Abdul Malik al-Houthi had never met an international diplomat as he waited patiently outside his modest house in Yemen’s isolated north. It was April 2011, as Yemen was on the brink of all-out civil war with anti-government protests 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 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. Fifteen years later, he has become one of the Middle East’s most consequential and enigmatic figures.
• Al-Houthi presides over a militant group that taken over parts of Yemen, brutally suppressing the people under its control with their reach extending beyond Yemen as they disrupt trade routes, rattle energy markets and fire missiles in to Saudi Arabia.
• Proscribed by President Trump’s administration as a terrorist organization, the Houthis took control over Bab el-Mandeb in September, one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints adding further uncertainty to the oil trade