SANAA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi group signaled readiness for further military action on Saturday, framing its recent military strikes on Israel as "legitimate right" to confront what it called "brutal American-Israeli aggression" against Iran and the wider region.
In a statement, the group's foreign affairs authority said that its intervention was part of a broader regional strategy tied to Iran, Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon.
It accused the United States and Israel of advancing "a Zionist plan threatening the region and aimed at establishing a so-called Greater Israel and a new Middle East," and called on the Islamic countries to unite.
The group stressed that its military operations target solely against "the Israeli and American enemy," and expressed its readiness to engage with Arab and Islamic countries to prevent any misunderstandings.
Meanwhile, Yemen's internationally recognized government condemned the Houthis' announcement, warning that such actions risk dragging the country into a wider regional confrontation.
Earlier Saturday, the Houthi armed forces said they had launched ballistic missiles at what they described as "sensitive Israeli military sites" in southern Israel, the group's first such attack since Israel and the United States began large-scale attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.
Salah Ali Salah, a researcher of the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, described the group's involvement as a "high-risk gamble," noting that any move to threaten Red Sea shipping could "trigger direct American intervention."
The Houthis, who have controlled Sanaa and much of northern Yemen since late 2014, previously supported Iran during last year's 12-day conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran. ■
