Houthis: Ships of those who move against Yemen will be targeted in Red Sea

A leader of Yemen’s Houthi group and a member of the group’s Supreme Political Council, Muhammad Ali Al-Houthi, yesterday warned that any country that moves against Yemen will have its ships targeted in the Red Sea.

Al-Houthi was speaking to Iran’s Al-Alam TV yesterday, a day after US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin announced the formation of a multinational force with the aim of deterring the Houthi group’s attacks on vessels linked to Israel in the Red Sea.

The Houthis have controlled the port city of Hudaydah in western Yemen, overlooking the Red Sea, since 2014. It has been using the area to capture Israel-bound commercial ships.

Houthi Chief Negotiator, Mohammed Abdul Salam, warned yesterday that “any direct operations against Yemen will expand the battle and turn it into a regional and international war whose disastrous effects cannot be expected.”

He explained that the group’s operations in the Red Sea aim to bring food and medicine into the besieged Gaza Strip and will continue until aid enters the north and south of the Gaza Strip in “sufficient quantities”.

Abdul Salam said the multinational coalition announced by the United States would not affect their operations in the Red Sea, explaining that the coalition aims to protect Israel and not international navigation in the Red Sea.

“Since the first day of our operations in the Red Sea, French, American, and British frigates have been trying to shoot down our planes and missiles,” he said.

READ: Yemen Houthis, US-led coalition in Red Sea won’t stop our support for Gaza

“We reaffirm our position that we will not allow any shipping company to pass through the Red Sea to the enemy entity [Israel] while the Gaza Strip is besieged. Ships that belong wholly or partially to the enemy entity [Israel] will continue to be targeted until the end of the aggression, as well as missile force and drone operations,” he added.

“Naval operations will continue in full swing, and perhaps not 12 hours will pass without an operation against enemy ships,” he added.

Abdul Salam stressed that the group is in contact with shipping companies, and asked them to “open the known maritime communication identifiers, respond to Yemeni calls, and answer some inquiries”, adding that the group’s maritime operations are 95 per cent accurate, and “so far no targeted ship has denied its relationship with the enemy entity, and we present the evidence we have.”