Iran-Backed Houthis Preparing for Long Battle with the U.S.

Houthi militants and their Iranian backers are preparing for a lengthy confrontation with the US and allies around the Red Sea regardless of how the Israel-Hamas war plays out.

The Yemen-based group is shoring up military and defense capabilities to continue attacking ships around the vital waterway, according to several people with knowledge of the situation, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters. Steps include fortifying mountain hideouts for more secure and effective missile launches and testing unmanned vessels above and below water, they said.

Saudi Arabia, which borders Yemen and has fought the Houthis for most of the past decade, is specifically concerned the group may attempt to sabotage major internet cables running along the seabed, according to an adviser to the Saudi leadership, who didn’t want to be named. There are no suggestions yet of a plan of that nature or that the Houthis have the means to carry one out.

The Houthis started attacking Red Sea shipping in November, ostensibly as a means of pressuring Israel to end its war in Gaza against Hamas, which is also backed by Iran. At first, they said only vessels with ties to Israel would be targeted, though it wasn’t long before ships with only tenuous connections to the Jewish state were also hit. 

In a speech last week, Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi suggested humiliating the US and driving its military forces out of the Middle East is a key motive. That’s also one of Tehran’s main long-term objectives.

The US has repeatedly said the Houthis — who were added to Washington’s list of terrorist organizations last month — would not have been able to carry out and sustain their attacks in the Red Sea without technical, military and intelligence support from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, whose operatives are present in Yemen….

President Joe Biden has signaled the US will keep striking the Houthis for as long as it takes to end their grip on Red Sea shipping. It won’t be easy to achieve that without provoking the group into even more aggressive action — including attacking Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as it did before the truce — or risking a direct confrontation with Iran.

The US has a duty to defend the freedom of navigation in the Red Sea but shouldn’t get into a wider conflict with the Houthis and Iran, Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, said at the Munich Security Conference.

“The US obviously has important interests in the Middle East but that does not mean every problem in the Middle East is a US problem,” he said.