 2023 (after Hamas-led attacks on Israel sparked the war in Gaza) to December 2024, before pausing these attacks in early 2025. From March to May 2025, U.S. forces expanded strikes against the Houthis seeking to compel a lasting end to Houthi maritime attacks. The U.S. campaign ended under an agreement brokered by neighboring Oman in which the Houthis agreed to cease targeting U.S. vessels and the United States agreed to halt strikes on the Houthis. The Houthis renewed attacks on some non-U.S. ships in July 2025 and continued to launch long-range strikes against targets in Israel, ostensibly to compel Israel to end its war with Hamas. The Houthis suspended their attacks after the October 2025 Israel-Hamas ceasefire but have signaled their willingness to relaunch attacks if war resumes in Gaza.
In December 2025 and January 2026, Saudi Arabia intervened militarily against the Yemeni separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC), reversing the STC's seizure of Yemen's eastern governorates and Aden, the seat of the internationally recognized government. Saudi Arabia accused the United Arab Emirates of providing military support to the STC, and remaining UAE forces left Yemen. Yemen's underlying conflict is unresolved. The Houthis pose enduring threats to shipping and to U.S. partners.
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