- Huti are primarily a problem of Israel, not the US. They have any military potential, they have engineering personnel and weapons resources, including drones and ballistic missiles, which can harm ships and the territory of Israel. However, I would not overestimate their threat, says Onetu
- Contrary to Trump's words, what the United States is now doing is nothing fresh or more intense than America's earlier actions. Donald Trump is not going to do much more than his predecessor,” says the expert
- Let's not get the impression that Huti is Iran's free tool, much little Russia. In order to keep their state of possession, they don’t actually request any outside support, says
- I don't know what kind of gradation of targets president Trump created. He opened respective fronts and problems for the United States where they had not been before, notes Dr. Luke Fyderek
- More crucial information can be found on the Onetu homepage
Łukasz Cieśla, Onet: Donald Trump refuses to support Ukraine attacked by Russia, but has just announced a military operation against the little-known Huti of far-off Yemen. Why is he active in this conflict?
Dr. Luke Fyderek: Donald Trump's logic is most likely 1 of the most hard issues for political scientists to grasp analytically. The correct answer to your question would so be that I do not know what its current calculations consequence from. However, there are respective hypotheses and events that may have prompted him to operate against Huti.
Is this about their attacks on U.S. Navy ships?
This is 1 factor, and these attacks have been going on for a year and a half. The Huti Movement, which, although not internationally recognized, presents itself as a Yemeni government and which controls the northern and central parts of the country including Sana's capital, began attacking shipping in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea in late autumn 2023. He declared that these acts of piracy and terrorism were answers to Israel's actions against the Palestinians. And I wouldn't call Huti pirates, they're acting on the rule of extended maritime terrorism. Through violence, they search not economical benefits but circumstantial political concessions. Not so much about Yemen, but about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They say officially that they support Palestinians and are opponents of Jews.
So they support their brothers in the war against “evil Israel”, which they say is the top enemy?
This can be generalized, but it is worth keeping in head the details, which is who the Huti truly are and what is the origin of their creation. Huti is simply a common name, and the full name is “Ansar Allah”, a organization of the Companions of God. They have their base mainly in the tribes of northern Yemen. Their spiritual basis is Western Islam, and the vindication itself is simply a sect of Shimism, different from the dominant Sunnism in Islam. The movement itself was not so much against Israel, but erstwhile Saudi Arabia began supporting extremist Sunni groups in Yemen in the 1990s. The Huti began to fear that they would lose spiritual influence in their territory.
They wanted to make radicals on their side?
In the 1990s, Saudi Arabia began increasingly supporting missionary activities in the context of the spread of Sunni Islam in Yemen. Mosques were built, scholarships were funded for residents. erstwhile it reached the areas dominated by the Western elite, they stated that the faithful could convert to Sunniism. So, in response, they began to radicalize and to draw from another Shiite organizations, especially Hezbollah, or Lebanese Shiites. They besides began to be very rapidly supported by Iran, taking over part of its ideology, including extremist anti-imperiarism and anti-Zionism.
Who's behind Huti's move? “They do not request any outside support”
Is Russia behind the Hutia movement, apart from Iran?
I wouldn't go that far. Russia, of course, is now calling on the US not to attack Yemen, but the Russians are more trying to make the impression that they besides have crucial influence in this region of the world. But they don't actually have them. The Yemeni may have any sympathy for Russia, as she besides opposes the US, but on the another hand they know that Moscow did various business with their main enemy, Israel.
Is that why the Propalaestinian Huti became the salt in Donald Trump's eye supporting Israel?
Huti are primarily a problem of Israel, not the US. They have any military potential, engineering staff, and weapons resources, including drones and ballistic missiles, which can harm ships and the territory of Israel. However, I would not overestimate the threat on their part. Yemen is, in fact, a fallen country, the poorest arabian country, with various humanitarian challenges, including epidemics and malnutrition, and water problems.
Donald Trump stated that they needed to be dealt with, due to the fact that the reaction of his predecessor, president Biden, was “an embarrassingly weak”. Is there any fact in that?
Contrary to Trump's words, what the United States is now doing is nothing fresh or more intense than America's earlier actions. Donald Trump won't do much more than his predecessor, with the same possibilities. The U.S. has 1 or 2 airfield combat groups in this area of the world, and I do not anticipate the fresh president to engage more forces and resources in Yemen's operation.
How does Huti, given Yemen's tremendous economical problems, have money? Their sponsor is Iran?
Unlike many another alleged non-state actors, they are mostly self-sustaining. They are like Taliban in Afghanistan or the government in North Korea. In Yemen, they manage a large part of the country, with about 20 million inhabitants, from whom they collect taxes and various taxes. The economy is very weak there, but it does be and can derive gross from it. So let's not get the impression that Huti is Iran's free tool, much little Russia. In order to keep their possessions, they don't actually request any outside support.
"President Trump will not deprive them of their regulation over part of Yemen"
I'll go back to the question at the beginning of our conversation. Why is Trump focusing on them right now? He wants a quick, winning small war?
To tell you the truth, it's easier for me to realize the logic of Huti than Donald Trump. They're definitely a threat to shipping. They late launched a long-range radar controlling traffic in the waters around Yemen and in airspace, which they loudly announced in their media. So there were military grounds for hitting and specified reports were likely on the U.S. President's desk. However, the military operation that American forces began does not disagree importantly from those conducted in 2024, despite president Trump's noisy rhetoric.
How challenging is the Huti movement for the US?
I don't know what kind of gradation of targets president Trump created. He opened respective fronts and problems for the United States where they had not been before. I am referring to the conflict with Greenland and Denmark, Canada and Mexico. Of course, the Huti are the real enemy of the Western planet with their chief slogan “Death of America!”. It is an enemy on the 1 hand that does not require, due to the fact that it is poorly technologically advanced, without e.g. aviation, and on the another hand strong adequate that the US would gotta introduce significant, even respective 100 thousandths of land forces into Yemen to overthrow them. And that's precisely what it looks like. Trump will not deprive them of their rule, but will limit themselves to attacks on circumstantial targets to deprive them of their ability to operate in the surrounding waters, especially in the Bab al-Mandab Strait linking the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. These are the current and realistic goals that America truly pursues. In conclusion, we are not dealing with anything fresh in this region of the world. Only rhetoric from the fresh U.S. president has changed, but no more decisive military action will follow.
