By Pishtaz and AFP | 2023-09-22

SANAA -- Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis held a major military parade in Sanaa on Thursday (September 21), just days after peace talks with Saudi Arabia, as they marked nine years since they staged a coup that triggered the protracted war.

Armored cars, missiles and thousands of uniformed fighters filed past Houthi dignitaries in a show of strength, as a military jet buzzed overhead.

The parade took place two days after a Houthi delegation left Riyadh following "positive" but inconclusive talks aimed at ending a war that has ravaged the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country.

The northern fighters took Sanaa in September 2014 and threatened to overrun the country, prompting a Saudi-led international military intervention from March 2015.

The war has left hundreds of thousands dead, through direct and indirect causes, and displaced millions of people in what the United Nations (UN) calls one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

"We will double our level of combat-readiness during the coming weeks and months as part of a practical and responsible response to deal decisively and deterrently with any developments," said a Houthi statement on the parade.

"We are ready to fight battles in defence of the homeland and the people if the aggression does not adhere to the requirements of an honourable peace," it added, in a reference to the Saudi-led Arab coalition.

Fighters on horseback and on foot, armor-plated cars with machine-gun turrets and speedboats on flatbed trucks paraded past a grandstand seating Houthi Supreme Political Council chairman Mahdi al-Mashat and other officials.

Both sides have described the talks in Riyadh as "positive."

"With all honesty, transparency and clarity, we affirm that Sanaa is ready to address any concerns of Riyadh, as much as Riyadh is ready to address Sanaa's concerns," al-Mashat told Houthi-controlled media on the eve of the parade.

But the show of force raised doubts, observers and Yemeni officials said.

'No further concessions'

Speaking at the UN General Assembly as the Houthis paraded in Sanaa, Yemeni Presidential Command Council chairman Rashad al-Alimi said there would be no new compromises with the Iran-backed group.

He stressed the need for long-lasting peace based on established agreements but warned his country would not go back "to a time of slavery" due to the Houthis' influence, Asharq al-Awsat reported.

Al-Alimi said his leadership and the Yemeni government have no further concessions to make, and expressed skepticism about the Houthis' intentions, pointing to the group's disregard for all previous deals.

He also warned against his country becoming a hub for exporting terrorism.

"Any leniency from the international community or compromising the legal status of the state, or even dealing with militias as an established authority, would inevitably turn the suppression and violation of public freedoms into an inescapable behavior," he said.

The day after the Houthis' show of force, Iran paraded its military hardware in Tehran on the anniversary of its war with Iraq, including "the longest-range drone in the world" and ballistic and hypersonic missiles, Reuters reported.

Iranian state media said the Mohajer-10 drone was unveiled in the parade, which was broadcast live, and that Mohajer, Shahed and Arash drones were displayed.