An official of the rebel Yemenite Houthis told the media that the Biden State Department had offered to recognize the terrorist organization as the official government in Sanaa after “giving up.”
“There is always communication after every operation we conduct,” Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi movement’s political bureau, told Al Jazeera Mubasher TV. “These calls are based on either threats or presenting some temptations, but they have given up to achieve any accomplishment in that direction.”
Al-Bukhaiti claimed the calls after attacks included some from the US and the United Kingdom indirectly through mediators and that the threats included direct US military intervention against countries that intervene militarily “in support of Gaza.”
These remarks came one day after the Houthis launched a surface-to-surface ballistic missile at central Israel. The Houthis have fired over 220 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones at Israel over the past 11 months. Houthi attacks have threatened international shipping in the region, damaging more than 8- vessels and sinking two more. They also captured one vessel, killing three crew members.
A US official, speaking anonymously, called the remarks “a total fabrication.” Another State Department official questioned the credibility of the Houthi claims without denying them.
“Houthi propaganda is rarely true or newsworthy. Coverage like this puts a guise of credibility on their misinformation,” the unnamed US official told the media.
The Houthis are a Shia Islamist group that emerged from Yemen in the 1990s. As an Iranian proxy, the Houthis are aligned with Hezbollah. The group is vehemently anti-USA, anti-Israel, and anti-Saudi Arabia. They took part in the revolution in 2011, taking control of Sanaa, Yemen’s capital and largest city. Following the outbreak of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, the Houthis began to fire missiles at Israel and to attack ships off Yemen’s coast in the Red Sea, which they say is in solidarity with Hamas.
In 2024, commanders from IRGC and Hezbollah were reported to be actively involved on the ground in Yemen, overseeing and directing Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, according to a report by Reuters.
President Trump designated the Houthis a terrorist organization in 2021, but one month later, after taking office, President Joe Biden reversed that decision. In January, the United States put the Houthis back on its list of terrorist groups.
It was recently reported that Hamas and the Houthis established offices in Iraq to facilitate their activities against the US and Israel. The Houthi representative in Iraq is Abu Idris al-Sharafi.
