The leader of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels warned that American forces who target the country will be targeted by the militant group, coming after the U.S. announced an effort to respond to recent Houthi attacks on commercial ships.
“We will not stand idly by if the Americans are tempted to escalate further and commit foolishness by targeting our country or waging war against it,” Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, the leader, said in a televised speech Wednesday, reported the Reuters newswire service.
Mr. al-Houthi then warned that “any American targeting of our country will be targeted by us, and we will make American battleships, interests, and navigation a target for our missiles, drones, and military operations.”
He also warned the United States against attempting to send troops into Yemen, saying Washington would “face something harsher than what they faced in Afghanistan and what they suffered in Vietnam.”
The Houthis, a Shiite Islamist organization that was taken off the U.S. State Department’s terror list in 2021, have launched a number of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea in recent days after saying they would do so to prevent any ships from reaching Israel. The United States has long suspected that Iran has backed the group and is helping them carry out recent drone and missile attacks, some of which have been rebuffed by U.S. Navy destroyers deployed in the region.
Earlier this week and after another barrage of drones was shot down by a U.S. destroyer over the past weekend, the U.S. Department of Defense announced the creation of a multinational operation to safeguard the Red Sea and respond to the Houthi attacks. Meanwhile, several major shipping and oil companies have confirmed they would stop traveling through the Red Sea due to insecurity concerns.
Ships will have to go around the Cape of Good Hope at the bottom of Africa instead, adding what some analysts have said could be a week to 10 days or even longer to voyages. Disruptions expected from the Red Sea could have far-reaching effects because they are happening at the same time ships are being restricted through the Panama Canal, a major trade route between Asia and the United States.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement on Tuesday that the “recent escalation in reckless Houthi attacks originating from Yemen threatens the free flow of commerce, endangers innocent mariners, and violates international law. ”
Dubbed “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” the Pentagon said that other countries would involve the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, Bahrain, and Seychelles.
One notably absent participant is China, which has warships in the region, but those ships have not responded to previous calls for assistance by commercial vessels, even though some of the ships attacked have had ties to Hong Kong, officials told The Associated Press.
The operation, Mr. Austin said, would be carried out to “address security challenges in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, with the goal of ensuring freedom of navigation for all countries and bolstering regional security and prosperity.”
But Mohammed Abdel-Salam, the Houthis’ chief negotiator and spokesman, challenged the U.S.-created coalition on Tuesday, saying the Iranian-backed rebels would continue targeting Israel-linked vessels off Yemen.
“The American-formed coalition is to protect Israel and militarize the sea without any justification, and will not stop Yemen from continuing its legitimate operations in support of Gaza,” he wrote on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. He said the Houthi attacks “are not a show of force nor a challenge to anyone,” adding, “Whoever seeks to expand the conflict must bear the consequences of his actions.”
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi politburo, told Qatar-backed Al Jazeera television on Monday that the organization would be able to counter anything the United States could deploy in the Red Sea. “We categorically reject this,” he said, adding, “There is indirect contact from countries, including the U.S. to stop our operations.”
Notably, shipping giant Maersk announced that for now, it had decided to re-route its ships that have been paused for days outside the strait and Red Sea, and send them around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope instead—a much longer and less efficient passage. Maersk said it welcomed the international security effort, but at the present time, the much longer route would provide “more predictable outcomes” for its customers.
In November, Houthis seized a vehicle transport ship linked to Israel in the Red Sea off Yemen. The rebels still hold the vessel near the port city of Hodeida. Separately, a container ship owned by an Israeli billionaire came under attack by a suspected Iranian drone in the Indian Ocean.
Separately, the United States has also called on the United Nations Security Council to take action against the attacks. In a letter to council members obtained Monday, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Houthi attacks targeting commercial vessels legally transiting the international waterways continue to threaten “navigational rights and freedoms, international maritime security, and international commerce.”
