Sana | WTNS | Dec 22: Yemen’s AnsarAllah (Houthi) Leader says: If US provokes a war with us, it will face a more disastrous outcome than in Afghanistan and Vietnam. US must not assume that it can launch attacks and end the conflict, but it will be dragged into a full-scale war. We warn US to avoid such foolishness.

Abdul-Malik Badruldeen al-Houthi, the leader of the Ansarallah group in Yemen, has threatened to target US battleships in response to any attack against Yemen.

“We will not stand idly by if the Americans have a tendency to escalate and commit foolishness by targeting our country,” al-Houthi said in a speech on Wednesday.

Last November, the Ansarallah group announced that it would target any ship owned or operated by Israel in the Red Sea, until Israel allows for food and fuel to be brought into the besieged Gaza Strip.

“The support for Palestine is based on popular and political consensus” inside Yemen, al-Houthi said, noting that their choice does not target international ships, but only the ones related to “the Zionist enemy”.

“Other countries should not involve themselves and sacrifice themselves in the service of Israel,” he warned.

Israel is committing “heinous crimes against the Palestinians,” al-Houthi said, adding that “the occupation army continues the severe siege, starvation, and prevents medicines from reaching civilians.”

Al-Houthi stated that the United States plays an active role in Israel’s actions in Gaza as “supporters of Zionism”.

On the other hand, the Yemeni leader noted that they do not expect “the Europeans, with all their dark history, to play a positive role for the benefit of the Palestinian people.”

“The greatest responsibility lies with the Muslim world to have a voice and provide all forms of support” to the Palestinians, he said. 

Al-Houthi said that the Ansarallah group asked countries separating Yemen from Palestine to open all crossings for its mujahideen to enter Palestine.

Meanwhile a Yemeni official has said, the Yemeni Armed Forces are ready to respond to any new “foolish” provocation by the United States.

In an interview with IRNA published on Thursday, Hezam al-Assad, a member of the political bureau of the Ansarullah resistance movement, spoke about threats facing Yemen following reports by the US media that planning is underway for possible military action against Yemen in response to a surge in attacks on Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea.

“We were not surprised by America’s recent position and its announcement of forming a naval coalition to protect the ships of the Israeli regime headed to its ports. From the outset, they were the main instigators of aggression against the people of Gaza,” he said.

“They have been attempting to intercept Yemeni missiles and drones to prevent them from reaching the Israeli enemy, and they continue to do so,” the official added.

Al–Assad maintained that the US complicity in the Israeli crimes in Gaza is undeniable, as Washington has supplied political backing and military aid to the regime since the occupying regime launched a devastating war against the Palestinian territory in early October.