Qatar on Nov. 1 praised US President Donald Trump’s advocacy for a cease-fire in Yemen and called for new UN peace talks to end the Yemen war. In an official statement, the Qatari Foreign Ministry described US calls for peace in Yemen as “an encouraging step toward a political solution and an end to the suffering of the Yemeni people.”

Although this statement is consistent with Qatar’s official rhetoric on Yemen since Doha was expelled from the Saudi-led military coalition in June 2017, allies of embattled Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi have criticized the Qatari Foreign Ministry’s remarks. Adnan al-Audani, the head of the Information and Culture Department of the Hadi-aligned Islah Party, released a statement that condemned Qatar for its support of Houthi rebels and accused Doha of backing Iran’s expansionist ambitions in the Middle East.

While Audani is just the latest in a long line of officials and analysts to describe Qatar as a state ally of the Houthis, Doha’s position on Yemen is much more nuanced than these allegations suggest. Since the Houthis first emerged as a political force in 2004, Qatar has capitalized on political instability in Yemen to bolster its influence over the country’s internal affairs. Qatar’s power projection capacity in Yemen was revealed when it mediated a resolution to six months of hostilities between Houthi rebels and Yemeni government forces in June 2008 and actively supported the overthrow of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in February 2012.

Although Qatar officially sidelined its independent ambitions in Yemen after it normalized relations with its Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) rivals in November 2014, Doha’s desire for increased influence in Yemen has resurfaced in recent months. To facilitate the Yemen conflict’s transition to a peace settlement and increase Doha’s leverage in Yemen, Qatar has actively obstructed the Saudi-led coalition’s military activities by balancing close relations with Houthi and Islah factions.