US officials signalling a broader campaign against the Houthis
We’ve been hearing from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, and I think it’s really important to point out that they’re foreshadowing a much broader campaign in Yemen.
When we heard from US President Donald Trump on social media yesterday, he talked about the Houthis needing to stop their attacks in the Red Sea. The point that we made throughout the day was that the attacks had in fact already stopped – but now the Houthis are threatening to resume those.
Now we’re hearing from Rubio and Hegseth that this is going to be a much broader campaign.
We’re also hearing from administration officials about how this is a much broader effort than what we saw under former US President Joe Biden. He would go after missile launchers, but they’re saying that they’re going to go after the people.
Houthis should ‘back off’, says US Secretary of Defense Hegseth
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says the US will continue to attack the Houthis until the Yemeni rebel group announces that it will not fire at ships or drones any more.
“The minute the Houthis say we’ll stop shooting at your ships, we’ll stop shooting at your drones, this campaign will end, but until then it will be unrelenting,” Hegseth told Fox News.
“This is about stopping the shooting at assets… in that critical waterway, to reopen freedom of navigation, which is a core national interest of the United States, and Iran has been enabling the Houthis for far too long,” he said. “They better back off.”
Assets more important than people, clear as day. Freedom of trade >>> freedom of people. Save the container ships.
US strikes on Yemen part of ‘maximum pressure on Iran’
There has been a greater “appetite” to push back against the Houthis by the West, says Farea Al-Muslimi, an analyst at Chatham House.
The Houthis are associated with Iran in Trump’s mind, Al-Muslimi said. “So in a way, it’s a part of his maximum pressure on Iran.”
When Trump in 2020 ordered a drone strike to kill General Qassem Soleimani – head of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – that same hour he ordered an attack against Abdul Reza Shala’i, the IRGC commander in Yemen, said al-Muslimi.
“So in his mind, it’s a part of a larger pressure against Iran,” he said, adding that US policy on this is consistent whether a Republican or Democrat is in the White House.
Peace president....
Essay Pro