The “foreign minister” of the Yemeni Houthi terrorist organization told Reuters in a report published Tuesday the jihadists are not abiding by any “talk of dialing down” terrorism in the Red Sea and suggested they would ignore calls from Iran to stop attacking commercial vessels in the region.
Jamal Amer, the “foreign minister” of the Ansarullah terrorist group that controls the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, spoke to Reuters late on Monday regarding the escalation of violence between Houthi terrorists and the United States after Houthi leaders announced they would resume attacking ships in and around the Red Sea last week.
The Houthis declared war on Israel in 2023 in solidarity with fellow Iran-backed jihadist group Hamas following Hamas’s massacre of over 1,000 civilians in an invasion of Israel in October of that year. Rather than attacking Israel directly, however, the Houthis launched a campaign of maritime bombings of commercial ships. Houthi leaders claim the campaign is targeting only Israel and American ships, but in reality they have bombed dozens of commercial vessels seemingly at random, including ships associated with Houthi-friendly regimes such as those of Russia, China, and Iran.
The campaign eased for some time after January, when Hamas and Israel began talks towards a ceasefire in Gaza. Houthi leaders claimed they would resume their attacks last week; on Saturday, American President Donald Trump announced a series of airstrikes in Yemen intended to degrade the Houthis’ ability to interfere with global trade.
Trump has repeatedly urged the Houthis to stop their acts of terror and threatened their patrons in Iran with a direct military response should they not act to contain the terrorist threat. Reuters reported on Tuesday that Iranian officials claimed they had told the Houthis to “cool tensions,” but Amer, speaking to the news agency, denied receiving any such message.
Even if he had, he claimed, Iran did not have the authority to tell Ansarullah to stop bombing ships.
“There will be no talk of any dialling down of operations before ending the aid blockade in Gaza,” Amer was quoted as saying. “Iran is not interfering in our decision but what is happening is that it mediates sometimes but it cannot dictate things.”
“(The U.S.) is threatening Iran and hitting Yemen. Now all scenarios are possible,” he added. “We will do what they will do to us. If they are hitting us from (U.S. aircraft carrier USS Harry S.) Truman, we will retaliate by hitting Truman.”
Houthi leaders claimed that they targeted the USS Harry Truman, present in the Red Sea region in response to Houthi piracy, but the Pentagon could not confirm that they attempted to do so as, if the Truman was the target, “they missed by over 100 miles.”
Amer further told Reuters that the Houthis were “at war with the U.S. and that means that we have a right to defend ourselves with all possible means, so escalation is likely.” He added that, for now, this war did not include attacks on American-allied Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as those countries had not participated in any campaigns against the Houthi Red Sea attacks. The Houthis have a history of bombing Saudi Arabia in response to its support for the legitimate government of Yemen, which the Houthis ousted from Sana’a in 2014, triggering an ongoing civil war. The Houthis falsely claim to be the government of Yemen, which is why many of their terrorists use government titles.
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Similar to Amer, the Houthi “defense minister,” Major General Mohammed Nasser al-Atifi, declared on Tuesday that the Houthis would “meet escalation with escalation.”
“Al-Atifi emphasized that Yemen’s military capabilities, including missile forces, drones, and naval units, were at peak readiness to undertake missions in defense of Arab and Islamic nations,” he claimed, according to the Iranian propaganda outlet PressTV and contrary to the Pentagon’s assessment of Houthi “incompetence.”
Similarly, the head of the Houthi terrorist organization, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, promised to “escalate” terrorist activity in an incendiary speech on Sunday following the initial wave of American airstrikes.
“We will respond to escalation with escalation, and we will strike at the American enemy by targeting its aircraft carrier, warships, and imposing a blockade on its vessels,” Houthi vowed. “If the American aggression on our country continues, we will escalate further with additional measures.”
Trump emphasized in his announcement of the military action that the Houthis are bankrolled and diplomatically financed by Iran and that Iranian support for the terrorist movement would come at a cost to Tehran.
“Funded by Iran, the Houthi thugs have fired missiles at U.S. aircraft, and targeted our Troops and Allies,” Trump wrote in a message posted to his social media site, Truth Social. “These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk.”
“To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY! Do NOT threaten the American People,” he continued, “their President, who has received one of the largest mandates in Presidential History, or Worldwide shipping lanes. If you do, BEWARE, because America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!”
Trump again issued a message to Iran on Monday, declaring, “the hundreds of attacks being made by Houthi, the sinister mobsters and thugs based in Yemen, who are hated by the Yemeni people, all emanate from, and are created by, IRAN.”
Iran, he continued, is “dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, ‘Intelligence.’”
“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!” he warned.
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