Supporting Palestinians in Gaza ‘religious’ duty, US to face defeat in Yemen: PM

Yemeni Prime Minister Abdulaziz bin Saleh Habtoor has described support for Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip as a “religious” duty and says the United States will face defeat in its attempts to invade Yemen just as in other battles across the region.

Abdulaziz bin Habtour made the comment in an exclusive interview with Press TV’s Face-to-Face program as he reiterated his country’s unflinching support for the Palestinian people in Gaza in the face of Israel’s months-long aggression.

Abdulaziz bin Habtour pointed to Yemen’s decision to target Israeli-owned and -bound ships in the Red Sea in support of Gazans and said the move was a religious duty in response to Washington’s backing of Israeli war in the besieged territory.

“What is happening in the world in general and what is happening in Palestine in particular pushes any person who has a little dignity and humanity; this decision was based on humanitarian, religious and moral aspects to support our people in Palestine,” the Yemeni prime minister said.

“It is no longer important to confront the largest country or the smallest country when you witness daily queues of martyrs, wounded and debris piling up over the heads of our people in Gaza and the rest of the Palestinian territories.”

Abdulaziz bin Habtour underlined, “This is a religious duty before which all considerations whether geopolitical, strategic or alliances of any kind are insignificant. We know that America is rampaging throughout the world and if we see things this way we will not move and will remain in our homes, therefore we have a vision that stems from the vision of the axis of resistance and this is what prompted us to respond.”

Asked whether the attacks have had any impact on Israel’s economy, Abdulaziz bin Habtour said, “The data that comes from the Zionist enemy says that more than 90 percent of the capacity in the port of Eilat is idle and this is a great gain for our people in Palestine and for us as well. When a port malfunctions in this way at the peak of confrontations, this is a great achievement.”

The Yemeni prime minister censured the US and UK as colonial powers and said they protect Israel as they established the illegal entity themselves.

“The United States and Britain are aggressive countries against all of humanity not against Yemen alone or any other country seeking liberation from Western colonialism. Therefore these two countries have their own old and new colonial projects,” he said

“The US and Britain are the ones that established Israel in 1949; therefore they seek to protect this entity by all means and capabilities. Whoever stands against this entity, Washington and London will seek to destroy them,” he added.

Asked whether Yemen was ready to confront US and British attacks on the country considering their military might, Abdulaziz bin Habtour said, “We are betting on our people, on history and on the future that the United States will fail in every battle it enters.”

He stressed, “The US entered the Vietnam war and was defeated, it entered the war in Korea and was defeated, it entered Iraq and Afghanistan and was also defeated, imposed siege on Iran since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979 and failed.”

Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine’s struggle against the Israeli occupation since the regime launched a devastating war on Gaza on October 7 after the territory’s Palestinian resistance movements carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.

The relentless Israeli military campaign against Gaza has killed more than 25,400 people, most of them women and children. More than 62,000 individuals have also been wounded

Reports revealed that Israeli shipping companies have already decided to reroute their vessels in fear of attacks by Yemeni forces.

Yemeni forces have also launched missile and drone attacks on targets in the Israeli-occupied territories after the regime’s aggression on Gaza.