CEP Senior Advisor Edmund Fitton-Brown writes: "As British Ambassador to Yemen from 2015 to 2017, and later in counterterrorism roles at the UN, I watched with growing frustration as Washington, despite its early clarity, lost the plot in Yemen – with consequences that are now rippling across the Red Sea and into Israel.

In 2014, the international community got it right. UN Security Council Resolution 2140 blamed the right culprits: former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Houthi leadership. The Houthis, a small sectarian militia allied with Saleh, were trying to hijack Yemen’s democratic transition – and the world recognized that. When…"

In this episode, Daniel J. Levy speaks with Edmund Fitton-Brown, former UK Ambassador to Yemen, about the evolving Houthi threat and its implications for Israel, the Gulf states, and the broader regional balance of power. They explore the role of the Houthis in Iran’s attempts to project power in the region and in ongoing talks about the Iranian nuclear programme.

Edmund Fitton-Brown is a veteran British diplomat who served as the UK’s Ambassador to Yemen from 2015 to 2017 and later coordinated UN expert panels on ISIL, Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban. He holds advisory or fellowship positions with the Counter Extremism Project, the Middle East Institute, The Soufan Center and New America.

CEP Senior Advisor Edmund Fitton-Brown writes: As British Ambassador from 2015 to 2017 I saw up close and was involved in negotiating the international response to the Houthi takeover of large parts of Yemen that began in earnest in 2014. I then continued to observe Yemen from a counterterrorism perspective with the United Nations after 2017. The story that has not been adequately told is how the international community got its response right in 2014; but then progressively lost its way over the following four years, ending in the shameful Stockholm Agreement of December 2018.

Dr Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director, CEP is interviewed by The Bayerischer Rundfunk on the planned extradition of an Islamist preacher to Yemen.

CEP Non-resident Fellow: "For more than three decades, Oman has served in the role of mediator for the resolution of disputes in Yemen. This began after north and south Yemen unified in the early 1990s, and then Yemen and Oman officially demarcated the contested border between the two countries. Today, however, there is good reason to question whether Oman is in fact a neutral arbiter and whether its current role in the Yemeni arena promotes regional stability."

“With the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon defeated and increasingly isolated, attention turns to the Houthis in Yemen. Perhaps the strongest remaining Iranian proxy force in the region, the Houthis are certainly the most active in terms of their attacks on Israel and also on international shipping in the Red Sea… Ari Heistein is an advisor to Israeli startups seeking to sell to the U.S. federal government, a consultant on issues relating to Yemen, and a nonresident fellow at the Counter Extremism Project.”