Most people are not aware of it, but Yemen’s Houthi militia is Iran’s most powerful proxy in the Middle East; with more military might than even the more famous Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups. So, in the early days of the Gaza War, when it started aiming ballistic missiles and drones at Israeli cities – the Port City of Eilat has been a repeated target – and commercial ships with Israeli ties navigating the Red Sea, it was a very big deal. Indeed, the Houthis openly said their intent was to prevent Israeli ships from sailing the Red Sea until Israel ends the war with Hamas.
Yet the Biden administration, which has pointedly moved two full aircraft carrier battle groups with overwhelming firepower to the Middle East, has failed to strike at Houthi military facilities, limiting itself to defending against the launched missiles and drones, even after persuading Israel to allow the U.S. to deal with the problem. In fact, just the other day, a U.S. guided-missile destroyer shot down 14 Houthi drones over the Red Sea, with reports that British and Egyptian forces shot down others.
The Wall Street journal, citing an “unnamed official,” says that Washington is concerned that an Israeli response could ignite a wider Middle East war and a direct American response could provoke Iran. In truth that is a self-evident proposition. It seems to us that this is not the message that our side should be sending. Can anyone think that predators like Iran and the Houthis will not be encouraged to continue their predations or be impressed by anything other than an iron fist?
It is also troubling that this seems like more of the same-old same-old from the Biden team when it comes to Iran. They continue in their fantasy that they can reform Iran by renegotiating the 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement, despite all the evidence that Iran was merely stringing us along in order to be able to pursue a nuclear capacity. Or that Iran can, in any event, be trusted to abide by anything it might agree to.
It is also not well-known, as the Wall Street Journal reports, that soon after taking office the Biden administration took the Houthis off the U.S. list of foreign terror organizations as part of its courtship of Iran. However, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby now says they may be returned to the list in light of recent events. And Politico reports that top Pentagon officials are actively weighing options to strike back at Houthis in Yemen after the most recent attacks in the Red Sea on Saturday.
And then, of course there is the matter of the billions of dollars President Biden allowed Iran to recover and the myriad economic sanctions that was crippling the Iranian economy he unilaterally withdrew.
So, what’s up between Joe Biden and Iran?
