Middle East

Houthi leaders pledge response after fresh US-UK air strikes in Yemen

Houthi leaders repeat their threats to ships in the Red Sea are solely directed at stopping commercial ships trading with Israel

RAF Typhoon aircraft taking part in the latest US-UK strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen. Photograph: Jake Green RAF/MoD/Crown Copyright/PA Wire

Patrick Wintour
Tue Jan 23 2024 - 07:50

Houthi leaders have vowed defiance in the face of a new wave of US-UK attacks they say targeted five governorates, including the Yemeni capital Sanaa and surrounding areas.

A Houthi army spokesperson, Brig Gen Yahya Saree, said the allied attacks would not go unpunished or unanswered. Houthi leaders also repeated that their threats to ships in the Red Sea were solely directed at stopping commercial ships trading with Israel due to its bombardment of Gaza. They insisted other ships had free passage. Some ships navigating the Red Sea have put out identifiers saying they are “not Israeli connected”.

Within hours of the attacks UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) was reporting “uncrewed aerial system activity” south of al-Mukha, Yemen. Authorities are investigating, the UKMTO said.

Houthi propaganda juxtaposed pictures of Sanaa under attack with similar pictures in Gaza.

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[ Who are the Houthis and why are the US and UK attacking them? ]

The Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, implicitly praised the Houthis, saying: “The task of the officials of the Islamic countries is to cut off the vital arteries to the Zionist regime. Islamic countries should cut off their political and economic ties with the Zionist regime and not help this regime.”

He said other leaders were mistaken in calling for a ceasefire since that demand was in the hands of Israel.

The Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said he had warned the UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, last week in a rare face-to-face meeting that “the US and England would be making a strategic mistake in mounting a second assault on Houthi positions”.

The Houthis run a highly authoritarian and religious regime. They believe they are doing God’s will in coming to the Palestinians’ defence, so there is likely to be no let-up in their determination to strike at Israeli shipping.

Since the first joint assault on January 11th, the US has mounted at least six of its own more limited strikes at smaller targets. Mr Cameron has since met leaders of the rival official UN-backed Yemen government based in Aden to discuss the crisis.

Members of the presidential leadership council, the executive of the Aden government, urged the UK and US to provide its forces with equipment, training and intelligence to mount a ground offensive against Houthi strongholds in Yemen’s north. There has been no sign that the Houthis slowed their attacks on shipping after the first wave of attacks.

It is not clear whether the second wave of co-ordinated attacks benefited from intelligence co-operation from the Aden-based government, which opposes Israel’s actions in Gaza but does not support the Houthi Red Sea attacks.

Some leading members of the Islah party, part of the Aden-based coalition government and close to the Muslim Brotherhood, have praised the Houthi attacks on shipping.

Israel has claimed it is bypassing the Houthi naval blockade through land passages from the Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Trade between Turkey and Israel has also risen since the Israeli attacks in Gaza were mounted in response to the October 7th Hamas assault on Israel.

The Houthis regard the attack by the US as a moment of vindication. Nasr al-Din Amer, a senior Houthi official, said: “We’ve been waiting for 20 years for the moment of [military] engagement with America and Israel. Praise God, who helped us fight the lords of blasphemy and tyranny.”

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