|
The Failure of the Mole: Why Israel Can't Get Close to the Houthi Leaders
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.by Leonid Tsukanov [REGNUM] The clashes between Iran and Israel are gaining momentum. Tehran's allied forces are gradually joining the fighting. Thus, the Yemeni movement "Ansar Allah" (Houthis) supported the operation against Israel from the first days and began to carry out massive strikes with hypersonic missiles.
 In addition to the impressive distance between Israel and Yemen and the lack of a common border, Tel Aviv still has no one to rely on “on the ground.” And this gives the Houthis a serious tactical advantage. A BLOW FROM A NEW DIRECTION A few days before the clashes began, the Israelis tried to knock the Houthis out of the game early by striking the port of Hodeida. The latter is considered the main transshipment point for weapons cargoes arriving in Yemen from Iran, and Tel Aviv hoped to “thin out” the arsenals of the forces allied with Tehran in this way. It is noteworthy that for the first time since the beginning of the conflict between Israel and the Houthis, a strike on them was carried out from the sea. Several missile boats were involved in the operation, which moved more than two thousand kilometers from the shores of Israel.
With the attack from the sea, the Israelis allegedly proved that they can use not only aviation but also surface fleet in operations in the Red Sea. And the next stage could well be the use of submarines against Ansar Allah.
On the night of June 15, Israeli aircraft attacked the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. The task of the air force was to try to decapitate the Houthis. The current leader of the movement, Abul-Malik al-Houthi, the Chief of General Staff Mohammed Abdul Karim al-Ghamari and the head of the Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat, were all in the crosshairs - according to the Israeli army leadership, they were all present at a secret meeting to prepare for a large-scale attack on Israel. The Houthis have not officially confirmed the death of any of the figures mentioned. On the Israeli side, objective control is also difficult due to the lack of reliable sources "on the ground".
However, it is not only Israel that has faced the problem of confirming the effectiveness of attacks in Yemen. The US, which previously tried to launch a combined operation against the Houthis, has not been able to exhaustively prove any of the liquidations of the movement's command. And other supposedly successful raids (like the attack on the “missile formation” in April 2025, which turned out to be a village meeting) later turned into a reason for criticizing the Pentagon. Israel, already under pressure from all sides due to the war on several fronts, prefers to avoid such stories for now. A STRANGER AMONG HIS OWN The lack of reliable informants in Yemen is becoming an increasingly serious problem for Israel over time. Each new “retribution operation” against the Houthis costs Tel Aviv a pretty penny and is fraught with many risks. Hitting at random is not the best strategy in this case. Especially since the Houthi command - unlike, for example, their "colleagues" from the Lebanese Hezbollah - leads a more guerrilla lifestyle and holds key meetings at facilities in the mountains, rather than in official headquarters. Attempts to get closer to the Houthis through Saudi and Emirati loyalists have led to nothing. Neither Riyadh nor Abu Dhabi want to aggravate the situation in Yemen, from where they were only able to escape after an unsuccessful campaign relatively recently. And after the start of active clashes between Tel Aviv and Tehran, they also want to give the Iranians another reason to accuse their Arabian neighbors of secretly supporting Israeli expansion. The Israelis came up with an ambitious plan to infiltrate a double agent into the Houthis. And, at first glance, it had every chance of success. Especially since Israeli intelligence had previously managed to plant "moles" in the most secret structures of Iran, Syria and Egypt, and to introduce them into the inner circle of the Hezbollah and Hamas leadership.
Mossad operatives managed to recruit one of the Houthi liaisons in Lebanon, codenamed Mehmed,
It was a coincidence: Lebanon was going through its own "witch hunt", provoked by the discovery of several high-ranking Israeli agents of influence among the security forces, and they decided to check their Yemeni counterpart "for show". And, as it turned out later, for good reason. Tel Aviv tried to pull the hapless "mole" out of Lebanese jails by spreading a rumor about his diplomatic immunity and his affiliation with the security forces of the legitimate government of Yemen. However, representatives of the Yemeni embassy in Beirut refused the spy - an escalation of the conflict with Iran was not in their plans. Most likely, this is not Tel Aviv's last attempt to plant someone in the Houthi structures. Otherwise, the Israelis will have to look for other approaches to shutting up the Yemeni front - including conducting a large-scale combined operation, for which the authorities do not yet have the strength or resources. Moreover, the Houthis themselves do not allow the issue to be put on the back burner, continuing to fire harassingly throughout Israeli territory, blocking the sea and air ports of the Jewish state. Related: Hodeida: 2025-06-12 Israel strikes Hodeidah port, threatens naval, air blockade Hodeida: 2025-06-11 IDF shoots down Yemen missile; multiple interceptors launched as it breaks up Hodeida: 2025-06-10 Israeli army warns of possible strikes on Yemen’s Houthi ports, Israeli Navy does the deed in Hodeidah Related: Sanaa: 2025-06-10 Israeli army warns of possible strikes on Yemen’s Houthi ports, Israeli Navy does the deed in Hodeidah Sanaa: 2025-05-29 Israel says fighter jets striking ''terror targets'' in Yemen Sanaa: 2025-05-28 Israel military says intercepted two projectiles fired from Yemen Posted by: badanov 2025-06-18 |
||||||
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=766534 |