The history of Yemen describes the cultures, events, and peoples of what is one of the oldest centers of civilization in the Near East. Its relatively fertile land and adequate rainfall in a moister climate helped sustain a stable population, a feature recognized by the ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy, who described Yemen as Eudaimon Arabia meaning "fortunate Arabia" or "Happy Arabia". Yemenis had developed the South Arabian alphabet by the 12th to 8th centuries BC, which explains why most historians date all of the ancient Yemeni kingdoms to that era.
Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. It is located in the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast. It shares maritime borders with Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia. Covering 530,000 square kilometres and having a coastline of approximately 2,000 kilometres, Yemen is the second-largest Arab sovereign state on the Arabian Peninsula. Sanaa is its constitutionally stated capital and largest city. The country's population is estimated to be 34.7 million as of 2023. Yemen is a member of the Arab League, the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
ʿAsir is a province in the southwest of Saudi Arabia, which is named after the ʿAsīr tribe. It has an area of 76,693 square kilometres (29,611 sq mi), and an estimated population of 2,024,285. 'Asir is surrounded by Mecca Province to the north and west, Al-Bahah Province to the northwest, Riyadh Province to the northeast, Najran Province to the southeast, and Jazan Province and the Yemeni Muhafazah (Governorate) of Sa'dah to the south.
Jazan Province, also spelled Jizan is the second smallest province of Saudi Arabia. It stretches 300 km (190 mi) along the southern Red Sea coast, just north of Yemen. It covers an area of 11,671 km2 and had a population of 1,404,997 at the 2022 census. The region has the highest population density in the Kingdom. The capital is the city of Jazan; Prince Muhammad bin Nasser has been the Governor since April 2001.
The Saudi–Yemen barrier is a physical barrier constructed by Saudi Arabia along part of its 1,800-kilometer (1,100 mi) border with Yemen. It is a structure made of pipeline three metres (10 ft) high filled with concrete, acting as a "security barrier along sections of the now fully demarcated border with Yemen" and fitted with electronic detection equipment.
The Kingdom of Yemen, officially the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen, or simply as Yemen, or, retrospectively, as North Yemen, was a state that existed between 1918 and 1962 in the northwestern part of what is now Yemen. Located in the Middle East, the Kingdom of Yemen had an area of 195,000 km2. The country was bordered by Saudi Arabia in the north, and the Aden Protectorate to the south. Its capital was Sana'a from 1918 to 1948, then Taiz from 1948 to 1962. Yemen was admitted to the United Nations on 30 September 1947. From 1962 to 1970, it maintained control over portions of Yemen until its final defeat in the North Yemen Civil War.
South Arabia is a historical region that consists of the southern region of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia, mainly centered in what is now the Republic of Yemen, yet it has also historically included Najran, Jizan, Al-Bahah, and 'Asir, which are presently in Saudi Arabia, and the Dhofar of present-day Oman.
Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh al-Ahmar is the eldest son of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and was a commander of approximately 80,000 troops of the Republican Guard unit of the Yemeni Army. On April 14, 2015, the United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control added Saleh to the list of Specially Designated Nationals, barring US citizens and businesses from interacting with Saleh or his assets.
Saada, a city and ancient capital in the northwest of Yemen, is the capital and largest city of the governorate of the same name, and the seat of the district of the same name. The city is located in the mountains of Serat (Sarawat) at an altitude of about 1,800 meters. In 2004, it was the tenth largest city in Yemen and had an estimated population of 51,870.
The Saudi–Yemeni War was a war between Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of Yemen in 1934.
The Idrisid Emirate of Asir was a state located in the Arabian Peninsula. The Emirate was in the geographical region of Asir and Jizan, in what is now southwestern Saudi Arabia, and extending to Hodeidah, northwest of Yemen.
The Yemeni civil war is an ongoing multilateral civil war that began in late 2014 mainly between the Rashad al-Alimi-led Presidential Leadership Council and the Mahdi al-Mashat-led Supreme Political Council, along with their supporters and allies. Both claim to constitute the official government of Yemen.
On 26 March 2015, Saudi Arabia, leading a coalition of nine countries from West Asia and North Africa, launched an intervention in Yemen following a new joint request from Yemeni president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi for military support after his forces were ousted from Sanaʽa by Houthi insurgents during the Yemeni Civil War. Government forces, Houthi rebels, and other armed groups fought after the draft constitution and power-sharing arrangements collapsed, despite progress made by the UN during the political transition at that time. Violence escalated in mid-2014. Houthis and allied insurgents seized control of Sana'a in September 2014 and thereafter. In response, President Hadi asked Saudi Arabia to intervene against the Iranian-backed Houthis.
The Houthi–Saudi Arabian conflict is an ongoing armed conflict between the Royal Saudi Armed Forces and Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi forces that has been taking place in the Arabian Peninsula, including the southern Saudi regions of Asir, Jizan, and Najran, and northern Yemeni governorates of Saada, Al Jawf, and Hajjah, since the onset of the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen in 2015.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are engaged in an ongoing struggle for influence in the Middle East and other regions of the Muslim world. The two countries have provided varying degrees of support to opposing sides in nearby conflicts, including the civil wars in Syria and Yemen; and disputes in Bahrain, Lebanon, Qatar, and Iraq. The struggle also extends to disputes or broader competition in other countries globally including in West, North and East Africa, South, Central, Southeast Asia, the Balkans, and the Caucasus.
The following is a timeline of the Yemeni civil war, which began in September 2014.
The Saudi Arabia–Yemen border is 1,307 km (812 mi) in length and runs from the Red Sea coast in the west to the tripoint with Oman in the east.
The al-Najm al-Thaqib is a Yemeni missile system developed by the Houthis and revealed on 26 May 2015. The Houthis claimed that these missiles could violate the blockade imposed by UN resolution 2216 imposed by the Arab Coalition. American reports suggest that this missile was designed to attack nearby targets like Jizan without expending their diminishing stock of longer range missiles. It is somewhat similar to Iranian Oghab missiles, however it lacks fins. All civil airports in Jizan, Asir and Najran have been closed due to the risk of missile strikes since July 2015.
Events in the year 2021 in Saudi Arabia.
