By Jamal Alawadhi- Paris

In 2021, US President Biden removed the Houthis from the list of terrorist organizations, and called on Saudi Arabia and the UAE to negotiate with the Houthis for peace.

Today, after the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and the threat to international navigation, President Biden describes them as a group of terrorists and attacks them in their strongholds in Yemen, while Saudi Arabia and the UAE express their concern and call for an end to the escalation!!

Houthi rebels are investing the war in Gaza to show them selves as a heroes that they fight for justice while their leaders move from one cave to another, similar to former Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and ISIS leader Al-Baghdadi. The Houthis are the other side of terrorist religious organizations similar to Al-Qaeda and ISIS. There is no risk in the region from the US-UK attacks on targets in Yemen unless armed Houthi rebels target an American or British warship with a booby-trapped boat, similar to the targeting of the American destroyer USS Cole base in the Gulf of Aden in 2000, which led to the kill 19 of US Marines. Then the risk will be on the Houthis, not the region. 

From my point of view, the Americans and British did not expect the Houthis to continue attacking ships in the Red Sea despite their repeated warnings, which embarrassed their military presence in the region, and therefore disciplinary and warning strikes were necessary.

On the other hand, the US-British strikes targeted Houthi sites in a number of Yemeni cities, representing a repetition of the same targets that were bombed by the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Yemen for more than eight years, which means that there is no update to the bank of specific targets. It does not make sense for the Houthis to continue using the same hideouts and fortifications after bombing them many times.