The natural question that must be asked: What have the Houthis done to Yemen and what have they done to a safe city like Sanaa, a city whose original inhabitants, residents, and newcomers from all over Yemen are known for their gentle nature?

Among all Arab cities, Sanaa holds special distinctions, especially for those who knew its people, residents, their councils, and the refined dialogues in those councils that included people from different social classes and backgrounds from all Yemeni provinces.

Those who attended those councils never felt any difference between Zaydi and Shafi’i… until the Houthis came to the city and took control over it, its people, their livelihoods, and the future of their children, including the educational curricula.

The Houthis came to destroy everything civilized in Sanaa. Invoking Israeli attacks is just one of countless crimes committed by the Houthis even before they took control of the Yemeni capital, in collusion with the “Muslim Brotherhood” represented by the Yemeni Congregation for Reform party on one side and former transitional president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi on the other. Abd Rabbuh covered the Houthis’ takeover of Sanaa on September 21, 2014, by refusing to confront them in Amran province on their way to Sanaa. He went further by signing the “Peace and Partnership Agreement” with the Houthis in Sanaa.

What is happening now after the Israeli strike that killed most members of the Houthi-affiliated Yemeni government, including Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahwi, falls within the crimes committed by the Houthis or caused by them when they decided to “support Gaza” in service of the Iranian project in the region. The Houthis did not support Gaza as much as they supported the Iranian project at a time when this expansionist project was nearing its end.

The most dangerous aspect of the Houthis’ practices, or “Ansar Allah” group led by Abdul Malik al-Houthi, is their hostility toward the Yemeni citizen. What happens to the Yemeni citizen is the least concern for Abdul Malik al-Houthi, who has placed himself at the service of a bankrupt project based on establishing a foothold for Iran in the Arabian Peninsula. The only goal of this foothold is to extort the Gulf countries on one hand and to demonstrate Iran’s ability to control the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the entrance to the Red Sea through which ships pass to the Suez Canal.

Certainly, the liquidation of most members of the Houthi-affiliated Yemeni government represents a strong moral blow to them. Practically, not much has changed if we consider that most government members have no political weight except for a few. The real weight lies with the officers and security officials, most of whom survived the Israeli strike. However, despite all this and the absence of a force capable of benefiting from any blow the Houthis suffer, it cannot be ignored that something has changed in the Yemeni depth. There is an international and regional climate convinced that the entity established by Iran is an anomaly.

Regardless of the impact of the recent Israeli strike, and who was killed or survived, the countdown for the Houthi entity in Yemen has begun. It is true that there remains a need for a force on the ground to shake the Houthi entity, especially on the Hodeidah front, but it is also true that citizens in areas controlled by “Ansar Allah” cannot remain silent forever in the face of the injustice and deprivation they suffer.

Is the end of the Houthis near? It is difficult to answer this question. What is certain is that liberating Sanaa is a matter of time. Simply because the Iranian project, of which the Houthis are an inseparable part, is declining. The “Islamic Republic” has become forced to defend the regime in Tehran after previously defending it through its regional tools such as “Hezbollah” and “Ansar Allah” and similar groups!