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I’ve been keeping up with the disintegration of Venezuela,
and the tragic but deliberate dismantling Germany as it was once known, but I have no idea what’s going on in Yemen.

I do hear from time to time, that America has been ‘at war’ in Yemen for the last few years. For what and at whose behest? Neither party speaks of it very much at all. Yemen must have some strategic value for the giant countries, such as the USA, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
I’ve not heard Mr. Trump mention it directly either.

As I understand it, Iran is backing the Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia does not want a hostile Iranian proxy on the Arabian Peninsula. Look at a map of the region and the geography of Saudi Arabia's ports, their strategic situation become clear( Map of ports in Saudi Arabia). All of Saudi Arabia's ports are along the Persian Gulf and Red Sea; they have no unobstructed access to the Indian Ocean. Their access to the Mediterranean is through the Suez Canal. Jordan has the Port of Aqaba, which gives them access to the Red Sea and is their only sea port.

Iran can threaten the Persian Gulf directly with naval and air power. If they had a foothold in Yemen, naval forces and groud based missiles could threaten shipping coming from the Red Sea into the Gulf of Aden. This would give Iran the option to completely cut off Saudi Arabia from access to the Indian Ocean and their main shipping routes. For the Saudis to fight the Houthis is in their national interest.

We have been providing support to Saudis and Emiratis for the last four years, while they (and their mercenaries) have done the fighting.

Yemen has long been troubled by factionalism. For many years it was divided into two countries, one of them Marxist.

Saudi Arabia shares a long border with Yemen (8 hour drive to Mecca), and has long had lots of Yemenis working and intermarried in Saudi Arabia (the bin Ladens are of Yemeni origin). Also, Saudi Arabia had a long and costly war there before, which is viewed as their “Vietnam”.

Iran took the side of the Houthis in Yemen (who are kind of Shi’ite muslims - their own kind of thing). THey managed to capture the capital city and overrun most of the country. The National Government (led by Hadi), hung on by a thread in the Southern port city of Aden, when the Saudis came to their rescue, and gradually pushed the Houthis back with superior weaponry and air supremacy.

Yemen has vital strategic importance to the Saudis - it represented the Iranians potentially encircling them from the North (Iraq and Syria) and South. To the world at large, Yemen is strategic in its control of the shipping lanes choke point at the South of the Red Sea (Bab el Mandeb), through which Middle East oil flows to Europe through the Suez canal at the North end of the Red Sea.

Bottom line is that the Houthis have been beaten back enough that it is looking like they will make a deal to settle the conflict, and Iranian influence will be diminished. The loss of the ports is the main strategic prize in the war - the Capital City is unsustainable without supply through the ports Saudi coalition blocks aerial resupply.