The Yemen-based Ansarallah Houthi movement is ready to engage in a protracted conflict with the Western coalition led by the US, even in a scenario in which the Israeli war on Gaza lasts for years, the Russian newspaper Izvestia reported on Thursday. 

This assertion was conveyed by Nasr Al-Din Amer, deputy director of Ansarallah’s Information Department in an interview with the Russian daily. 

For its part, Washington has acknowledged the Houthi’s robust military capabilities and compared the scale of combat in the Red Sea to World War II. 

“As a practical matter, dragging out the process of achieving a ceasefire in the embattled Palestinian enclave means Washington will be deprived of the option to serve as the main security guarantor in the region,” Izvestia reported. 

The European Union, too, declared the launch of its own operation to protect shipping in the Red Sea.

Yemen Well-Armed 

US Navy Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy commander of the US Defense Department’s Central Command (CENTCOM), said in an interview with CBS that World War II was the last time the US Navy participated in combat of this scale and intensity.

Ansarallah’s military advantage lies in the cost of the projectiles and drones they launch at commercial and military vessels, Murad Arefi of the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies told Izvestia. 

“Intensive launches from the grouping have cost the US too much. The Houthis have a lot of room for maneuver, given the area of the Red Sea and Arabian Sea. They know the terrain well and are well-armed by Iran. The same goes for intelligence data,” the expert said.

‘Never Happened Before’ – Commander of US Fifth Fleet on Ansarallah Missiles

According to Arefi, at first, the West was banking on decreasing the group’s military potential but with time it has become clear that this is no simple task.

That said, the Ansarallah movement issued assurances that European vessels would not be targeted by its projectiles and drones.

“We will not strike the ships of the European coalition if they won’t make any aggressive moves against Yemen,” Nasr Al-Din Amer said, but “if the EU attempts to hinder us in fulfilling our tasks, where we are helping the Gaza Strip and blocking (Israel), then we will consider it as meddling in our domestic affairs.”

Solidarity with Gaza 

Ansarallah was one of the first Arab Resistance groups to stand in solidarity with Gaza, amid an ongoing Israeli genocidal war against the Strip. 

The group made it clear that it had no intention of targeting any other ship aside from those that are bound to Israel, declaring that they will only stop when Israel ends its war. 

Washington answered by creating a war coalition, named Operation Prosperity Guardian, and began launching strikes at Yemeni targets, killing and wounding many. 

‘I am Proud of the Ruins of Gaza’ – Israeli Minister Tells Knesset

The joint US-British assault, however, only emboldened the Yemeni position, which began to also target US and British ships in the Red Sea. 

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 29,410 Palestinians have been killed, and 69,465 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.

Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. 

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. 

(TASS, PC)