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Houthis Capitalize on Tribal Conflicts, Poverty for Recruitment

Houthi fighters during a gathering called by the group's leadership in Sanaa (DPA)
Houthi fighters during a gathering called by the group's leadership in Sanaa (DPA)
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Houthis Capitalize on Tribal Conflicts, Poverty for Recruitment

Houthi fighters during a gathering called by the group's leadership in Sanaa (DPA)
Houthi fighters during a gathering called by the group's leadership in Sanaa (DPA)

Despite losing tens of thousands of fighters in battles waged against Yemen’s internationally recognized government, Houthi militias have managed to continue drafting and deploying tribesmen and disadvantaged Yemenis to battlefronts.

Through exploiting deeply rooted tribal disputes in the country’s north and crippling poverty which affects over 80% of the Yemeni population, Houthis have successfully recruited many desperate Yemenis to fight their battles.

Houthis refusing to pay the salaries of public servants in areas under their control coupled with scores of businesses and projects shutting down in the war-torn country have left many with the only option of joining the war to secure a monthly income.

The payment of salaries of nearly a million civil servants and hundreds of thousands of military personnel has been frozen.

As for securing public services, Houthis have been utterly neglectful and rather focused on seizing state resources to fund their war effort. Militants have even resorted to doubling levies paid by merchants, companies, and farmers in areas run by Houthis.

In Yemen’s north, Houthis introduced themselves as valuable allies in the ongoing conflict between the Hashid and Bakil tribes.

“They (Houthis) worked to win over some tribal leaders from Bakil, who viewed the regime of the late President Ali Abdullah Saleh to be a pro-Hashid tribal ruling system,” sources with knowledge of the matter told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Other than boosting their alliances with Bakil chiefs, Houthis also sought to fill a leadership vacuum in the Hashid tribe created by key figures exiting the scene after the ouster of the Saleh regime.

More so, Houthis have offered millions of Yemeni rials to tribesmen who can bring them more recruits.

“Houthis pay 50 million riyals to any clan leader who can enlist 50 fighters to their ranks. The reward is doubled if the chief manages to recruit more individuals,” a local source who requested anonymity revealed.

It is worth noting that around 70% of Yemeni army forces refusing to join the coup has forced the Iran-backed group to scour elsewhere for recruits.

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Arab World

Israel Approves Nearly 800 Housing Units in Three West Bank Settlements 

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, also attended by Argentine President Javier Milei (not pictured), in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, also attended by Argentine President Javier Milei (not pictured), in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 
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Israel Approves Nearly 800 Housing Units in Three West Bank Settlements 

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, also attended by Argentine President Javier Milei (not pictured), in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, also attended by Argentine President Javier Milei (not pictured), in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 

Israel has given final approval for 764 housing units to be built in three settlements in the occupied West Bank, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Wednesday.

The ultra-nationalist Smotrich, who opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, said that since the beginning of his term in late 2022, some 51,370 housing units have been approved by the government's Higher Planning Council in the West Bank, territory Palestinians seek for a future state.

"We continue the revolution," Smotrich said in a statement, adding the latest approval of housing units "is part of a clear strategic process of strengthening the settlements and ensuring continuity of life, security, and growth ... and genuine concern for the future of the State of Israel."

The units will be spread out between Hashmonaim, just over the Green Line in central Israel, and Givat Zeev and Beitar Illit near Jerusalem.

Most world powers deem Israel's settlements - on land it captured in a 1967 war - as illegal and numerous UN Security Council resolutions have called on Israel to halt all settlement activity.

"For us, all the settlements are illegal...and they are contrary to all the resolutions of international legitimacy," Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee, told Reuters.

Israel says settlements are critical to its security and cites biblical, historical and political connections to the territory.

Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians have been on the rise. At least 264 attacks in the West Bank against Palestinians were reported in October, the biggest monthly total since UN officials began tracking such incidents in 2006, according to a UN report.

Arab World

Lebanon Foreign Minister Declines Tehran Visit, Proposes Talks in Neutral Country 

Lebanon's Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji. (NNA)
Lebanon's Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji. (NNA)
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Lebanon Foreign Minister Declines Tehran Visit, Proposes Talks in Neutral Country 

Lebanon's Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji. (NNA)
Lebanon's Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji. (NNA)

Lebanon's Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji said on Wednesday he had declined an invitation to visit Tehran for now, proposing instead talks with Iran in a mutually agreed neutral third country, Lebanese state news agency NNA reported.

Rajji cited “current conditions” for the decision not to go to Iran, without specifying further, and stressed that the move does not mean rejection of dialogue with Iran.

Last week, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi invited Rajji to visit Iran in the near future to discuss bilateral ties.

Rajji expressed “readiness to establish a new phase in constructive ties between Lebanon and Iran on condition that they are strictly based on mutual and absolute respect of each country’s independence and sovereignty and non-interference in their internal affairs in any way and under any pretext.”

“The establishment of any strong state cannot take place if the state, through its army, does not have sole control over possession of arms and does not have monopoly over decisions of war and peace,” he stressed.

Rajji added that Araqchi was “always welcome to visit Lebanon.”

The Lebanese government earlier this year decided to impose state monopoly over arms, which effectively calls for Hezbollah to disarm. Iran is the party’s main backer.

Hezbollah’s critics have over the years accused it of following an Iranian agenda at the expense of Lebanon’s interests.

They also accuse it of usurping the state’s decision-making power when it comes to war and peace. In 2023, the party started firing rockets at Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza. The clashes escalated to all-out war in 2024 with Hezbollah left severely battered.

In August, Iran's top security official Ali Larijani visited Beirut, warning Lebanon not to “confuse its enemies with its friends”. In June, Foreign Minister Araqchi said Tehran sought a “new page” in ties. 

Arab World

At Least 22 Killed in Collapse of Two Buildings in Morocco’s Old City of Fez 

Emergency personnel search for victims in the rubble of two collapsed buildings in Fez late on December 9, 2025. (AFP)
Emergency personnel search for victims in the rubble of two collapsed buildings in Fez late on December 9, 2025. (AFP)
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At Least 22 Killed in Collapse of Two Buildings in Morocco’s Old City of Fez 

Emergency personnel search for victims in the rubble of two collapsed buildings in Fez late on December 9, 2025. (AFP)
Emergency personnel search for victims in the rubble of two collapsed buildings in Fez late on December 9, 2025. (AFP)

At least 22 people were killed late on Tuesday after two buildings collapsed in Fez, one of Morocco's oldest cities and a key tourist destination, with the state broadcaster saying the blocks had shown signs of cracking. 

Local authorities in Fez prefecture reported two adjacent four-storey buildings had collapsed overnight, state news agency MAP said. The buildings were inhabited by eight families and were in the Al-Mustaqbal neighborhood, a densely populated area in the west of the city, it reported. 

State-owned broadcaster SNRT reported eyewitnesses at the scene as saying the buildings had shown signs of cracking for some time, without any effective preventive measures being taken. 

SNRT showed rescue workers and residents digging through the rubble to look for survivors overnight. 

"My son who lives upstairs told me the building is coming down. When we went out, we saw the building collapsing," an old woman wrapped in a blanket told SNRT, without giving her name. 

Another survivor, who lost his wife and three children in the collapse, told local Medi1 TV early on Wednesday that the rescuers were able to retrieve one body, but he was still waiting for the others.  

Fez, a former capital dating back to the eighth century and the country's third-most-populous city, was caught up in a wave of protests two months ago against the government over deteriorating living conditions and poor public services. 

Adib Ben Ibrahim, housing secretary of state, said in January that approximately 38,800 buildings across the country have been classified as being at risk of collapse. 

Wednesday's collapse is one of the worst in Morocco since the fall of a minaret in the historic northern city of Meknes, which killed 41 people in 2010.