{"id":197839,"date":"2019-11-14T07:37:40","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T07:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=197839"},"modified":"2019-11-16T07:16:19","modified_gmt":"2019-11-16T07:16:19","slug":"the-houthis-are-preparing-for-a-planned-israeli-attack-on-yemen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=197839","title":{"rendered":"The Houthis Are Preparing for a Planned Israeli Attack on Yemen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahmed Abdulkareem \u2013 Mint Press Nov 11, 2019<\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

A Houthi rebel fighter holds a weapon during a gathering aimed at mobilizing more fighters for the Houthi movement, in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

As the war in Yemen nears the end of its fifth year, the situation in the country seems to be escalating. There are strong indications that Israel is planning to launch airstrikes against the country under the pretext of preventing an Iranian military presence from taking hold, a move that is likely to open the door for further escalation.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Saturday, Ansar Allah, the political wing of Yemen\u2019s Houthis, announced that Yemeni forces would not hesitate to \u201cdeal a stinging blow\u201d to Israel in the case Tel Aviv decides to launch attacks in Yemen. The Houthis reaffirmed that their anti-Israel position is based on a principled, humanitarian, moral, and religious commitment. Historically, neither the Yemeni Army nor the Houthis themselves, have ever targeted Israel directly.<\/span><\/p>\n

The threat from Israel is not without precedent. Israel has used claims of alleged Iranian military attachments in countries like Syria and Iraq as justification for airstrikes and bombings against those nations. Now, Israel appears to be using Iran\u2019s alleged presence in Yemen, an allegation that both Tehran and the Houthis deny, as a pretext for military action in the country despite no evidence indicating that there are any Iranian forces present there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ansar Allah leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi said in televised speech<\/strong><\/span><\/a> marking the anniversary of the Prophet Muhammad, \u201cOur people will not hesitate to declare jihad (holy war) against the Israeli enemy, and to launch the most severe strikes against sensitive targets in the occupied territories if the enemy engages in any folly against our people.\u201d The occasion marks the largest festival held by the Houthis during which they reveal their domestic and foreign policies for the coming year.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Houthis also called on the Saudi regime to stop the war and siege on Yemen, warning that there would be risks and consequences for the Kingdom should they continue their attacks. Al-Houthi also confirmed that Yemenis will continue to develop their military capability, adding that, \u201cAnyone who uses the war and siege to control us and subjugate us is seeking the impossible, and the consequence is failure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Al-Houthi also pointed to the ongoing mass protest movements in Lebanon and Iraq, advising nations in the Middle East to resolve their issues vigilantly. He asked those nations to exercise vigilance in the face of what he called Israeli plots to gain a political, military, and cultural foothold in their respective countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Saturday, massive demonstrations took place<\/strong><\/span><\/a> across Yemen\u2019s major cities to commemorate the Prophet Mohammed\u2019s birth, an occasion known to Muslims as Maulud Nabi<\/em>. While the occasion is a religious one, it is a public holiday in Yemen and is marked with the singing of the national anthem and the waving of green flags. Many protesters told MintPress News<\/em> that any attack by Israeli would not cause the Yemeni people any more suffering than they have already endured, but would push them to join a \u201choly war\u201d against Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to three government officials in Sana\u2019a that spoke to MintPress <\/em>on the condition of anonymity, the Houthi\u2019s warnings are both serious and well-placed. Those officials said that the government in Sana\u2019a has already confirmed information that Israel is preparing to launch airstrikes on both military sites and civil targets in Yemen, especially on the country\u2019s west coast and along the Saudi-Yemen border in coordination with the Saudi-led Coalition.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ansar Allah\u2019s announcement also comes in the wake of a number of recent statements made by a number of Israeli officials claiming that Yemen has become a threat to Israel<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. Speaking during a visit by U.S. Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin and White House aid Jared Kushner, Netanyahu claimed that Iran has supplied missiles to the Houthis that could hit Israel. The Houthis regard these statements as a justification and prelude to strikes on the country, similar to those that Israel unilaterally carried out against sites in Syria and Iraq.<\/span><\/p>\n

In August, Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida<\/em> released a report<\/strong><\/span><\/a> saying that Israel is planning on striking sensitive positions on the Bab al-Mandab strait which links the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, to target \u201cHouthis\u201d in the area. The newspaper, which cited an anonymous informed source, said Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has been monitoring activities in the Yemeni strait.<\/span><\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s entry into the Yemen war could indeed open the door for further escalation, a prospect made more likely by both the increased strength of Ansar Allah forces and by Israel\u2019s increasingly cozy relationship with the Gulf Arab countries of the coalition. The fact that Saudi Arabia and the UAE recently sought negotiations<\/a><\/strong><\/span> with Houthis after they were unable to win the war militarily<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, despite their superior firepower and funding, only increases the likelihood of Israel\u2019s entry into Yemen.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, Israel is alleged to have already participated<\/a><\/strong><\/span> in the war against Yemen on behalf of the Saudi-led coalition as a part of a series of covert interventions involving mercenary forces, the reported launching of dozens of airstrikes in the country and even the dropping of a neutron bomb<\/a><\/strong><\/span> on Nuqm Mountain in the middle the capital Sana\u2019a in May of 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kicking the hornet\u2019s nest<\/h2>\n

Like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, there is a problem with the Israeli assessment of the situation in Yemen, as the Houthis have never threatened to hit an Israeli target and Houthi attacks on Saudi-led Coalition countries have always been retaliatory, not preemptive. There are no vital targets to be bombed in Yemen as the Saudi-led coalition has already nearly destroyed nearly every potential target, including civilian infrastructure. Moreover, any attack by Israel against Yemen will gain the Houthis even more popular support both inside of Yemen and across the Islamic and Arab world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, there is no evidence that Iran has any military sites or experts in Yemen, and Yemen\u2019s Army, loyal to Ansar Allah, are not the \u201cIran proxy fighters\u201d that international media so often claims them to be. Indeed, the U.S. State Department even admitted in leaked cables<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that the Houthis were not an Iran proxy and that they received neither funding nor weapons from Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are a convergence of interests between the Houthis and Iran, including opposition to Israel\u2019s internationally-recognized theft of Palestinian land,\u00a0 but if Israel involves itself directly in the conflict in Yemen, it is likely that the Houthi alliance with Iran will grow and may actually spur Tehran into providing precise and sophisticated weapons to Ansar Allah, turning the fears of Israel into a self-fulfilling prophecy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, many Israeli activists and media pundits are expressing concerns over what they consider serious threats from Yemen, pointing out that these threats \u201cshould not be underestimated by the Israelis.\u201d The Israeli security parliament said that Israeli intelligence<\/strong><\/a> must strictly monitor Yemen and take necessary steps to secure Israeli ships sailing in the Bab Al-Mandab area, describing the statements made by Abdulmalik al-Houthi as serious.<\/span><\/p>\n

A well-stocked arsenal<\/h2>\n

Indeed the threats of Ansar Allah, a group known to strike sensitive targets without hesitation, are not without precedent. On September 14, Ansar Allah hit two of Saudi Arabia<\/strong><\/span>\u2019s<\/a> oil facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais, an attack that led to a suspension of about 50 percent of the Arab Kingdom\u2019s crude and gas production.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to that, they targeted vital facilities deep inside of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, including the Barakah Nuclear Power Station<\/a><\/strong><\/span> in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, as well as the King Khalid International Airport<\/strong><\/span><\/a> near Riyadh, more than 800 km from Yemen\u2019s northern border. Now, they have developed their arsenal of ballistic missiles and drones even further and experts say are likely capable of hitting vital targets inside of Israel. Yemen\u2019s Army is ready to launch those missiles if Ansar Allah\u2019s leader asks it to do, one high-ranking military officer told MintPress<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yemen\u2019s Army, loyal to the Houthis, is equipped with the Quds 1 winged missile which was used in an attack on the Barakah Nuclear Power Station in Abu Dhabi in December of 2017. This year, several generations of the Quds 1 were reworked to provide the \u201cability to hit its targets and to bypass enemy interceptor systems,\u201d according to Ansar Allah.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Houthi drones struck the Saudi oil facility. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

The Borkan 3 (Volcano 3), whose predecessors were used by the Houthis to strike targets inside of Saudi Arabia and the UAE,\u00a0 is capable of traveling even further than the Borkan 1 and 2. The Borkan is a modified Scud missile and was used in a strike on the King Khalid International Airport near Riyadh, more than 800 km from Yemen\u2019s northern border. The missile was able to evad<\/strong><\/span>e<\/a> U.S. Patriot missile air-defense systems.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yemen\u2019s Army also posses the Samad 3 reconnaissance drone and the Qasef 2K drone. Both were used in strikes against the Abu Dhabi and Dubai<\/strong><\/span><\/a> airports. The Samad 3 has an estimated range of 1,500 to 1,700 km. Moreover, the Yemen Army recently unveiled a new drone with a range exceeding 1,700 km and equipped with advanced technology that would render it difficult for air defense systems to detect.<\/span><\/p>\n

One Ansar Allah military source told MintPress <\/em>that mines would also be deployed against Israeli battleships and watercraft in the Red Sea if Israel decides to launch attacks against Yemen. Indeed, Yemen\u2019s military recently revealed its domestically-manufactured marine mines dubbed the \u201cMersad,\u201d and is reportedly \u201cactively developing its naval forces and naval anti-ship missiles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the well-established precedent, many still doubt that the Houthis are capable of carrying out attacks on the scale and range of the attack that struck an Aramco facility in Saudi Arabia earlier this year \u2014 instead, accusing Iran of orchestrating the attacks. Yet repeatedly underestimating the Houthis was one of the major mistakes made by the Saudi-led coalition, who has failed to defeat the group after nearly five years of fierce battles against them, despite being equipped with the latest U.S.-supplied weaponry \u2014 everything from M1A2 Abrams tanks and M2 Bradley fighting vehicles to AH-64D Apache helicopters, as well as having an air force equipped with a high-tech arsenal.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, it would be difficult for the Yemeni Army to prevent aerial attacks by Israel. Yemeni airspace has been open to the coalition and to American drones since the war broke out in 2015. Any attack by the Yemen army would likely come in retaliation to an Israeli attack and would hit Israeli military bases in Eritrea, Israeli ships in the Red Sea as well as hit vital targets deep inside of Israel, according to Yemeni military sources.<\/span><\/p>\n

An already dire situation<\/h2>\n

The war, which began in March 2015, has led to the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crisis resulting from the bombing and a blockade which has led to mass starvation and history\u2019s largest cholera outbreak, among other dire consequences.<\/span><\/p>\n

The coalition, backed by the United States, has killed tens of thousands of Yemeni civilians since the war began. Moreover, the coalition\u2019s blockade of food and medicine has plagued the country with an unprecedented famine and has triggered a deadly outbreak of preventable diseases that have cost thousands of people their lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project revealed that Yemen\u2019s death toll<\/strong><\/span><\/a> rose to a shocking 100,000 since 2015. The database shows approximately 20,000 people have been killed this year, already making 2019 the second-deadliest year on record after 2018, with 30,800 dead. Those numbers do not include those who have died in the humanitarian disasters caused by the war, particularly starvation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Given the nature of\u00a0 Israel\u2019s recent wars against Gaza and Lebanon, it is unlikely that Israel would feel constrained by any moral dilemma should they chose to launch airstrikes against civilians in Yemen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are strong indications that Israel is planning to launch airstrikes against Yemen under the pretext of preventing an Iranian military presence from taking hold<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=197839"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197843,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197839\/revisions\/197843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=197839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=197839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=197839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}