Yemeni Armed Forces Conduct Drills in Preparation for Possible Imperialist Ground Invasion

United States and British warplanes have conducted regular bombing operations against the country in a failed attempt to lessen its capacity in the Palestine solidarity struggle.

By Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Thursday March 21, 2024

Geostrategic Analysis

Resistance forces in Yemen have been the targets in the U.S. and British efforts to halt the country’s blockade against Israeli ports. 

Spokesmen for the Ansar Allah movement say that its presence in the Arabian and Red Seas is a direct result of the Israeli war on the Palestinians in Gaza.

During mid-March reports surfaced indicating that the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) and the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) were conducting exercises which simulate a ground invasion by two leading imperialist countries, the U.S. and Britain. The YAF have continued their attacks on ships which are violating the blockade. These resistance operations have openly defied the increased imperialist military presence and aggressive actions in the region. 

In describing the character of the drills and the political atmosphere spawning the present situation, the Cradle emphasized:

“As the drills occurred, the Yemeni Minister of Defense, Major General Nasser al-Atifi, delivered a speech stressing Sanaa's capacity to ‘deal with an international community that respects only the strong. We will enforce new rules of engagement forcefully, and the price will be paid dearly by the Americans, the British, and the Zionists and those in their orbit. The battle of The Promised Conquest and the Sacred Jihad in support of Al-Aqsa Flood will triumph and inevitably lead to geopolitical changes in line with a new world order,’ Atifi said on Sunday (March 17). He noted that the people of Yemen are not ‘warmongers’ but stressed that Israel's campaign of genocide in Gaza has prompted ‘freedom-loving nations of the world to declare their position against such atrocities.’” (https://thecradle.co/articles-id/23933)

The Ansar Allah officials emphasized their sovereignty over territorial waters. They pledged not to relent even in the face of bombings by the Pentagon and the British Royal Air Forces.

Just prior to the military exercises, a delegation consisting of representatives of several Palestinian organizations visited Sana’a for high-level talks with the Yemeni government. It was reported that Hamas, Palestine Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) were present for the talks. 

This delegation was reflective of the unity which exists in the military resistance to the IDF occupation of Gaza. There are ten different brigades involved in the fighting and their actions are coordinated against the settler-colonial troops.

The general thrust of the conversations centered on enhancing the cooperation between fighters in Palestine and the solidarity efforts in Yemen. Although the western imperialist states and their media outlets attribute all of the armed resistance activity as being coordinated by the Islamic Republic of Iran, these organizations have engaged in self-directed defensive and offensive operations against the State of Israel and the U.S. All of the tactics being utilized in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, are based upon the concrete conditions prevailing in those areas of the region. 

In Palestine and the other neighboring states, they have been able to build their own weapons which can effectively level significant casualties against the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and those allied with Zionism and imperialism. The blockade carried out now for several months by the YAF has been quite costly for the commercial maritime industry. 

The cost of shipping has risen sharply with the rise in insurance rates and travel expenses due to the rerouting of vessels. To respond to the crisis, the U.S. and Britain have been forced to deploy additional military personnel in the region. These events are occurring when popular pressure is mounting within the imperialist countries and around the world calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the recognition of an independent Palestinian state. 

In the same above-cited article published by the Cradle, it reveals that:

“The Palestinians, in turn, reportedly conveyed their ‘great appreciation for the pivotal and important role’ played by Yemen since last November. Last week, Ansarallah leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi announced plans to expand Yemen's maritime operations against U.S., U.K., and Israeli-linked vessels in the Red Sea. His speech came a day after a Yemeni military source revealed to Russian media that the armed forces recently tested a hypersonic missile and are preparing to introduce the technology into the country's military arsenal.” 

This YAF blockade is taking its toll inside the Israeli Occupied Territories (IOT) forcing an economic downturn in the shipping industry. Another report published by the Cradle says that:

“Israel’s port of Eilat in the occupied south is set to fire half of its employees due to the devastating effects of Yemen’s maritime blockade on Israeli shipping. The main Israeli labor federation, the Histadrut Labor Federation, said on 20 March that port authorities have announced their intention to lay off half of the 120 people employed at the Eilat port. It added that the workers plan on protesting the decision on Wednesday. ‘It would have been right for the company at this time to have embraced the workers and their families, and not chosen the easy way of attempting mass layoffs. We won’t be a part of this,’ said Eyal Yadin, the chairman of Israel’s transportation workers union, in a statement.” (https://thecradle.co/articles/yemens-red-sea-blockade-forces-mass-layoffs-at-key-israeli-port)

Since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, the level of resistance to the aggression exerted by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) coupled with solidarity efforts internationally characterized by mass demonstrations, boycotts, social media campaigns along with an overall intensified debate over the legitimacy of the Israeli state which relies on the unconditional support awarded by the U.S., the U.K. and the European Union (EU), illustrates clearly that the status-quo is unsustainable politically. The administration of President Joe Biden and the Democratic-dominated Senate headed by Chuck Schumer has to make it appear as if they want to lessen the suffering of the Palestinian people.

Nonetheless, there is no discussion yet on measures such as halting all aid to Tel Aviv including weapons, intelligence assistance and diplomatic cover. Sanctions could be imposed on leading Israeli officials for their blatant genocidal policies. 

One of the key aspects of the global solidarity movement with Palestine is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns which have gained tremendous support in the U.S. and Britain. In the U.K., groups such as Palestine Action have been successful in exposing the links between transnational corporations and the arming of the Zionist state.

The difficulty in making such changes in U.S. foreign policy is that imperialism relies on the Zionist state as a bulwark against the aspirations of the people of West Asia and North Africa. With the entering of literally billions of people across the globe in the Palestine solidarity movement, this factor has rapidly shifted the public mood within the U.S., Britain and the EU member-states.  

Regional Resistance Continues 

Iraqi resistance fighters announced on March 21 that they had targeted a power generation station in Tel Aviv. Such attacks are ongoing despite the periodic airstrikes conducted by the Pentagon.

Al Mayadeen reported on the military resistance activities in Iraq saying:

“In the past weeks, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq intensified its operations against Israeli targets inside occupied Palestinian territory. On Wednesday (March 20), the Resistance said its fighters attacked Ben Gurion Airport deep within the Israeli occupation entity using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) -- the second time in one week. On Monday (March 18), the Islamic Resistance targeted an Israeli UAV airbase in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights using drones and affirmed the continuation and intensification of its operations during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Akram al-Kaabi, the Secretary-General of the al-Nujaba Movement, a faction that operates under the umbrella of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, affirmed on February 25 that the Resistance will maintain its operations to kick U.S. forces out of the country and will not stop attacking Israeli targets in occupied Palestine.” (https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/iraqi-resistance-targets-electricity-generation-station-in)

In neighboring Lebanon, the Hezbollah resistance movement has on a daily basis engaged the IDF in solidarity with the Palestinians. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers have been forced to move from areas on the northern border with southern Lebanon. 

Al Mayadeen reported on the intensifying attacks against the settler-colonial regime pointing out:

“Hezbollah fighters continue to target Israeli occupation military sites and soldiers for the 165th day in support of the Palestinian people and their Resistance in the Gaza Strip. Following up on nine operations announced throughout Tuesday (March 19), the group fired rockets and missiles at Israeli military positions across the Lebanese-Palestinian border. The first set of attacks was a dual operation that targeted Israeli sites in the occupied Lebanese town of Hounin and Kfar Chouba Hills at 5:35 pm (local time). In the first operation, Hezbollah fighters attacked the Hounin Castle, which had been appropriated by Israeli occupation forces for military purposes, confirming direct hits to the intended target. In the second operation, Hezbollah fighters targeted the Roueissat al-Alam military site, located more than 20 km away from the site of the first operation. Just five minutes later, Islamic Resistance fighters launched an attack on the Zibdine military site in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms.” (https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hezbollah-fighters-launch-3-near-parallel-attacks-on-israeli)

Consequently, the struggle against the genocide in Gaza cannot be halted through the aggressive actions of the IDF and the duplicitous statements made by the U.S. Unless widespread changes are made within the imperialist construct in the West Asia and North Africa regions, the imperialist states led by the U.S. will be forced to wage yet another disastrous war which will further weaken its internal and external capabilities to exercise world hegemony.