Al-Alimi: Airstrikes alone will not end the Houthi threat to international maritime navigation.

Chairman of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, Dr. Rashad Mohammed Al-Alimi, renewed his call for the international community to join in punitive measures against the Houthi militias and designate them as a global terrorist organization, stressing that airstrikes alone will not end the threat to international maritime navigation.

In an interview with the German newspaper Der Spiegel, Al-Alimi stressed that designating the Houthis as a terrorist group, isolating them economically, implementing UN Security Council resolutions, and supporting the government's efforts to restore its official institutions is the way to secure the Red Sea and defeat the axis of evil that includes Iran, the Houthis, and al-Qaeda.

Al-Alimi warned that Iran is working in cooperation with Al-Qaeda, the Houthis, and all terrorist organizations in the Horn of Africa on a long-term strategy to control the Red Sea and threaten the interests of the entire world.

He added, "The Houthis seek to blackmail the world by threatening waterways, and they cover up their sabotage activities with misleading political justifications. Behind this lies Iran's grand vision of controlling the Red Sea, an old plan, and the Houthis are its implementing tools."

He pointed out that following the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Iran is now working to position Abdul-Malik al-Houthi as his successor, as a new political and spiritual leader. He asserted that Iranian investment in the Houthi group may now be higher than what Hezbollah and Hassan Nasrallah previously received.

Al-Alimi explained that Abdul-Malik al-Houthi currently speaks in his sermons about Yemen as the axis of resistance, and that al-Houthi's ambitions to become the most prominent figure in the Iranian axis are not new.

He pointed out that the military support previously provided to the Syrian regime and Hezbollah is now largely directed to the Houthis, including the appointment of Revolutionary Guard commanders as ambassadors to the Houthi militia in Sana'a.

The president expressed his satisfaction with the international community's finally recognizing these facts, but emphasized that airstrikes alone will not end the threat to international maritime navigation. He said the problem lies in the presence of a fascist group that overthrew our elected government ten years ago and has become a tool of the Iranian axis of evil.

He added, "This theocratic project must be strategically defeated. Only in this way can Yemen be rebuilt, as its sons and daughters deserve, and international peace and security be preserved."

In this regard, the President praised the role of the Saudi-led coalition to support legitimacy, saying that had it not been for this coalition, the Houthis and Iran would have controlled all of Yemen, up to the Omani border.

He continued, "With the help of the coalition, we were able to liberate 70 percent of the territory, and more than three million Yemenis work in Saudi Arabia. Without their remittances to the homeland and without Saudi Arabia as a donor country, Yemen would be in a much worse situation than it is now."