Many are surprised by the tone of challenge, confrontation, and insistence adopted by the Yemeni "Houthi" group, which insists on continuing to threaten the global trade movement, and they depend on stopping the launching of missiles and marches in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait on ending the siege on Gaza.
There is no doubt that the behavior of this group is completely consistent with its goals of this escalation, which on the surface appears to be "support for the people of Gaza," but inside it are deep secrets, all of which are linked to the interests of the "Houthi" group and its regional financiers and sponsors.
The idea of challenging the United States and its international allies is in itself one of the characteristics of the militia behavior of what is known as the "Axis of Resistance" led by Iran, and it is an emotional idea that tickles the feelings of people, especially those of Iran's supporters and its regional arms. Which sees the formation of the international maritime coalition known as the "Guardian of Prosperity" as a victory for it, regardless of anything else.
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These terrorist militias act like gangs and do not think about the interests of countries or peoples. Therefore, as soon as the United States announced this alliance, the Houthis took the initiative to ridicule the American announcement. The group's spokesman indicated that any direct American attack on Yemen would automatically mean expanding the scope of the war in Gaza and turning it into a "global disaster."
The Houthi group realizes, based on its connection with Iran, that the Biden administration has absolutely no desire to expand the scope of the war in Gaza or to get involved in a Middle Eastern conflict front in the year of the US presidential elections.
With all that, this means, the inevitable end to President Biden's chances of winning a second presidential term, not to mention the difficulty facing any thinking about opening a new conflict other than Ukraine and Gaza, with the military needs and large financial funding that this requires, which may not be easily available in the current circumstances.
Therefore, the group persists in the challenge out of confidence in the absence of the will of actual American deterrence.
The reality is that the Houthi threats have become a real dilemma for the global economy and not just the Israeli economy, as they have stopped major international oil transport companies such as BP and major shipping companies.
The most prominent of which is "Maersk" through its tankers and ships in the Red Sea due to the ships' continued exposure to Houthi bombing and threats, which represents a threat to freedom of navigation and the movement of trade passing through this vital shipping lane.
There is no doubt that the Houthi group is attracted by the spotlight that has been placed on it recently, as news of its illegal activities has become the forefront of international news bulletins.
Its leaders have also become among the most prominent news items in the world, and this in itself represents a propaganda gain for the group that wants to extend its hegemony over Yemen and extract international legitimacy to rule the country, or at least part of it.
Therefore, it sees such ambiguous regional roles as eliciting recognition of its importance and its ability to destabilize security and stability, in addition to tickling the feelings of the Arab peoples and winning their sympathy in preparation for consolidating the idea of its existence as a recognized, legitimate government in Yemen.
The Houthis also want to associate themselves with the Palestinian issue, which they realize is extremely central to the Arab collective consciousness, especially in light of the limited margin of movement available to Arab governments, which suddenly found themselves facing a complex and extremely dangerous conflict reality imposed by the Palestinian terrorist movement Hamas on everyone regionally and internationally.
Therefore, the Houthis, by virtue of being an ideological militia with a great ability to act recklessly away from the accounts of official states and governments, have exploited this worn-out regional and international reality in an attempt to impose their word and consolidate their role as an active player within the equations of security and stability in the Middle East.
Not to mention the Houthis' desire to strengthen their position in the peace negotiations that began some time ago with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as the Kingdom certainly desires to cool the atmosphere regionally and create conditions to achieve security and stability and avoid any tensions that may negatively affect, even to a small degree, the pace of implementation of ambitious Saudi development projects within the vision of 2030.
In light of the above, it is possible to understand the popular campaign organized by the Houthi group to recruit and train Yemenis to fight in the Palestinian territories "if conditions exist for that," as they announced their intention to send their fighters to Gaza.
It is a step that they are fully aware of the difficulty of achieving, but it represents an indication of the possibilities of expanding the scope of the conflict, mobilizing emotions, and inflaming the feelings of the Arab peoples, especially the peoples located on the borders with the Palestinian territories, as in the cases of Egypt and Jordan.
Not to mention the symbolic connotations of such Houthi claims with regard to regional positions, especially their attempt to exploit these positions by terrorist and extremist organizations in propaganda and media trading and to distort the reputation of the rest of the Arab and Islamic countries by repeating allegations, accusations and lies against them.
In an attempt to embarrass these countries and influence their positions and policies in the interest of these terrorist organizations and groups, which absolutely do not want to achieve peace, but rather feed on plans for chaos and spreading unrest regionally and internationally.
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