Iran has responded to weekend warnings and threats issued by US President Donald Trump, who ordered two waves of weekend airstrikes against its proxy in Yemen, the Houthis (Ansarallah).
The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, vowed Sunday that Iran would respond “decisively” to any threat or act of aggression from the United States. “Iran will never be the initiator of war, but in the event of a threat, the response will be firm, decisive, and conclusive,” Salami was quoted in Iran’s PressTV as saying.
Washington has for years assumed that every action from the Houthis has Iran’s hidden hand behind it. But the IRGC’s Salami rejected that notion, saying that the Ansarallah movement acts independently.
“The president of the United States has once again attributed the operations carried out by Yemen’s Ansar Allah to Iran and has warned the Iranian people to stop their support for the resistance group,” he said of Trump’s recent words. “Iran openly and clearly accepts responsibility for any actions it takes, when and where they occur,” he said.
“We are not a nation that operates under the cloak of secrecy; rather, we are a legitimate and globally recognized entity,” the IRGC general added. “When we undertake any military action or lend our support, we will declare it openly and unequivocally.”
The United States’ Saturday strike on Yemen not only resulted in possibly dozens of civilian deaths, but a reported over 100 injured, as President Trump vowed to “use overwhelming lethal force” while warning Iran to “immediately” cut its support.
“Your time is up, and your attacks must stop, starting today. If they don’t, hell will rain down upon you like nothing you have ever seen before,” the president had said on Truth Social.
“No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the Waterways of the World.” That’s when he had put Iran on notice, saying it will be held “fully accountable” for any aggression of its proxy in Yemen.
On Sunday, the Houthis declared said they launched 18 missiles and a drone at the “aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and its accompanying warships” in the Red Sea. They followed by saying a second salvo was launched, but the Pentagon said nothing came close to hitting US warships, and any threat was intercepted.
The Islamic Republic has long been suspected of being the supplier of sophisticated ballistic missiles and drones with long ranges to the Houthis. This especially ramped up in the wake of the 2015 war involving the Saudi-UAE-US coalition bombing campaign over Yemen, which lasted half-a-decade or more. Some of these Iran-made ballistic missiles and drones have hit Saudi oil facilities in past years.
Regarding US activity in Yemen: I recently said to watch for a new military engagement to compensate for the pull back in Ukraine. The Military Industrial Complex demands about $50 billion a year from our government, above and beyond what’s necessary to defend our own country. https://t.co/uoMjYIi2Xg
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 16, 2025
Below is some fresh commentary from AntiWar.com’s Dave DeCamp…
I get why people who don’t know much about the situation in Yemen might think it’s a good idea to bomb the Houthis to secure shipping lanes. Here are a few reasons why it’s a bad idea:
- The Houthis (Ansar Allah) are incredibly resilient and have survived much worse than just a bombing campaign (US-backed Saudi/UAE war from 2015-2022)
- Previous airstrikes against them only escalated their attacks and led to a bigger disruption of shipping
- The Houthis aren’t pirates; they’re enforcing a blockade in response to Israel’s blockade on Gaza – After the Gaza ceasefire deal was reached, the Houthis stopped their attacks
- The Houthis haven’t actually restarted attacks; they only announced they would be re-inforcing the blockade on Israeli shipping in response to Israel violating the ceasefire deal
DeCamp concludes with, “The US could have kept the situation in the Red Sea calm by forcing Israel to fully implement the Gaza ceasefire deal. This could have been done by leveraging military aid, but instead Trump chose to pour gasoline on the situation.”
Tyler Durden
Mon, 03/17/2025 – 13:00
