What to do with Iran and its Houthi proxies: Attack!

Over the weekend, the U.S. took a different approach to the Yemen problem. It launched airstrikes against Houthi rebel positions in response to a warning the Houthis would target “Israeli” ships traveling through Mideast waterways like the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.

On Sunday morning, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth commented in an interview that “This campaign is about freedom of navigation and restoring deterrence. The minute the Houthis say, ‘We’ll stop shooting at your ships, we’ll stop shooting at your drones,’ this campaign will end. But until then, it will be unrelenting."

He added the airstrikes were meant to draw Iran's attention with the message that its “support of the Houthis needs to end immediately,” that the U.S. will hold Iran “accountable as a sponsor of this proxy” and that Iran needs to "back off from enabling the Houthis.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed the message on CBS News's "Face the Nation" that, "There's no way the ... Houthis would have the ability to do this kind of thing unless they had support from Iran.”

That evening Houthi rebels responded to Hegseth by firing 18 ballistic and cruise missiles and one drone at the USS Harry S. Truman and its carrier strike group. Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said that “his militants would target U.S. ships in the Red Sea as long as the U.S. continues its attacks on Yemen. If they continue their aggression, we will continue the escalation."

President Trump said on Monday he would hold Iran responsible for any attacks carried out by the Houthis. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander Hossein Salami says the Houthis “make their own decisions.”

But the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah all have one thing in common — Iran.

On Tuesday, Houthi Foreign Minister Jamal Amer said they will not "dial down their action against Israeli shipping in the Red Sea in response to U.S. military pressure or appeals from the group's allies such as Iran … Now we see that Yemen is at war with the U.S. and that means that we have a right to defend ourselves with all possible means, so escalation is likely."

Then Russia intervened. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Rubio to urge an "immediate cessation of the use of force and the importance for all sides to engage in political dialogue."

This is the same Russia, by the way, which Iran helped last September to broker “secret talks between Russia and Yemen’s Houthi rebels to transfer anti-ship missiles to the militant group.” These are likely the same Russian missiles used to target the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and other U.S. naval assets operating in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Furthermore, intelligence reports confirm that the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation — the GRU — now operates in Yemen under the guise of humanitarian aid.

This is the same Russia whose president Trump spoke with for more than two hours on Tuesday, discussing a cease-fire proposal over the phone to end the war in Ukraine. This is the same Russia that paid bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan.

The Houthis are a mere distraction to divert attention and military resources, whereas Russia and Iran are the main concern. Like Israel, the U.S. has now adopted the tactic of confronting the proxy head-on, hoping to send a message to Tehran. But while they address the symptom, the disease is dangerously in pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

The U.S. designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization took effect Mar. 4, enabling U.S. Central Command to take action. But airstrikes alone against Houthi rebels in Yemen are not going to solve this problem, even though they do represent a start. The same hydra Israel battles in Gaza and southern Lebanon has a head in Yemen too. Ultimately, Iran, aided by Russia, is the source of turmoil throughout the Middle East.

We may now be finally seeing the go ashore plan recommended by U.S. Navy Admiral and former NATO Commander James Stavridis back in June 2024. He described a four-phase operation, beginning with intelligence collection to “build a coherent picture of exactly where Houthi strike assets and command-and-control [centers] are located.”

Next, attack the command-and-control centers with cruise missiles to blind the Houthi. And that may not be limited to just Houthi assets, since Iran has long been helping the Houthis with its intelligence and targeting ships. To sink one of these would send a very strong message to Tehran.

The third phase consists of strikes conducted against the Houthi physical infrastructure used for the attacks — coastal radars, manned Houthi maritime craft, land-based ballistic missile launchers, unmanned speed boats, maintenance facilities, ammunition caches and drone construction (and arming) centers.

Then phase four is to sever the supply chain back to Iran and Russia. This would likely require a naval blockade and may “require striking Iranian assets directly.”

Although Stavridis did not suggest targeting senior Houthi leadership or Iranian or Russian advisors on the ground providing technical assistance, that should remain on the table. So should special operations raids, which Trump authorized in late February.

The Houthis are a resilient terrorist organization. Passive defense measures have failed to deter their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Direct action against Houthi rebels and their support structure is necessary to eliminate the threat. It took the Trump administration to deliver the message.

It is time to remove this distraction and get to its Iranian and Russian sources. It is time to close with and destroy the enemy — finish the job.

Col. (Ret.) Jonathan E. Sweet served 30 years as an Army intelligence officer. Mark Toth writes on national security and foreign policy.

Topics

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