LONDON: Airstrikes on Houthi targets by the US and UK have not damaged the group’s capabilities, an official in the internationally recognized Yemeni administration said on Tuesday.
Aidarous Al-Zubaidi, who heads the Southern Transitional Council within the Presidential Leadership Council under Rashad Al-Alimi, told The Guardian newspaper that he believed the Houthis were using the strikes to garner sympathy and support by portraying the Western powers as aggressors.
He called for better coordination between the PLC and Western powers to combat the threat the Houthis pose to regional security and said it was time to accept that a power-sharing agreement offered to the Houthis last year was dead in the water.
The militia has carried out drone and missile strikes on commercial shipping in the Red Sea since November in retaliation for Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza and in solidarity with the Palestinians suffering during the conflict.
The US and the UK launched Operation Prosperity Guardian in December to hit back at the Houthis in an attempt to protect shipping routes through the region’s waters.
“The airstrikes, instead of deterring the Houthis, are having the opposite effect. In a way, it is helping the Houthis and making them stronger,” Al-Zubaidi told The Guardian.
“The local popular perception is that the Houthis occupy the high ground because they are mobilising people around the idea they are being attacked by the UK and the US, and the Houthis are mounting a defense.
“What is more, these operations are not really effective militarily. The Arab coalition, one way or another, has been attacking Houthi rocket launchers for the past eight years, but the Houthis have been able to adapt and find new solutions on how to hide their capabilities. They have built up resilience.
“The problem is (there is) no joined-up approach involving the region and Presidential Leadership Council. It is a US-British operation alone,” he added.
“It’s clear that at the Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Salif, ships have been arriving without inspection containing high quality weapons from both the Iranians and Russians,” he said, adding that these shipments of weaponry have helped the Houthis to target Israel.
