Desperate U.S./UK Attack on Yemen

Demonstration in Yemen, January 12, 2024 denounces U.S./UK attack, stands with Palestinian people.

During the night of January 12, the United States and Britain engaged in an irresponsible use of force by launching military strikes in Yemen. They claim their aim is to stop the Yemeni resistance actions undertaken to impede shipping to Israel in the Red Sea so long as Israel's attacks on Gaza continue. A White House statement said Canada, the Netherlands, Bahrain, and Australia played a supporting role. According to news reports, members of the Canadian Armed Forces deployed with U.S. Central Command helped plan the attacks. The military strikes not only killed five people in Yemen but pose the grave danger of broadening the war in the Middle East. 

The irresponsible attacks are no doubt also intended to threaten the people of Yemen to desist in providing material support for the Palestinian resistance. This will not happen. Hours after the attacks, in a statement on Friday, the Houthis Supreme Political Council stated that "all American-British interests have become legitimate targets for the Yemeni armed forces in response to their direct and declared aggression against the Republic of Yemen."

"The joy of the aggressors will not be long, and our hand will be the upper hand, God willing," the statement added.

Calling the strikes on Yemen "barbaric," the Houthis added that they will also continue targeting ships heading towards Israel for as long as its war on Gaza continues, and also threatened retaliation.

"The American and British enemy bears full responsibility for its criminal aggression against our Yemeni people, and it will not go unanswered and unpunished," Yahya Saree, the Houthis military spokesperson warned.

Yemen's government, put in place by Saudi Arabia in its U.S.-backed war against that country, blamed the Houthis themselves for the UK and U.S. strikes on the country, saying the rebels bore responsibility for dragging Yemen into an arena of military confrontation with its attacks in the Red Sea.

Earlier, U.S. President Joe Biden, who claims the actions of its navy in the Red sea and military attacks are to defend freedom of navigation, warned that he would "not hesitate" to take further action if necessary, Al Jazeera reported.

Demonstration outside the White House in Washington, DC, January 12, 2024, denounces U.S. for attack on Yemen.

"These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation," Biden said of the attacks by air and sea.

Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder told Al Jazeera that the U.S. military is closely monitoring the situation and hasn't seen any retaliatory attacks from the Houthis so far.

"Our goal here is to ensure this vital waterway [the Red Sea] is safe and secure for international shipping and mariners," he said.

If the U.S. and its NATO partners including Canada want peace, they should refrain from the use of force and threatening the use of force and provide serious problems and conflicts with peaceful solutions. The refusal to find alternatives to the use of force shows their arguments do not merit consideration because they are self-serving, illogical and irrational. The peoples must set their own course based on their own interests and line of march to achieve them.

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This article was published in

Volume 54 Number 4 - January 12, 2024

Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS540410.HTM

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