The Yemeni government seeks to persuade Washington to support it militarily against the Houthis

Yemen Monitor/Sana’a/Exclusive:

Yemeni Ambassador to the United States Mohammed al-Hadhrami is seeking to reach Congress and present the Yemeni government’s point of view without resorting to public relations firms and lobbying groups, in an effort to convince the White House to support it militarily in the face of the Houthis.

In an interview with the “Washington Diplomat” newspaper – which Yemen Monitor has reviewed  Al-Hadhrami said that Congress is the gateway he has chosen to reach the US administration and convince it to change its policy and support the internationally recognized government militarily.

“We Yemenis don’t have millions of dollars to spend on public relations firms and lobbying groups to get our voice to Congress, but we need to have a voice there,” Al-Hadhrami said.

According to the American newspaper, Al-Hadhrami appeared optimistic early this month.

It added: The war has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis, most of them from hunger, lack of health care and medicine more than from the conflict itself. The Houthis have also intensified their attacks on the international shipping in the Red Sea in response to the Israeli war on Hamas in Gaza. But Al-Hadhrami hoped that he would be able to present his country’s plight to the appropriate Congress and convince the US to help Yemen.

The policy change that the ambassador wants to see is providing military assistance by the  US to the internationally recognized government , led by Rashad al-Alim since 2022.

US lawmakers have expressed concerns that US-made weapons supplied to the Saudi-led coalition could fall into the hands of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Iranian-backed Houthi fighters, according to a Council on Foreign Relations background paper on Yemen last year.

“They may have the same concerns about providing military aid, including weapons, directly to Yemen,” the Washington Diplomat said.

However, Al-Hadhrami insisted that “the United States must have a presence” in Yemen.

“The United States must take a stand, it must have a presence, and it must tip the scales… in our fight against the Houthis because the Iranians have been doing a lot to support the Houthis,” he said.

The newspaper says that persuading the Congress to help Yemen will not be easy, but Al-Hadhrami has learned during his years as a diplomat to start small and aim high.

Since November, the Houthis have targeted more than 70 commercial ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and recently expanded their operations to the Indian Ocean. They said that they are targeting ships linked to Israel, which is waging a brutal attack on Gaza Strip. But the Yemeni government and experts say the Houthis’ goals are local aiming to escape internal crises and improve their image in the region.

In response, the United States and Britain have launched an air campaign since January 11 against Iran-backed Houthies. As a result, the Houthis have announced the expansion of their operations to include US and British ships.