LOS ANGLES.–Ordering airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, 81-year-old President Joe Biden partnered with Great Britain to show a united front against Houthi attacks on maritime commerce in the Red Sea. About 12% of the world’s oil and other goods pass through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea, now under attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels claiming they’re protesting the Israeli-Hamas War. Striking Houthi targets in Yemen, Biden hoped to send Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khemenei a message to cease-and-desist in ordering its Houthi militia to attack foreign vessels under the guise that they’re traveling to Israel. Houthi rebels routinely fire on ships, whether Israel is at war with Hamas or not. Demonstrations broke out over the Mideast to protest the U.S. and British attacks, with Houthis saying there was no excuse for any attacks when they were simply backing Hamas.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam said his group would not stop supporting Gaza, no matter what the U.S. and British attacks. Houthis want to divert attention away from unprovoked attacks on open shipping in the Red Sea, somehow blaming it of Israel. Protests in Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Iran express solidarity with Hamas, but, more importantly, denounce the U.S. and Great Britain for backing the Israeli War against Hamas. War broke out Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas terrorists massacred some 1,200 Israeli citizens near the Gaza border, taking 260 hostage as bargaining chips for eventual prisoner swaps. Salam denies that Houthis were interfering with international shipping in the Red Sea, attacking and hijacking freighters and tankers no matter what their flags. Salam told Al Jazeera that they would retaliate in a forceful manner for the unjustified attacks in Yemen.
Houthi rebels are funded by Iran to serve in their “axis of resistance” against the Zionist regime. Together with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ketaib Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria and Houthis in Yemen, they constitute Iran’s militias designed to eventually topple the Zionist regime. Salam called the attacks “a violation of international law.” Infringing on Yemen’s sovereignty, ultimately calling U.S. and British strikes an “act of terrorism.” How ironic that the terrorists themselves accuse others of terrorism, today’s Orwellian twist on terrorist states like Iran that can’t stop fomenting revolution in the Mideast and Horn of Africa. Iran Foreign Minister Spokesman Nasser Kanani said the strikes in Yemen were “a violation of international law,” not admitting to Houthis’ attacks on global shipping the Red Sea. U.S. ally Oman called the attacks a destructive use of force.
Biden has been playing around with Iranian-backed militias not hold the Ayatollah responsible for the attacks on global shipping. Houthi rebels, like Hamas and Hezbollah, carry out Iran’s personal vendetta with the West, started in 1979 when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei ransacked the U.S. embassy in Tehran, holding 66 American hostages for 444 days before their release the day President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated Jan. 20, 1981. Khomenei knew that unlike former President Jimmy Carter, Reagan wouldn’t fool around with Iran. Well, today’s attacks and hijackings in the Red Sea shows that the Ayatollah has no fear of Biden, knowing his pin-prick response would do nothing. Ayatollah won’t take a U.S. response seriously until Biden goes after Iranian targets. Protests flooded the streets of Tehran demonstrating against the measured airstrikes in Yemen.
If Trump were still president, it’s doubtful Russian President Vladimir Putin would have invaded Ukraine or the current Iranian-backed Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. Berlin’s Tesla plant said it would shut down production at the end of January due to supply chain problems getting parts to the Berlin factory. Many shipping companies have taken the slow route around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the Bab al-Mandab Strai in the Red sea at addition transportation costs of $1 million per ship. “It is impossible not to denounce that an allied country resorted to this military action, while meanwhile, Israel is continuing to exceed all bounds in its bombardment, brutal war and siege on Gaza without any consequences,” said Oman Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Al-Busaidi. U.S. warned the Sanaa’s Houthi government there would be consequences for striking commercial ships.
Iran’s militias and some Mideast governments ignore the Houthi war against international shipping in the Red Sea. When Berlin Tesla can’t get its shipments, it speaks volumes for how Houthis have disrupted maritime commerce. Street protests in Tehan, Doha, Qatar, Manama, Bahrain or Muscat, Oman, etc. can’t hide the fact that the Ayatollah ordered Houthi attacks on global shipping in the Red Sea. Whatever Cruise missile or airstrikes in Sanaa, Biden can’t ignore the Ayatollah’s war using proxy groups in the Red Sea and around the Mideast. Iran can’t escape the consequence for its terrorism around the Mideast, not primarily due to the Israeli-Hamas war. If the Gaza war were so inexcusable, why would not one Islamic state join the Hamas war against Israel? Arab states know what happened in the 1967 Six Day War and they don’t want to repeat past mistakes.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
