Ansarallah [Houthis] anticipating Israeli attack on Yemen
Pars Today, November 14, 2019
There are strong indications that the illegal Zionist entity is planning to launch airstrikes against Yemen under the pretext of preventing Iran to firm up friendship with the people of that country as is the case with those of Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
The following is an article in this regard by Sana’a-based journalist Ahmed Abdul-Kareem, titled: “Ansarallah anticipating Israeli attack on Yemen”.
As the Saudi-UAE imposed war in Yemen nears the end of its fifth year, the situation in the country seems to be escalating. There are strong indications that the illegal Zionist entity called Israel is planning to launch airstrikes on Yemen on the pretext of deterring Iran from getting a foothold, but actually to prevent the defeat and humiliation faced by its Arab reactionary allies in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.
Earlier in the week, Ansarallah announced that Yemeni forces would not hesitate to “deal a stinging blow” to Israel in the case Tel Aviv decides to launch attacks in Yemen. The Popular Movement reaffirmed that its anti-Israel position is based on a principled, humanitarian, moral, and religious commitment. Historically, neither the Yemeni Army nor the Ansarallah themselves, have ever targeted the Zionist regime.
The threat from the occupiers of Palestine is not without precedent. Israel has a bleak, black, and bloody record of committing crimes in Arab and Muslim countries with the backing of the US.
Ansarallah leader Seyyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in televised speech marking the birth anniversary celebrations of Prophet Muhammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny): “Our people will not hesitate to declare jihad against the Israeli enemy, and to launch the most severe strikes on sensitive targets in the occupied land if the enemy engages in any folly against our people.”
The Prophet’s birthday marks the largest festival held by the Ansarallah during which they reveal their domestic and foreign policies for the coming year.
The Ansarallah also called on Saudi Arabia to stop the war and siege on Yemen, warning that there would be risks and consequences for the Wahhabi regime should it continue its attacks. Seyyed al-Houthi confirmed that Yemenis will continue to develop their military capability, adding that, “Anyone who uses the war and siege to control us and subjugate us is seeking the impossible, and the consequence is failure.”
He also pointed to the ongoing mass protest movements in Lebanon and Iraq, advising nations in West Asia to resolve their issues vigilantly. He asked those nations to exercise vigilance in the face of Israeli plots to gain a political, military, and cultural foothold in their respective countries.
Last Saturday, massive rallies took place across Yemen’s major cities on the eve of the Prophet of Islam’s birthday, an occasion known to Muslims as “Maulud Nabi”. It is a public holiday in Yemen and is marked with the singing of the national anthem and the waving of green flags.
Many jubilant Yemenis told MintPress News that any attack by Israeli would not cause the Yemeni people any more suffering than they have already endured, but would push them to join a “holy war” against the illegal Zionist regime.
According to three government officials in Sana’a that spoke to MintPress on the condition of anonymity, the Ansarallah’s warnings are both serious and well-placed. Those officials said that the government in Sana’a has already confirmed information that Israel is preparing to launch airstrikes on both military sites and civil targets in Yemen, especially on the country’s west coast and along the Saudi-Yemen border in coordination with the Saudi-led Coalition.
Ansarallah’s announcement also comes in the wake of a number of recent statements made by several Zionist officials claiming that Yemen presents a danger to Israel. Speaking during a visit by US Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin and White House Aid Jared Kushner, who is President Donald Trump’s Jewish son-in-law, Netanyahu claimed that Yemen has missiles capable of hitting Occupied Palestine. The Ansarallah regard these statements as a justification and prelude to strikes on Yemen.
In August, Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida released a report saying that Israel is planning on striking sensitive positions on the Bab al-Mandab Strait which links the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, to target “Ansarallah” in the area. The newspaper, which cited an anonymous informed source, said the Zionist spying agency Mossad has been monitoring activities in the Red Sea.
Israel’s entry into the Yemen war could indeed open the door for further escalation, a prospect made more likely by both the increased strength of Ansarallah forces and by Israel’s increasingly cozy relationship with the Persian Gulf Arab regimes of the coalition. The fact that Saudi Arabia and the UAE recently sought negotiations with the Ansarallah after they were unable to win the war militarily, despite their superior firepower and funding, only increases the likelihood of the Zionist regime’s entry into Yemen.
In fact, Israel has already been involved in the war against Yemen on behalf of the Saudi-led coalition as a part of a series of covert operations involving mercenary forces, the reported launching of dozens of airstrikes in the country and even the dropping of a neutron bomb on Nuqm Mountain near the capital Sana’a in May of 2015.
Like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, there is a problem with the Israeli assessment of the situation in Yemen, as the Ansarallah have never threatened to hit an Israeli target and their attacks on Saudi-led Coalition countries have always been retaliatory, not preemptive. There are no vital targets to be bombed in Yemen as the Saudi-led coalition has already nearly destroyed nearly every potential target, including civilian infrastructure. Moreover, any attack by Israel on Yemen will gain the Ansarallah even more popular support both inside of Yemen and across the Islamic world including Arab countries.
Indeed the statements of Ansarallah, which is known to strike sensitive targets without hesitation, should be considered serious, since they are not without precedent. On September 14, Ansarallah hit two of Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais, an attack that led to a suspension of about 50 percent of the crude and gas production of the Riyadh regime.
Prior to that, they targeted vital facilities deep inside of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, including the Barakah Nuclear Power Station in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, as well as the King Khalid International Airport near Riyadh, more than 800 km from Yemen’s northern border. Now, they have developed their arsenal of ballistic missiles and drones even further and experts say are likely capable of hitting vital targets inside of Israel. Yemen’s Army is ready to launch those missiles if the Ansarallah leadership asks it to do, one high-ranking military officer told MintPress.
Yemen’s Army, loyal to the Ansarallah, is equipped with the Quds 1 winged missile which was used in an attack on the Barakah Nuclear Power Station in Abu Dhabi in December of 2017. This year, several generations of the Quds 1 were reworked to provide the “ability to hit its targets and to bypass enemy interceptor systems,” according to Ansarallah.
The Borkan 3 (Volcano 3), whose predecessors were used by the Yemen’s defenders to strike targets inside of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, is capable of traveling even further than the Borkan 1 and 2. The Borkan was used in a strike on the King Khalid International Airport near Riyadh, more than 800 km from Yemen’s northern border. The missile was able to evade US Patriot missile air-defense systems.
Yemen’s Army also possesses the Samad 3 reconnaissance drone and the Qasef 2K drone. Both were used in strikes against the Abu Dhabi and Dubai airports. The Samad 3 has an estimated range of 1,500 to 1,700 km. Moreover, the Yemen Army recently unveiled a new drone with a range exceeding 1,700 km and equipped with advanced technology that would render it difficult for air defense systems to detect.
One Ansarallah military source told MintPress that mines would also be deployed against Israeli battleships and watercraft in the Red Sea if the Zionist regime were to launch attacks on Yemen. Indeed, Yemen’s military recently revealed its domestically-manufactured marine mines dubbed the “Mersad,” and is reportedly “actively developing its naval forces and naval anti-ship missiles.”
It is obvious that like the Saud Arabia and the UAE, Israel is about to commit a big blunder. Repeatedly underestimating the Ansarallah was one of the major mistakes of the Saudi-led coalition which has failed to defeat Yemen after nearly five years of a destructive, mostly air war, despite being equipped with the latest US-supplied weaponry — everything from M1A2 Abrams tanks and M2 Bradley fighting vehicles to AH-64D Apache helicopters, as well as having an air force equipped with a high-tech arsenal.
According to sources in Sana’a, any attack by Israel, besides Yemeni retaliation through showers of missiles on sensitive targets deep inside Occupied Palestine, would likely hit Israeli military bases in Eritrea and Israeli ships in the Red Sea.
The war, which began in March 2015, has led to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis resulting from the bombing and a blockade which has led to mass starvation and history’s largest cholera outbreak, among other dire consequences.
The coalition of aggressors, backed by the United States and Britain, has killed over a hundred thousand defenseless Yemeni men, women, and children. Moreover, the coalition’s blockade of food and medicine has plagued the country with an unprecedented famine and has triggered a deadly outbreak of preventable diseases that have cost thousands of people their lives.
Recently, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project revealed that Yemen’s death toll rose to a shocking 100,000 since 2015. The database shows approximately 20,000 people have been killed this year, already making 2019 the second-deadliest year on record after 2018, with 30,800 dead. Those numbers do not include those who have died in the humanitarian disasters caused by the war, particularly starvation.
Given the nature of the Zionist regime’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as its targeting of Syria, it is unlikely that Israel would feel constrained by any moral dilemma in launching airstrikes against civilians in Yemen, but in this cased the consequences will be devastating, in not suicidal for the occupiers of Palestine.
AS/ME
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