Yemen's Vice-President stated on Tuesday that the escalation of Middle East hostilities has made it more urgent for regional and global stakeholders to develop a new strategy in order to contain the increasingly well armed Houthi rebels who are backed by Iran.

Yemen's Houthis are attacking ships in the Red Sea to protest Israel's bombing of Gaza. This war threatens to spread throughout the Middle East. They appear to be emboldened by the possibility that they have acquired hypersonic rockets from Iran.

In an interview, Aidarous Al-Zubaidi said, "We believe that now is the time to bring all stakeholders together, both local and regional as well as international, in order to develop a new, more effective strategy."

Zubaidi was at the United Nations General Assembly to meet with important actors, including the United States of America and Britain. Both countries have attacked Houthi sites on the Yemeni coast in an effort to reduce the capabilities of the group. These efforts have been met with limited success.

The Houthi Movement has increased its targets along the Red Sea to include U.S. military ships and other vessels of a Western-backed alliance aimed at providing safe passage to commercial ships that cross the Bab al-Mandab Corridor, the narrow strait near the entrance to Red Sea.

Zubaidi stated that the coordination between the West and local, regional and national actors is not sufficient to stop the Houthis economically or militarily.

He was unable to confirm whether Iran provided hypersonic weapons, but said that Tehran used the Houthis in a way as a testing ground for their own military capabilities.

He said that Hodeidah was a good port to smuggle in equipment for the Houthis.

The Houthi Movement, which controls most of Yemen's population after nearly a ten-year war with the Western-backed, Saudi-led coalition has emerged as an important supporter of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement in its war on Israel.

Zubaidi stated that the Houthi attacks at the Red Sea had frozen the efforts to reach a deal for peace in Yemen. He also said he did not see any prospects of peace talks taking place in the near future.

Zubaidi stated that "the international community, Britain and the United States only work on the Red Sea. It's important to combine all of these approaches into a comprehensive approach which would be effective."

The outcome is the containment of the Houthis. (Reporting and editing by John Irish, Howard Goller).

(source: Reuters)