With the Muslim fasting month creeping up, the Saudis proposed to pause the fighting before the start of the holiday. A Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis began observing on Wednesday a unilateral cease-fire in the yearslong war, despite the rebels’ rejection of the proposal. Similar truces have been implied yet have failed, and there hasn’t been any immediate independent confirmation on whether the hostilities have paused between Saudi-led forces and the Houthi rebels. Houthi official Mohammed al-Bukaiti rejected the cease-fire offer, citing the Saudi-led coalition’s continued closure of the airport in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, and its restrictions on the country’s ports. The war in Yemen, the Arab world’s most impoverished country, began in September 2014, when the Houthis swept into Sanaa from their northwestern stronghold. The Houthis then pushed into exile the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, elected in 2012 as the sole candidate after the long rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The rivalry between (Iran and Saudi Arabia) today is primarily a political and economic struggle exacerbated by religious differences and sectarianism in the region (Yemen) is exploited by both countries for geopolitical purposes as part of a larger conflict. The vital waterway is now a major artery of globalization as it connects Europe to the Indian Ocean and East Africa. Its significance rose again following the discovery of oil in the Arabian Peninsula and the rise of trade from East Asia. Iran is largely Shia Muslim, while Saudi Arabia sees itself as the leading Sunni Muslim power. The Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen is an intervention launched by Saudi Arabia on 26 March 2015, leading a coalition of nine countries from West Asia and North Africa, responding to calls from the president of Yemen Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi for military support after he was ousted by the Houthi movement. The Houthi movement expressed goals including combating economic underdevelopment and political marginalization in Yemen while seeking greater autonomy for Houthi-majority regions of the country. They also claim to support a more democratic non-sectarian republic in Yemen. Religion in Yemen consists primarily of two principal Islamic religious groups: 65% of the Muslim population is Sunni Muslim and around 35% is Zaidi Shia, according to the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees). In general, the Houthi movement has centered its belief system on the Zaydi branch of Islam, a sect of Islam almost exclusively present in Yemen. Zaydis make up about 25 percent of the population, Sunnis make up 75 percent.