"Death to America, death to Israel!" Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis responded on Friday, January 12, to a call from the Houthi authorities to demonstrate in the capital, Sanaa, against the US and UK strikes which overnight targeted the group in retaliation for its attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea.
Since October 7, the start of a new war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis, who are allies of Iran in the Middle East and control a large part of northern and western Yemen, have been calling on the population every Friday to march in support of the Palestinian cause and their regime. "The British and Americans have chosen the wrong day. On Friday, the demonstration was bigger than usual," noted Helen Lackner, analyst and non-resident researcher at the Sana'a Center and author of Yemen in Crisis: Devastating Conflict, Fragile Hope.
The current upsurge in tension allows the Yemeni rebels to place themselves at the center of the regional game, sending signals to both the Arab world and the Yemeni population. At the same time, American and British bombing runs the risk of strengthening the rebellion and accelerating the regionalization of the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
On Friday night, Washington announced a new strike against a "radar site" near Sanaa. The previous day, British-backed US naval and air forces had already struck a series of targets belonging to Yemeni rebels. The latter had threatened to retaliate by attacking the interests of these two countries, now considered "legitimate targets." After the British and American air raids on Friday, the Houthis fired at least one missile, but did not hit any ships.
In a joint statement, Washington, London and eight of their allies stressed that their objective was "de-escalation" in the Red Sea. But Moscow condemned the Western strikes as "illegitimate under international law," as did Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who criticized the response as "disproportionate."
Since November, the Yemeni rebel group has carried out at least 28 attacks targeting ships in the Red Sea and the Bab Al-Mandab Strait, through which 12% of the world's maritime trade and almost a third of maritime container traffic passes. The Houthis' claimed aim is to block ships to and from Israel and to impose a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The aim of Washington and its British ally, whose navies are challenged and harassed by missile fire and drones, seems to be to restore deterrence and prevent the paralysis of a vital artery for world trade. But their intervention, which marks a further widening of the conflict pitting Israel against Palestinian Hamas and Tehran-allied forces in the region, also comes on top of nine years of bloody civil war in Yemen.
You have 60% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.