U.S.-Led Yemen Strikes Heighten Risk of Broader Middle East Conflict
Iran-backed Houthi rebels warn they will retaliate, pledge to continue attacks on shipping
“All American and British interests have become legitimate targets for the Yemeni armed forces in response to the aggression,” said a statement from the Supreme Political Council of the Houthis, which controls the capital San’a and large swaths of territory.
The strikes, conducted by U.S. and British forces and supported by Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands, targeted radar and air-defense systems as well as storage and launch sites for the Houthis’ cruise and ballistic missiles,
according to U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East. The Houthis have used their arsenal, with the assistance of Iranian intelligence, to launch successive attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said the strikes on Yemen were necessary to push back against Iranian aggression.
“Tonight, with these strikes, which are being directly enabled by Iran, we are beginning to restore deterrence,” he said.
Wall Street Journal 12 January
Strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen could undermine US aim to contain war
I have spent quite a bit of time with the Houthis in Yemen and they are people who are highly independently minded. They will relish conflict with the Americans. They want to be part of this war.
What has been happening suits both the Houthis and the Islamic Republic of Iran
Don’t Bomb the Houthis
The United States has few good options to respond to Houthi attacks. But a diplomatic push for a sustainable peace in the war in Yemen while continuing efforts to deter Houthi attacks alongside international partners is the least bad of them.
The Houthis’ 2014 rise provoked alarm in neighboring countries, most notably Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Around this time, the Houthis also began to receive support from Iran and their proxy Hezbollah—adversaries to the Saudis and Emiratis.
In 2015, a coalition led by those two countries—and supported by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France—intervened militarily, launching airstrikes to support other military organizations that nominally backed Hadi’s government.
But instead of restoring peace, the airstrikes helped aggravate a war that resulted in what the United Nations has called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
Alexandra Stark Foreign Affairs 11 January 2024
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/yemen/dont-bomb-houthis
ALEXANDRA STARK is an Associate Policy Researcher at the RAND Corporation and the author of the forthcoming book The Yemen Model.
Englund: Hamas (englundmacro.blogspot.com)
Kommentarer