"The Houthis are a Yemeni militia group named after their founder, Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi. They represent the Zaidi branch of Shia Islam and emerged in the 1980s in opposition to Saudi Arabia's religious influence in Yemen. With an estimated 20,000 fighters, their official name is Ansar Allah. The group controls most of the west of Yemen and oversees the Red Sea coastline.

Vanessa Feltz speaks with the former UK ambassador to Yemen, Edmund Brown and lecturer in political science Arash Azizi."