A senior official of the powerful Yemeni faction already striking Israel from afar told Newsweek the group would intensify support to and cooperation with fellow Iran ally Hezbollah to defeat their mutual foe amid a sharp uptick in regional violence.
After nearly a year of worsening clashes across the Israel-Lebanon border since the outbreak of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Monday the commencement of Operation “Northern Arrows” as Israeli airstrikes and artillery pounded suspected Hezbollah positions across Lebanon through Tuesday.
With Hezbollah still claiming new strikes against Israel, the group announced on Tuesday that it was now fighting not only “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their valiant and honorable resistance” but also now “in defense of Lebanon and its people.”
Meanwhile, other factions of the Iran-aligned Axis of Resistance have also claimed strikes on Israel from Iraq and from Yemen, where Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthi movement, has fired missiles and drones at Israel as well as commercial vessels accused of violating the group’s unilateral maritime blockade against Israel.
Now, as the latest conflagrations between Israel and Hezbollah threaten a new all-out war, Ansar Allah Deputy Information Secretary Nasreddin Amer argued that the Yemeni group was prepared to deploy all the means at its disposal to aid Hezbollah in a battle he said the Lebanese militia was sure to win.
“First, we are absolutely confident that God will grant us victory in this battle,” Amer told Newsweek. “We are also confident and aware of the strength and power of Hezbollah, that it has the power to inflict an unprecedented historic defeat on Israel. We will certainly support our brothers in Hezbollah with all our strength and without limits.”
Fighters loyal to Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement attend a military parade marking the anniversary of the group’s 2014 takeover of the capital Sanaa and in solidarity with the Palestinian people, in Sanaa on September 21.
OSAMA ABDULRAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images
Amer went on to tout the wide potential for stronger bonds to be forged between the two Axis of Resistance factions, as well as the support Hezbollah’s leader enjoyed within Yemen.
“The opportunities for cooperation are many and great, and the Yemeni people have a special love for Hezbollah and its Secretary-General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” Amer said. “There is hardly a Yemeni home without a picture of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Even those who do not belong to Ansar Allah love Hezbollah and its secretary-general.”
Newsweek has reached out to Hezbollah and the IDF for comment.
Ansar Allah has claimed numerous strikes against Israel since conflict erupted in Gaza following a massive Hamas attack against Israel. The most recent strike occurred last week when a missile fired by Ansar Allah reached central Israel for the first time.
Ansar Allah military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree referred to the weapon as a “new hypersonic ballistic missile,” alleging that the projectile flew 1,270 miles in just 11.5 minutes. The IDF said interceptors struck part of the missile but did not destroy it entirely, leading to fragments falling into open territory, without causing direct injuries.
Shortly after the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a government meeting that Israel was “in a multi-front campaign against Iran’s axis of evil, which is striving for our destruction.” He warned that Ansar Allah “should know that we exact a high price for any attempt to attack us.”
The IDF conducted a series of airstrikes against the critical Yemeni port of Hodeidah in July after an Ansar Allah drone struck central Tel Aviv, causing one death and several injuries. The Israeli strike on Hodeidah killed 14 people and injured dozens more, according to local authorities.
The strikes also drew condemnation from Iran, which has increasingly issued direct threats to Israel over a series of high-profile events. These include the unclaimed assassination of Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in late July, Israel’s killing of two top Hezbollah commanders over the past two months, and a wave of detonations that struck communications devices used primarily by Hezbollah last week, killing 42 and injuring thousands, including civilians and wounding Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon.
Speaking to a roundtable of journalists on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused Israel of attempting to lure Tehran into a wider regional war. At the same time, he reiterated that Iran would live up to its promise to respond to Haniyeh’s killing in Tehran “at the appropriate time, at the appropriate place.”
He also vowed to continue to aid Hezbollah, Ansar Allah “and any other group that defends her rights.”
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