Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree
stated that the attack was a response to more than 47 US airstrikes — ordered
by US President Donald Trump — on rebel-controlled areas in Yemen, including
the capital Sanaa and the province of Saada, which borders Saudi Arabia.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all
American warships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea in retaliation for the
aggression against our country,” Saree declared.
Both Washington and the Houthis have warned of further
escalation following the US airstrikes, which aimed to deter the rebels from
attacking military and commercial vessels in one of the world’s busiest
shipping lanes.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told US media on Sunday,
“We’re not going to have these people controlling which ships can go through
and which ones cannot."
"And so your question is, how long will this go on? It
will go on until they no longer have the capability to do that," he added.
He emphasized that these strikes would differ from the Biden
administration's one-off attacks.
On Sunday, Iran denied any involvement in the Houthi
attacks. General Hossein Salami, head of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary
Guard, said on state-run media that Tehran "plays no role in setting the
national or operational policies" of the militant groups it is allied with
across the region.
