Over the past three years, Al Houthi militias have become increasingly sophisticated and audacious, with scores of missiles launched at Saudi Arabian cities and centres of population these past months. The most recent launches were intercepted over Jizan and Najran as they streaked towards Riyadh. Saudi Arabia also confirms it has shot down a drone — all part of the latest attempt by Al Houthis to continue their ill-fated drive to hold sway in Yemen.
The conflict of these past three years has been caused by Al Houthis and their removal of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the legitimate government of Yemen. The Saudi Arabia-led international coalition — in which the UAE is playing a key role — is acting on a series of binding resolutions from the United Nations Security Council.
These UN resolutions recognise the illegality of Al Houthi actions and it is an illegality too that extends to the regime in Tehran, one that has actively armed, provisioned, trained and maintained Al Houthis and their ability to become increasingly sophisticated in their actions against the international coalition. Missiles, drones and sea mines do not appear out of thin air, and the intercepted arms shipments and recovered missile debris clearly show Iran and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as the source.
What’s galling is that at the same time as it filled the armouries of Al Houthis with stockpiles of its weapons and materials of war, Iranian officials were sweet-talking UN and other leading nations that its nuclear programme was purely for peaceful means, and its missile technology was purely for domestic use. Clearly, that’s not the case, as the intercepted missile debris fallen on Saudi sand show.
These repeated attempts to hit targets deep inside Saudi Arabia are meant to intimidate and provide propaganda boosts for Al Houthis and their Iranian masters. They are provocative, and despite their repeated failures, are being tried again and again with the mistaken belief that they will somehow succeed in breaking Saudi resolve. Nothing could be further from the truth, and soon a day will come when those who perpetrate these attacks will be held to account.
Tehran has but one raison d’etre — to spread its sectarian agenda from the Bab Al Mandab to Beirut. To do this, it uses minions like Al Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, or its militias in Iraq. But there will come a day, too, when Tehran will be held to account.
