A senior member of the Presidential Leadership Council, the latest iteration of the legitimate but largely powerless government of Yemen, told reporters at the World Economic Forum (WEF) that global powers should fund the Council’s “ground forces” to continue the civil war against the Houthis.
Council Vice President Aidarus al-Zoubaidi told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) from Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday that the American and British airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen were “useless” without infantry support and that the Presidential Council’s army — the formal armed forces of the government of Yemen — was the only option to eliminate the Houthis as a global threat.
Ansarullah, the official name of the Houthis, is a Shiite jihadist terrorist organization that invaded and seized Yemen’s capital of Sana’a in 2014, seeking to overthrow the government of then-President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. With the aid of the Iranian Islamist regime, the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, the Houthis have maintained control of Sana’a, while the official government has split between exile in Saudi Arabia and a new headquarters in the southern city of Aden. Hadi resigned from the presidency in 2022, leaving the Presidential Council in charge, which includes seven members of various anti-Houthi political factions in the country.
Al-Zoubaidi, who represents the secessionist Southern Transitional Council, attended Davos to galvanize global support for his political entity in light of the Houthis initiating a campaign of aggression against international commercial shipping transiting through the Red Sea.
“An international and regional alliance is necessary to secure international navigation in the Red Sea,” Zoubaidi told the AFP. “Ground forces must be supported on the ground, and these forces belong to the legitimate government. These forces are the ones who can achieve a victory on the ground because strong strikes without ground operations are useless.”
Zoubaidi complained that the Saudi government’s controversial, years-long support for his faction against the Houthis was “insufficient” and specified that he sought “intelligence sharing, capacity building, training, and equipment” from the rest of the world. The vice president also lamented American and British airstrikes against the Houthis without collaboration with the legitimate government of Yemen.
In remarks to the Emirati newspaper the National, published on Tuesday, Zoubaidi similarly complained that American airstrikes against Houthi targets were “not enough.”
“The way to address this is for there to be a comprehensive military operation that involves regional stakeholders to stop the piracy operation in the Bab El Mandeb and, [more] importantly, to support ground forces, STC and PLC forces, on the ground,” Zoubaidi said. The Bab El Mandeb Strait is the pathway around Yemen that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and, thus, the Indian Ocean.
The Houthis — whose official slogan is “Allahu Akbar, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam” — declared war on Israel in October as a gesture of support for another Iran-backed terrorist entity, Hamas, which orchestrated the deadliest attack on Israel in its modern history on October 7. As part of the declaration, the terrorists announced they would not allow Israeli ships to transit around the Bab El Mandeb or allow vessels to attempt to enter or exit Israeli ports. In reality, they have bombed or attempted to seize commercial ships seemingly at random, targeting vessels with little to no clear connection to Israel. The attacks have resulted in a dramatic collapse of ship traffic in the region as major shipping companies reroute around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
Yemen’s Houthi fighters take over the Galaxy Leader on November 20, 2023, in the Red Sea, Yemen. (Houthi Movement via Getty Images)
Leftist American President Joe Biden — whose decision to remove the Houthis from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) in 2021 dramatcally increased their funding capabilities — responded to the disruption in global commerce by establishing “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” an attempt at a multinational naval coalition to protect from Houthi attacks. The operation has attracted little support, as sovereign states opted to engage in their own naval activities outside of the auspices of the Pentagon.
Following the failure of “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” Biden approved targeted airstrikes on Houthi ground targets alongside the British armed forces on January 12. These airstrikes are the ones that prompted Zoubadi’s criticism that Washington had not more directly involved the legitimate government’s troops in the operations.
In this handout image provided by the UK Ministry of Defence, an RAF Typhoon aircraft takes off from RAF Akrotiri to join the U.S.-led coalition to conduct air strikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels on January 11, 2024, in Akrotiri, Cyprus. (MoD Crown Copyright via Getty Images)
“The Houthi escalations in the Red Sea are unacceptable. Maritime navigation must be protected,” Zoubadi told the National. “There has been no coordination [on the airstrikes]. However, secure maritime navigation is a responsibility that falls not only on Yemen, not only on the region but the international community.”
Zoubadi also criticized the Saudi government for the same perceived error: “When the Arab coalition was conducting air strikes in Yemen, there wasn’t really an effective ground force to supplement those air strikes, and they were only successful in the south.”
The Presidential Council’s vice president also suggested a “long-term partnership” with America and the United Kingdom to ensure a prolonged military presence of those countries in the region.
“I’d also like there to be a long-term partnership with countries including the United States and the United Kingdom,” he stated. “We don’t just want to participate in a military operation, we want there to be a long-term partnership to secure these areas.”
The legitimate government of Yemen has been calling for prolonged military intervention in Yemen for years.
“Each time that a year passes without a robust position being taken on Yemen, losses pile up, militias and terrorist groups become increasingly dangerous, and are a real translational threat,” Rashad Mohammed Al-Alimi, the head of the Presidential Council, told the United Nations General Assembly in 2022.
“If we continue to fear the use of force against terrorism, well, that will lead to a humanitarian disaster,” Amini asserted. “In truth, we need to find alternative solutions, deterrents indeed. The international community needs to support the legitimate government to ensure the values of peace and peaceful coexistence prevail.”
In remarks on Thursday, Biden said he would continue approving airstrikes on the Houthis even though he did not believe them to be effective.
“Are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes,” Biden was quoted as saying.
