Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels praised attacks by Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Israel yesterday and renewed threats to launch their own assault in response to Israeli strikes on a port in Yemen.
“We congratulate Hezbollah and its Secretary-General on the great and courageous attack carried out by the resistance this morning against the Israeli enemy,” the Houthis said in a statement after Hezbollah said it had launched a large-scale attack with rockets and drones.
The Yemeni rebels said the “strong and effective response … confirms that the resistance is capable, strong and honest in its promise and threats.”
The Houthis pledged to launch their own attacks against Israel in response to July 20 strikes that targeted a rebel-run port in the coastal city of Hodeida. “We reaffirm once again that the Yemeni response is definitely coming,” the statement said.
The strike on Hodeida came a day after the Houthis launched their first deadly strike on Israel — a drone attack in Tel Aviv that killed an Israeli civilian, reports AFP.
Israel’s response destroyed much of the port’s fuel storage capacity and killed at least nine people, according to the rebels.
The Houthis are fighting Israel as part of Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance”, which includes militant groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Since November, the Yemeni rebels have launched a flurry of missile and drone strikes on Israel-linked shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.
Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi yesterday warned America’s top general during a meeting of the dangers of a major conflict in Lebanon.
US Air Force General C Q Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Egypt hours after a significant missile exchange between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah, reports Reuters.
In a statement, Sisi’s office said the Egyptian leader told Brown that the international community needed to “exert all efforts and intensify pressures to defuse tension and stop the state of escalation that threatens the security and stability of the entire region.”
“(Sisi warned) in this regard of the dangers of opening a new front in Lebanon, and stressing the need to preserve Lebanon’s stability and sovereignty,” the statement read.
Sisi yesterday called for a “decisive stance from the international community” and a stronger response “to joint Egyptian-American-Qatari efforts” for a ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange, which would enable a “path to calm and stability in the region,” his office said.
An official from Netanyahu’s office said a decision would be made late in the day about whether Israeli spy chiefs would attend the talks in Cairo.
