Abdul Malik al-Houthi had never met an international diplomat before. Clothed in traditional Yemeni dress, he waited patiently at a modest house in the country’s isolated north, his hair apparently freshly cut.
It was April 2011,?and Yemen was on the brink of all-out civil war with anti-government protests, part of the wave of regional uprisings known as the Arab Spring that was spreading across the Middle East. The United Nations envoy to the country at the time, Jamal Benomar, eventually arrived to meet the little-known commander of the Houthis, dismissed by many as a ragtag militia.
“The guy you meet is a gentleman, speaks with a soft voice, extremely polite,” recalled Benomar, who said he was the only diplomat known to have met al-Houthi in person. “Even if he doesn’t like what you are saying, he will never interrupt and stop you from saying something he doesn’t like.”
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