Fatima Abo Alasrar
The confrontation over Sanaa Airport was not merely about whether an Iranian aircraft could land. It was a struggle over inspection, sovereign authority, and Iran’s attempt to establish a permanent, unmonitored air corridor into Houthi-controlled territory. By insisting on a sanctioned Mahan Air flight and rejecting existing inspection arrangements, the Houthis made clear that their objection was not to the route itself, but to any mechanism they do not control.
The incident reflects a broader Iranian strategy that relies not only on missiles and armed groups, but also on capturing the infrastructure through which state sovereignty is exercised. Airports, ports, roads, and international gateways determine who enters a country, what crosses its borders, and under whose authority. In Yemen, Iran appears to be pursuing the same model it developed through Hezbollah in Lebanon, where control over Beirut’s airport became central to the movement of personnel, funds, and materiel beyond effective state oversight.
The effort to secure such a corridor in Yemen is not new. Shortly after the Houthis seized Sanaa in 2015, they signed an aviation agreement with Tehran authorizing regular flights between the two capitals. More than a decade later, the renewed dispute over Sanaa Airport, Iran’s challenge to Yemen’s representation at the United Nations, and Houthi claims of sovereign authority are all part of the same attempt to establish the group as Yemen’s de facto government.
Without an effective international response, this model risks creating a dangerous precedent in which sovereignty no longer belongs to internationally recognized governments, but to armed groups capable of seizing and controlling a country’s entry points.
Read the full article on the Stimson Center website.
Fatima Abo Alasrar is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Washington Center for Yemeni Studies. Founder and Writer at the Ideology Machine, a publication on authoritarian information systems. She can be found on X at @YemeniFatima.
