Al-Houthi and Iran... Transferring the war from local to regional
English - Sunday 11 December 2022 الساعة 08:52 am
NewsYemen, written by/ Muhammad Yahya:
"The Houthis have nothing to lose in exchange for what they can gain by continuing to fight," says Elizabeth Kendall, an expert in Middle East affairs, considering that the terrorist militia has been holding "Yemeni's oil ports for ransom."
The Houthi militia's attempt to thwart the truce by fabricating pretexts and pretexts was only part of the Iranian plan that the militia is working to implement, which aims to harm the security and safety of international navigation in Bab al-Mandab, in order to harness the region in favor of Iran, which is working to support the Houthi escalation to weaken legitimacy. And the alliance in a way that contributes to strengthening its cards within the framework of active regional negotiation.
Iran, through the advisors from the Revolutionary Guards and the Lebanese Hezbollah present in Yemen, seeks to control the public scene within the Houthi militia, the local arm of Tehran. Its militias are the most powerful militarily, and the entire region is under the blows of its weapons.
Before the UN armistice ended on the second of last October, the Houthi militia had shown its unwillingness to extend it, and worked to thwart it with its impossible demands and conditions, although the armistice benefited the militia more than it achieved gains for the Yemenis.
Before announcing its refusal to extend the armistice, Iran's arm in Yemen had begun to mobilize its mechanisms and forces to Hodeidah and held military parades there under the supervision of elements of the Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah. The Houthis also strengthened their presence and military presence in the coastal governorate that constitutes their economic artery. In clear violation of the Stockholm Agreement, their movements reveal intentions for an imminent military escalation.
Iranian arms in Hodeidah began preparing to launch terrorist attacks against commercial ships passing in the Red Sea off the coast of Hodeidah, in order to strike international commercial shipping passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait. This coincided with the statements of the militia leaders to transfer the battle and expand it by sea, unless an agreement is reached on transferring oil revenues to the Central Bank in Sana'a.
The terrorist Houthi militia took advantage of the commitment of the Yemeni government and the coalition to the cease-fire and the UN armistice, by increasing its combat mobilization and sending it to the battle fronts, and hastened to dig trenches and create combat fortifications and locations familiar with local and international strategic targets, especially on the fronts of the western coast, as well as launching terrorist attacks on oil ports. economic interests and the threat to international navigation.
The militia also reinforced its arsenal with Iranian weapons, which it introduced through the port of Hodeidah during the armistice, in addition to smuggled weapons. The reinforcements included advanced weapons, including Katyusha rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles, marches and their mobile launchers, as well as conventional weapons.
The conflict in Yemen provided Iran with a live ammunition testing ground to obtain a reading of its military capabilities. According to observers, the ballistic missiles and drones launched by the Houthis provide data to feed Iranian weapons development cycles. The Iranian military deployment in Yemen via ballistic missiles and drones is part of Tehran's plan in the Middle East to test the current regional security architecture.
Recently, the Iranian arm in Yemen launched attacks on 3 oil ports, Al-Dhaba, Al-Nashima and Qena, in the governorates of Hadramout and Shabwa, with booby-trapped drones, to prevent the export of oil, in conjunction with missile attacks and marches in Marib, as well as the mobilization of fighters in preparation for the invasion of the governorate and the control of oil fields (Safer).
Observers believe that the pace of the Houthi escalation portends dangerous stages of threats targeting Yemenis, neighboring countries, the security of global maritime navigation and international trade, considering the continuation of the Houthi attacks on economic facilities and oil export ports through Iranian marches, as a new war of starvation aimed at striking the Yemeni economy and destroying livelihoods.
The US Fifth Fleet intercepted a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Oman on the first of December, which was smuggling ammunition and fuel for missiles on a sea route from Iran to Yemen, and it was carrying a shipment weighing more than 50 tons, which is the second operation of the Fifth Fleet to confiscate a large shipment of weapons. contraband within a month. Last November, US forces found more than 70 tons of ammonium chlorate and 100 tons of urea fertilizer, which can be used to make explosives. The US forces then "sink the ship".
Brad Cooper, commander of US Naval Forces Central Command and the Fifth Fleet, said the ship's interception "clearly demonstrates Iran's continued illegal transfer of lethal aid and destabilizing behavior."
