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00:00All right, for more on this, we're now being joined by Colonel David B. DeRoche. He is
00:05a professor at Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University.
00:09Sir, thank you so much for joining us on World DNA. Always a pleasure to have you. Now, sir,
00:14my first question to you is, given all the developments, would you say that the war in
00:19West Asia has entered a new phase? Do you reckon this is an escalation like we've never
00:23seen before?
00:25Well, it's the first time Israel's responded. You know, as your report noted, there had
00:31been several hundred attacks launched from Yemen into Israel, but they had all been either
00:39intercepted or were inconsequential. So this is the first time they actually managed to
00:43kill an Israeli. I think Israel wants this to be a deterrent. I think that the Houthis
00:52on their part welcome having some sort of Israeli attack because it allows them domestically
00:58to portray any opposition to their rule, which is not extremely popular in Yemen, to be portrayed
01:05as supporting the Israeli government, which is broadly unpopular in the country. So it's
01:12a complicated situation. It could end here. My suspicion is that there will be another
01:17attack in a few more months as the Houthis' domestic situation deteriorates.
01:23Right, sir. There have always been fears of a wider regional conflagration. Will other
01:29Houthi empathizers in the region, Hezbollah, the Islamic resistance, we're talking about
01:35the axis of resistance here. Do you think they will jump in to retaliate now?
01:40Not on behalf of the Houthis. I mean, you know, the different proxy forces that Iran
01:46has has different degrees of independence, and the Houthis are probably the most independent.
01:52So they take their cues not from each other, but from Iran. I think it is possible, though,
01:59that they're struggling to remain relevant. They all want to be seen as at the forefront
02:03of resistance to Israel. So, you know, Lebanese Hezbollah, of course, has got more involved.
02:09The various Iraqi militias have remained relatively quiet. The Houthis, I think, did this as a
02:15means of reasserting their relevance and possibly trying to make a claim on Iranian
02:22resources if, as is currently predicted, President Trump returns and imposes maximum pressure
02:31on Iran. Iran will have much less money to spend on weapons and supporting its proxies.
02:36So the Houthis want to be seen as in the first rank of their proxies.
02:41Right, sir. Now, despite all the developments, we've seen that the tone of the Israeli prime
02:45minister has not changed. He vows to fight on and continue his attacks. Retaliatory attacks
02:51is what he calls them. Now, at the same time, there is growing pressure on the prime minister.
02:57How do you assess that?
03:00I think it's nothing that he can't deal with. I mean, the prime minister's goals remain pretty
03:06much constant from what they were on October 7th, which is to destroy the ability of Hamas
03:12to project power inside Israel. I think in order to do that, he's going to have to eventually
03:19have occupied all of Gaza for a period of some time while they systematically destroy the tunnels,
03:25the weapons networks, etc. That means that they're going to have to eventually take all of
03:31Rafah. And then the operation will shift from an offensive force against a conventional force,
03:38which is what Hamas amounted to, to a counterinsurgency confined mostly within
03:43Gaza. And I think we're going to see that happen within the next few months.
03:48All right, Colonel DeRoche, thank you so much for joining us on World DNA with your insights on this.
03:53Thank you.