Houthis: The X Factor

The geopolitical influence of the Yemeni Houthis in the Middle East, centered on the Palestinian Question and the Arabian Peninsula, has been manifested and expanded rapidly for almost a year now. This is proven by the recent cases of the Sounio tanker and their hypersonic missile that hit Tel Aviv yesterday. The surprise caused by Abd al-Malik al-Houthi and the Ansarullah movement to Israel, the US and NATO is unprecedented as it has changed the geopolitical balance in the Strait of Aden and the Arabian Peninsula with ramifications reaching into Palestine.

The sudden entry of the Houthis into the cast of regional geopolitical protagonists is not an accidental development but results from the preparation of internal Islamic and tribal ferments of more than three decades with the main milestone being the Islamic Revolution of Iran and then the start of the Yemeni civil war in 2004, the Arab Spring in 2011, the assassination of the pro-American president Saleh and the dominance of the Houthis in the civil war over the pro-American Hadi and also the Saudis in their regional conflict.

Day by day the power of the Houthis is increasing despite the Israeli, American and British bombings. Euro-Nato’s Operation Shields, in which Greece is a poor participant, has failed as the Houthis continue to operate unmolested and attack commercial vessels of Israeli interests in response to Netanyahu’s atrocity against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip war.

The dominance of the Houthis and the failure of the Shields are shown by the operational ease with which the Houthis hit the tanker “Sounio” and other ships. That Sounio remains burning for a month without being towed eloquently highlights the power vacuum in the region as a result of US inadequacy and the growing power of the Houthis.

At the same time, the test firing of the Houthis with a hypersonic missile seems to have been successful, as, yes, it did not hit the target, but it caught both the Israeli air defense and the American armada and the Shields operating in the Red Sea asleep.

The Houthis with their asymmetric operational acumen have become the “X Factor” that gives the American-Israelis a headache, as they have realized that on the one hand they are not able to bend the morale and military acumen of the Houthis with bombings, on the other hand the US is not able to carry out a long-term Iraq-style ground invasion of mountainous Yemen of doubtful outcome but they have no reliable allies for such a thing either. Everything shows that until recently the Houthis are here to stay as the new security and stability force in the Strait of Aden. The perception of a militarily omnipotent America is currently proving to be a rumor…