The language the Biden administration is using is interesting.
A Biden administration official said: “Iran is the primary – if not the primary – supporter or supporter of the Houthis, and Iran has practically participated in carrying out these attacks.”
They're not talking about Iran directing attacks against U.S. ships or the military in the region the way it may have done not long ago.
They talk about Iran being the “enabler” and not the puppet master. This is because they know that “Iran’s agents” in the Middle East are no longer puppets.
Hizb allah In Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen agitation As for Gaza, they are all entrenched forces making strategic decisions, in line with Iranian ideology, of course, and with Iranian-made weapons, but driven by their own ambitions.
The way that Israel Israel's choice to retaliate for the October 7 attacks — which killed more than 20,000 Gazans in three months — has given these growing regional non-state powers a new focus and a renewed old issue to rally around.
It is also a unification of groups known for rivalry and squabbling.
As the Houthis claimed Their attacks on shipping We are in solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
Protests against Western strikes in Yemen
They portray it as a protest against the international shipping lane against what they call genocide.
Of course, the Houthis have their own internal ambitions, and poking the West's noses plays a role in that.
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The Houthis threaten “punishment” for the attacks
But make no mistake, among the region's population, the Houthis are seen, in no small part, as having chosen to support the Houthis. Gaza With physical action.
America and the United Kingdom He chose military action To try to stop Houthi missiles. They chose to bomb the poorest country in the world with precision-guided bombs. This is risky and visually embarrassing, to say the least.
The other path was to seek to remove the Houthi pretext by accelerating efforts to end the conflict in Gaza and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian issue. But this is unlikely to be quick.
Read more:
How the United States and the United Kingdom launched Houthi strikes
Iran considers the attacks on Yemen a clear violation of the country's sovereignty
The Americans have demonstrated an unwillingness or inability to influence Israeli actions in Gaza.
For this reason, they not only lost credibility among regional leaders. America has been losing population in the Middle East over the past few months.
In recent weeks, senior regional diplomats in the Middle East told Sky News that the longer the conflict in Gaza lasts and intensifies its spillover, the less likely it is to be contained.
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The strike on Houthi targets was successful
More importantly, they say that while Iran is not seeking to escalate all of this into a regional war, it cannot mitigate the potential for miscalculation in Lebanon, Yemen or Iraq because the groups operating there have become more independent.
If miscalculation leads to conflict, Iran will not seek to stop it because it will soon become existential for them.
