Houthis seek worldwide publicity, embrace 'Iran's Axis of Resistance' as 'broader regional strategy'
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00:00 Let's get you more on this. We can speak to Elizabeth Kendall. She's a senior
00:04 research fellow in Arabic and Islamic studies at Pembroke College, the
00:06 University of Oxford. Elizabeth, thanks very much for speaking to France 24 this
00:11 evening. You will have heard in that report then, these US-led strikes on
00:16 Houthi targets, at least 16 of them is what we understand. How much is that
00:21 likely to change Houthi's actions, certainly when it comes to the Red Sea?
00:25 I think it really depends on how vital the sites that were hit actually are. I
00:33 don't think it's going to change the Houthis actions merely by deterring them
00:39 emotionally. I think it might well have the opposite effect. The Houthis are well
00:44 used to suffering airstrikes. They've suffered over 25,000 airstrikes over the
00:50 course of the last nine years during the civil war that's been running in Yemen
00:54 and they're also well used to hiding their equipment and of course they're
00:58 hardened fighters. This will probably outrage them, enrage them and feed into
01:05 their narratives of being the defender of the oppressed, in particular those in
01:11 Gaza, against the imperialist West America, Israel and their allies. So
01:17 that's the way they're framing themselves. These airstrikes play right
01:20 into their hands. So unless critical infrastructure genuinely has been
01:24 knocked out, I would expect them to continue and perhaps even to up their
01:28 game. Let's stay with that narrative, Elizabeth. You touched on Houthis
01:33 saying that the reason that they're doing this, the motivation of this, is to
01:37 support Hamas, is to support Palestinians in Gaza. How much of that
01:41 narrative is at the forefront of these actions and is there more behind it?
01:49 There's certainly more behind it. I don't think we can dismiss the narrative
01:53 entirely. There's a genuine feeling amongst the Houthis and certainly
01:58 amongst their base and more broadly in Yemen and the Arab world that somebody
02:04 needs to stand up for Palestine. So they have been quite opportunistic in seizing
02:10 this chance to play the hero but it also works for them on other levels. It works
02:16 for them domestically because it revives and invigorates quite a tired population
02:22 after nine years of war. It works for them regionally because it increases
02:26 their leverage with the ongoing talks that they're having with Saudi Arabia
02:30 for the latter's exit from the Yemen war and it works for them internationally by
02:34 bringing them massive publicity and by ensuring that Israel's actions in Gaza
02:38 do have knock-on effects around the world more globally. And I think it's
02:43 also worth pointing out here that the Houthis are of course, although they have
02:47 their own reasons for launching attacks in the Red Sea, they are part of Iran's
02:52 so-called axis of resistance. So they feed into that broader regional strategy
02:57 too. I mean these strikes today were of course US-led but we know that the UK
03:01 was involved, Canada, Bahrain, other countries stepping up to the plate
03:08 equally. I suppose the question is, are the West hands tied? What else can they
03:14 do to stop these attacks on ships in the Red Sea? There are very few options open
03:22 to the West now. Lots of things have been tried, coercive measures, restrictive
03:27 measures. I mean things like sanctions, things like curbing the flow of funds to
03:31 the Houthis and also the threat of having this multinational maritime
03:35 force, the increased security presence in the Red Sea. None of this made any
03:41 difference. There didn't seem to be many other paths open. Now I think there are
03:45 still two ways in which the Houthis might be tackled. One is to go harder at
03:52 it with a diplomatic initiative that would probably have to be mediated by
03:57 Oman that has played a fairly neutral game in the region so far. And the other
04:03 is of course to tackle in some way the justification that the Houthis are using
04:09 which is the Israel-Palestine situation. If there were a concerted effort to
04:14 solve that then at least that would remove the perception of the moral high
04:19 ground from the Houthis. So those probably are two other courses that could
04:24 be pursued. Let's think about how great an impact this is having on
04:28 international shipping. We know that some countries are choosing other routes,
04:31 others are quite simply altering their paths. Economically speaking this is huge.
04:38 That's right and I think that's why we've seen governments act now. Although
04:43 the UK Prime Minister's statement did mention that it was also
04:49 in defence and solidarity with the Yemeni people against the Houthis with
04:53 whom the internationally recognized government has been at war for the past
04:56 nine years. Well we've had nine years to get involved on behalf of the Yemeni
05:01 people outside those in the Houthi areas and we didn't. So it's obviously about an
05:07 economic situation. This is what's pushed us to get involved. We have to remember
05:11 that around 15% of trade, part of global seaborne trade passes through the Red Sea
05:18 and that equates to about a trillion dollars of goods. So that's our
05:25 reason for getting involved. Elizabeth just a final question for you. You
05:29 touched on the UK there and Rishi Sunak's position. UK officials have
05:33 spoken today about there being a risk of pro-Iranian groups working in
05:38 Iraq and Syria launching attacks on US bases there. How much of a threat is this
05:43 in terms of the wider regional question? I think this is a really dangerous point.
05:49 Yes the threat is definitely there and if we take a step back we will notice
05:53 that all of the actions of Iran's so-called axis of resistance have been
06:00 carefully calibrated to look as though they're responsive. Now Israel is
06:07 encircled. The region could easily see a worse situation for Israel than that
06:12 currently. It has Hamas in the west in the Gaza Strip. It has Hezbollah to the
06:17 north in Lebanon. It has Iran backed Shia militants to the north and the
06:23 northeast in Iraq and in Syria and of course the Houthis to the
06:28 south in the Yemen and the Red Sea. So if all of those groups were to act in
06:32 concert and gradually ramp up their activities then we could see the region
06:36 go up in flames. All right Elizabeth Kendall of the University of Oxford
06:40 thanks very much indeed for speaking to France 24. You're welcome.