The US has carried out a fifth strike against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, even as Joe Biden acknowledged that bombing the rebels has yet to stop their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
Late on Thursday US warplanes targeted anti-ship missiles that “were aimed into the southern Red Sea and prepared to launch,” according to US Central Command.
But in an exchange with reporters in Washington DC, the US president was frank about the efficacy of the US airstrikes. “When you say working, are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes.”
Soon after Biden’s remarks, Houthi militia launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles at a US-owned tanker ship that hit the water near the vessel but caused no injuries or damage, according to the US military.
Biden’s comments came hours after the leader of the Houthis urged the Arab world to mount mass boycotts of Israeli goods as he claimed US and UK missile attacks launched on his country were a sign that the movement’s attacks on Israeli-linked commercial shipping was having an impact.
In an hour-long address carried on Arabic media channels and suffused with religious rhetoric, Abdulmalik al-Houthi said it was “a great honour and blessing to be confronting America directly”.
Al-Houthi claimed the only effect of the recent missile strikes had been to improve his army and navy’s technology, and he ridiculed Joe Biden as “an elderly man that has trouble climbing the stairs of an aeroplane yet is travelling 9,000 miles to attack those that wanted to stand by the oppressed people of Gaza”.
He asked why countries that oppressed Gaza felt they had the right to label others as terrorists for fulfilling their religious duty to come to the help of Palestinians, a reference to Washington’s decision on Wednesday to give notice it intends formally to designate the Houthis as a terrorist group.
He said the Houthis had been singled out because they were prepared to take practical steps to support the Palestinians, whereas the general position of the leaders of many Arab and Islamic countries remained lukewarm and weak.
Al-Houthi insisted “nothing – not all the threats, the missiles, the pressure – will change our position”, adding the attacks on ships linked to Israel, or travelling to Israeli ports, would only end when the blockade on Gaza was lifted. “The Palestinians have a right for aid from air, land and sea without any obstacles. The Zionist enemy only wants the sea to be safe only for them.”
His speech, containing attacks on the Zionist lobby and gay people, warned that the war was part of a wider battle between Zionists, who worshipped the devil, and the Muslim world.
He urged Yemenis to come out in a mass show of support on Friday for their countrymen killed by US forces.
Since November, attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi militia on ships in the region have slowed trade between Asia and Europe and alarmed major powers. The Houthis, who control most of Yemen, say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Earlier on Thursday, the US military had fired a fourth wave of missile strikes from the Red Sea, hitting more than a dozen sites, after a drone launched from areas controlled by the Houthis hit a US-owned vessel in the Gulf of Aden.
It remained unclear whether the Houthis’ ability to mount further attacks on shipping in the Red Sea using either missiles or drones had been damaged.
The Houthis have broadened their theatre of operation – a possible sign that some of their missile launch pads have been struck.
The Houthis’ impact on global supply chains was one of the chief topics at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, an indication of how the group has catapulted itself forward as a geopolitical force. Isaac Herzog, Israel’s president, complained of “a little tribe of 50,000 people … amassed with the weapons of an empire … What is going on here? We are unravelling a huge system of evil.”
Houthi leaders have said their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea will end as soon as the “Israeli aggression” in Gaza stops.
Also in Davos, the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, met the deputy president of Yemen’s UN-recognised government, Maj Gen Aidarus al-Zoubaidi, to discuss the next steps in the conflict, and the fate of the UN-led peace talks between the Houthis and the UN.
There had been some doubt about the meeting going ahead because of British concern at Zoubaidi’s strong calls for the west to supply the government with equipment, training and intelligence to help defeat the Houthis. As head of the Southern Transitional Council, Zoubaidi leads the movement calling for Yemen to be divided into north and south, a position not endorsed by the UK government.
But the STC, a lead adversary of the Houthis, has praised the allied airstrikes and Washington’s decision to reclassify the Houthi militias as a “global terrorist group”. “Houthi terrorist practices have caused great harm to citizens and affected the flow of goods and aid to the ports”, it said in a statement.
