Ansarullah Emerges Key Player in West Asia Power Shift

Date: 12 October 2025 - 21:50

News ID: ۱۴۴۵۶۴

SANA’A (Dispatches) -- As a fragile ceasefire tentatively takes hold in Gaza, underscoring a potential pause in the protracted Israeli war, another formidable actor in West Asia has quietly reshaped the contours of regional power: Yemen’s Ansarullah movement.
Ansarullah has not only sustained a relentless campaign against Israel and its maritime interests but has also elevated its standing far beyond the traditional confines of a Yemeni insurgency.
This evolution signals a strategic recalibration with implications that reverberate well beyond Yemen’s embattled borders.
For over two years, Ansarullah has launched intermittent, yet persistent, attacks against Israeli targets and vessels linked to Tel Aviv’s commercial networks in the Red Sea.
These operations have significantly affected one of the world’s busiest maritime corridors, forcing major shipping routes to circumvent the Red Sea entirely by navigating around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. Analysts estimate a staggering 70 percent drop in maritime traffic via the Gulf of Aden, underscoring the tactical and economic impact of Ansarullah’s campaign.
Unlike other armed groups engaged in the broader conflict—such as Hezbollah in Lebanon or Hamas in Gaza—Ansarullah’s actions are characterized by a strategic autonomy that commands regional attention.
The group operates without direct negotiation or mediation with Israel, thereby asserting an uncompromising position of solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Their declared willingness to halt attacks contingent upon Israel’s observance of the Gaza ceasefire reflects both a pragmatic and potent form of power projection.
This posture underscores Ansarullah’s transformation from a localized insurgent faction into a central actor within the “Axis of Resistance.”
The movement now routinely executes strikes inside Israel, including missile attacks that have penetrated deeply enough to shake the Zionist regime and its infrastructure—most notably at Ramon Airport and a hotel in Eilat. Such operations demonstrate an unprecedented operational reach for an actor based thousands of kilometers from the Israeli border.
Crucially, this resilience is rooted in the group’s unique organizational architecture. As defense analyst Andreas Krieg from King’s College London explains, Ansarullah functions as a “network of networks,” blending tribal, clerical, security, and commercial nodes that provide operational redundancy.
This structure enables the group to absorb losses—including the targeted assassination of senior political and military leaders—without debilitating its core capabilities.
Ansarullah’s endurance is also a function of geography and intelligence asymmetries. Yemen’s distance from Israeli occupied territories and limited Israeli intelligence presence complicate Tel Aviv’s ability to execute a decisive campaign against the group.
Moreover, the United States’ failed air campaign against Ansarullah, culminating in a costly and inconclusive multi-billion-dollar effort, only reinforced the group’s narrative of invincibility and defiance.
The broader regional ramifications are profound. Ansarullah’s sustained offensive against Israeli shipping and other interests has forced a decoupling of U.S. military and intelligence coordination on the Yemeni front—a strategic setback for Washington and Tel Aviv alike.
Furthermore, the group’s newfound prominence has secured it a narrative victory, positioning Ansarullah as a potent symbol of resistance against what many Arab publics perceive as Israeli aggression and Western complicity.
This ascendancy challenges long-standing stereotypes of Ansarullah as merely a peripheral rebel faction. Instead, it has emerged as a headline player within the Axis of Resistance.
The movement’s rhetoric frames the U.S. and Israel as two faces of a single adversary, a narrative bolstered by recent Israeli operations against Hamas leadership in Qatar, a key U.S. ally.
Domestically, the Gaza genocide has galvanized Yemeni support for Ansarullah, boosting recruitment and consolidating internal legitimacy despite ongoing governance challenges.
Estimates from UN experts indicate that the group’s fighting force has grown from approximately 220,000 in 2022 to 350,000 in 2024. This surge reflects a “rally-round-the-flag” effect amid economic hardship.
Meanwhile, the Western- and Saudi-backed regime based in Aden and led by the fractured Presidential Leadership Council, is steadily losing relevance.
Hindered by internal divisions and the fallout from Ansarullah’s strategic offensives, the Aden regime is increasingly sidelined in favor of direct negotiations and conflict management involving Riyadh and Ansarullah. The eight-year Saudi-led war against the group formally ended in 2023, marking a tacit acknowledgment of Ansarullah’s entrenched status.
Looking ahead, the cessation of open hostilities between Israel and Hamas invites speculation on Ansarullah’s next moves. Will the group recalibrate its strategy to consolidate regional gains as tensions ease, or will it maintain pressure to shape the post-conflict order?
Either way, Ansarullah’s meteoric rise as a resilient and capable actor underscores a critical shift in West Asia geopolitics: the emergence of Yemen’s resistance as a power with both the will and capacity to influence the trajectory of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the broader regional balance.