U.S. and U.K. forces launched air strikes on several Houthi strongholds in Yemen on January 12, 2024, the first U.S.-UK military operation against Yemen in 2016. The United States and Britain claimed that the move was in response to the Houthi group's recent attack on a merchant fleet in the Red Sea, including the attack on one of the US ** ships, the 9th. The Houthis have expressed strong dissatisfaction with the attacks launched by the United States and Britain and have threatened to retaliate against them. The joint strike by the United States and Britain will not only escalate the civil war in Yemen, but may also cause an even greater crisis in the Middle East.
The Housei, a militant group formed by members of the Houthi family, has controlled Yemen's capital, Sana'a, as well as the western part of the country, since 2014, forcing Hadi into forced exile to Saudi Arabia. In 2015, Saudi Arabia and other countries joined forces to form a number of countries to launch a strike against the Hadi regime called "Decisive Storm" with the goal of fighting the Houthi forces. However, after 9 years of fighting, the armies of several countries have not defeated the Houthis, on the contrary, they have brought a huge humanitarian crisis to the country. In Yemen, an estimated 150,000 people have lost their lives to war and starvation, and 24 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
The Houthis have long been seen as Iran's military and political spokesmen, and Iran has helped in this regard. The Houthis also claim to be affiliated with the Iranian-dominated Axis of Resistance (AXIS) group, which stands with Hamas and Allah in Lebanon. A new wave of conflict between Israel and Hamas took place in the Gaza Strip last October, killing more than 23,000 Palestinian civilians. The Houthis have declared that all Israeli-linked ships will be blocked in the Red Sea as a support for Hamas. They have already attacked it several times with rockets and drones. The attack has seriously affected the security of the world's maritime transport, affecting the traffic of gas, ** and cargo, and causing some ships to turn to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
The United States and the United Kingdom, the two major powers led by the West, have expressed strong dissatisfaction with the actions of the Houthis and have firmly supported Israel in the Palestinian-Israeli war. The United States has sent an aircraft carrier to defend Israel in the waters east of the Mediterranean, and has refused to demand an immediate truce between Israel and Palestine on several occasions. The United States has also tried to create a "joint fleet" to protect commercial ships in the Red Sea, but has not received a response from most people. The joint air force of the United States and Britain is fighting back against the Houthis on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is also to draw the US-Israel issue away from the international arena and put pressure on Iran.
However, the air strikes of the joint US-British air force on Libya will not only not help solve the problem, but will also aggravate the situation. After years of fighting, the Houthis are highly defensive, and they will not surrender with a single air strike. In order to strike at the United States and Britain, the Houthis will launch another attack. In addition, a joint U.S.-UK strike would exacerbate tensions in the Middle East and create tensions between Iran, which the U.S. has tried to avoid. In the Middle East, the Arab population has widely resisted US-Israeli policy and is greatly annoyed by its own inaction. The U.S.-led offensive against the Houthis would be considered "American-Israeli strike against Arabia." This would cause more trouble for the war in Gaza and further escalate to a full-scale war in the Middle East.
The United States and Britain have carried out military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, posing a threat to peace and stability in the region. The United States and the United Kingdom should abandon military confrontation, resolve the conflict through political and diplomatic means, promote the Yemeni peace process, ease tensions in the Middle East, and provide a favorable environment for maintaining world shipping and world economic development.