Israel’s allies open a new front in the Middle East with attacks on Yemen

The Gaza war shakes the entire Middle East region, from Syria to Yemen, where the United States and the United Kingdom have opened another battle front by directly attacking the Houthi rebels, who make up the so-called “Axis of Resistance” against Israel. The Israeli offensive against the Strip – which has caused more than 23,700 deaths, according to local authorities – has raised tension not only between Israel and the Palestinians, but also between governments and armed groups that declare themselves enemies of the “Zionist entity” and its main ally, Washington. After a first attack this Friday morning by the US and the United Kingdom against Yemeni rebel targets, this Saturday the US reported a second attack aimed at a radar used by these same rebels.

For this reason, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry has denounced that “Israel is leading the entire area to more conflict, tension and wars through its brutal aggression against Gaza and its attempt to open new fronts and drag the West to prolong the political life of the president. of the Government (Israeli, Benjamin Netanyahu)”, which has not given in to calls from the White House to limit its brutal attacks against civilians and allow more humanitarian aid to enter the blocked territory.

Early Friday morning, the United States and its transatlantic ally, the United Kingdom, allowed themselves to be swept away by the tension that runs through the entire region and launched dozens of attacks against targets of the Yemeni rebels, after weeks of more or less explicit threats from the of the Joe Biden Administration. The last formal warning was on January 3, when Washington and 13 of its partners issued a statement in which they assured that the Houthis would “take responsibility for the consequences” if they continued to attack vessels transiting near the coast of Yemen, in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Hours later, the US confirmed a second military attack, with a shorter range than the one launched the previous day and aimed at a radar used by the rebels.

The response of the US and the United Kingdom

“The response of the international community to these reckless attacks has been united and determined,” said the American president who, in addition to British support, has had the support of Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands. London has defended the joint operation with US forces against “carefully selected targets in order to effectively limit the capabilities of the Houthis and prevent further attacks,” according to Agencia EFE. The British Government has argued that rebel attacks would continue “unless measures are taken to deter them”, although Defense Minister James Heappey has indicated that he does not foresee further operations “immediately”.

Since the beginning of the year, the insurgents had expanded their attacks, forcing the intervention of the US and British naval forces deployed in the area. On New Year’s Eve, fighters raided a container ship, the Maersk Hangzhou, using four small boats; US helicopters sank three of the boats and killed their crew members. The next day, Biden convened his national security team to discuss options, according to The Guardian. The British newspaper reports that the president ordered diplomats to focus on achieving consensus at the UN so that the Security Council could approve a resolution defending the right to free navigation and condemning the Houthi attacks.

On Tuesday of this same week, the rebels launched one of their largest attacks, with more than 20 missiles and drones, which were intercepted by the US and the United Kingdom. “As soon as the attack was defeated, the president reconvened his national security team and was presented with military options for a collective response along with close partners,” he told The Guardian a senior US government official. At the end of the meeting, Biden gave the green light to the attacks that would be launched about 48 hours later.

The commander of US air operations in the Middle East, Lieutenant General Alex Grynkewich, has detailed that 60 targets were hit in 16 points in Yemen, using more than one hundred precision-guided projectiles, according to the Reuters agency.

“A failure of deterrence”

For Jesús A. Núñez, co-director of the Institute for Studies on Conflicts and Humanitarian Action (IECAH), “the attacks by the US and the United Kingdom are the recognition of a failure, in the first place, because they have not achieved a deterrent effect” with the mission. ‘Guardian of Prosperity’ naval ship, which Washington announced less than a month ago in the face of increasing attacks by the Houthis against vessels supposedly linked to Israel, in retaliation for the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. “Guardian of Prosperity has not deterred the Houthis, but rather they have reiterated their attacks against ships as a clear sign that they do not feel intimidated by this US-led operation,” adds Núñez.

“The attacks that have occurred against the launch bases, radar systems and command centers of the Houthis are not going to solve the problem and all they do is involve the US even more in the war in Yemen,” he explains. the retired military man told elDiario.es, recalling that “the US objective was to get out of the Middle East swamp and in this way it is becoming more involved.” The Yemeni conflict began in 2015, when the Houthi rebels expelled the Government from the capital Sanaa and the Executive requested exile and military aid from Saudi Arabia, which launched a large air, sea and land operation in the neighboring country with the approval and advice from Washington.

“If instead of carrying out the attacks, the US, the United Kingdom and others dedicated themselves to putting limits on Israel [en Gaza]”That would dismantle the Houthis’ argument,” says Núñez, who believes that the insurgents do not genuinely show solidarity with the Gazans but rather “instrumentalize the Palestinian cause” to improve their position in Yemen and at the negotiating table with Saudi Arabia. , where they seek to reach a peace agreement that benefits them. The expert points out that we must not forget the Houthis’ relationship with the Iranian regime, which “is interested in activating all its regional pawns to create problems for Israel and the US.”

Tehran has criticized the bombings by the Atlantic allies and has linked them to the support of the US and the United Kingdom for the “war crimes of the Zionist regime against the Palestinian people during the last hundred days.” He has also warned that these “arbitrary attacks will have no other result than fueling insecurity and instability in the region,” according to a statement by Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Naser Kananí.

Regional escalation risk

The co-director of the IECAH does not believe that Iran is going to intervene directly in the conflict, but rather “it is activating its pawns” in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen to keep tension high, without getting directly involved. “There is an incendiary discourse on the part of Iran and the (Lebanese Shiite group) Hezbollah, but neither of them has the will to get involved in a head-on clash with Israel, because that would also mean the involvement of the US,” he details.

The risk, in the expert’s opinion, is that everyone is “playing with fire and no one is capable of controlling the fires” that are fueling in various parts of the Middle East. “None of them want escalation but, by fueling the fire, the situation can get out of control and they may find themselves involved in a regional escalation that they really don’t want,” he concludes.

Precisely, after the attacks by the US and the United Kingdom, no one has refrained from adding fuel to the fire. All the countries and non-state actors that make up the Axis of Resistance have condemned the allied bombings, but none have responded, except for a small group of Iraqi militias called the Islamic Resistance (backed by Iran), which has claimed to have attacked a “vital target.” ” in the city of Eilat, in southern Israel – whose Army has not confirmed this information.

The Palestinian group Hamas, which Tel Aviv has vowed to eliminate after it killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 200 on Israeli soil, has denounced that the Middle East “is witnessing an American and British militarization that came to protect the Nazi occupation -Zionist [de Israel] and to cover up their crimes against the Palestinian people and the entire Arab region.”

The Houthis themselves have accused Washington and London of “supporting Israeli crimes in Gaza,” and have assured that they will continue to operate to prevent the navigation of commercial ships linked to Israel or any vessel heading to Israeli ports through the Sea. Red. The military spokesman for the rebel movement, Yahia Sarea, has promised through X (formerly Twitter) to the “American and British enemy” that his aggression “will not go unanswered or unpunished.”