Yemen Defeats US
And Iran announced a new ballistic missile
[Ansar Allah military spokeman, Yahya Saree]
Published: 2025-05-07
Updated 2025-05-08: Larry Johnson and Bernard (Moon of Alabama) concur. References and a quote added.
Updated 2025-05-13: NYT finally agreed with this article, 5 days later. Thanks to Larry Johnson identifying it. Both references added in an appended “Update” section.
Capitulation
US President Trump acquiesced to Yemen's terms to pause hostilities, following his restart of the US war against the poorest nation in southwest Asia on March 15th. The terms are that Yemen will stop attacking US military assets when the US stops attacking Yemen.
The pause was agreed the week before Trump is scheduled to visit the region. He will be followed days later by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin.
Trump's rhetoric was his usual distorted blather:
“They said, ‘Please don’t bomb us anymore and we’re not going to attack your ships.’”
“they don’t want to fight anymore” and “we will honor that.”
His incomplete, scatterbrained English misrepresented reality:
“We will stop the bombings. They have capitulated… we will take their word that they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that’s the purpose of what we were doing,”
[Quotes from various articles. See Antiwar, Politico, NYT, Drop Site News]
Ansar Allah has not capitulated.
Larry Johnson summed up the situation clearly:
Since March 15, the US lost seven drones, three F/A-18 Hornets and expended an estimated $3 billion while flying more than 1,000 sorties. While scores of Yemeni citizens were killed by US bombs, and Yemen suffered significant damage to infrastructure, the US failed to break the Houthis’ will to fight.
Bernard from Moon of Alabama saw the US maritime defeat for what it was, too.
Punishing Genocide
Yemen has attacked both commercial ships trading with Israel while it runs a genocide, and any military vessel attacking Yemen. Ansar Allah did not commit to stop their legal, justified, announced, maritime blockade on Israel. Yemen's economic attack on Israel via the blockade, parallels Israel's humanitarian blockade on Gaza, a part of the Zionists' genocide. Yemen is signatory to the Genocide Convention which authorizes nations to punish nations committing genocide — its in the title.
Ansar Allah announced their blockade. To avoid it, shippers wishing to trade with the genocidal Zionists should not use the Bab al-Mandeb straight. Ansar Allah stopped their blockade when food, medicine, fuel and other humanitarian aid was allowed to pass Israel's inhuman blockade on Gaza. Ansar Allah restarted their blockade after Israel restarted its murderous blockade and collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of Ansar Allah’s political bureau, published their position on X/Twitter:
“Our military operations in support of Gaza will not cease until the aggression against Gaza stops and the blockade on its residents is lifted, allowing the entry of food, medicine, and fuel,”
“As for our attacks on the US, they fall within the context of the right to self-defense. If it halts its attacks on us, we will halt our attacks on it. This position also applies to Britain,”
[from DeCamp, Antiwar]
A No-Fly Zone over Tel Aviv
On Sunday 4th, May, Ansar Allah attacked Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport with a ballistic missile. It defeated all 4 anti-missile layers, including the most advanced US system, its THAAD. Israel responded by attacking the airport in Yemen's capital, Sana'a and the port at Hodeidah.
Also on Sunday, the Islamic Republic of Iran unveiled a new 1,200 Km range solid-fuel ballistic missile, the Qassem Basir. On Nima Alkorshid's Dialogue Works (see Sources), Scott Ritter suggested that the new missile includes modifications based on intelligence Iran obtained during its True Promise I and II responses to Israel's earlier attacks. Ritter alleged that the US has installed signal jamming systems in Israel to bolster its defense. The Qassem Basir, suggested Ritter, includes modifications to counter the signal jamming.
Trump's announcement of the cessation of his country's attacks on Yemen was on Tuesday the 6th.
Report from Tehran
On Monday 5th, Canadian lawyer, journalist and human rights activist Dmitri Lascaris published "Report from Tehran: Iran's Aerospace Forces Say They're Ready To Strike Back" (see Sources). In the report he visits an exhibit by Iran's National Aerospace Forces and questions an Iranian Brigadier General. He spoke with Prof. Glenn Diesen and Clare Daly (former MEP for Ireland), and asked his question after another by Pepe Escobar.
Lascaris characterised the event as a component of Iran's deterrence policy. Guests could view older models of Iranian missiles and drones and speak with Iranian military leadership.
The fellow attendees which Lascaris observed reminds one of the conference on Palestine which Ansar Allah hosted in Sana'a. That conference overlapped the US restarting its war on Yemen. These events, to engage interested journalists and persons by Iran and Yemen, reminds one of a series of efforts by Russia's political leadership to engage Western independent journalists to convey their understanding of the background to and status of the conflict in Ukraine.
Continuity of Policy
Trump is neck deep on both the Yemen and Ukraine wars. His first term included:
4 of the 7 year war on Yemen by Saudi Arabia (Mohammed bin Salman) and the United Arab Emirates, backed by US and UK armaments and technical support, including targeting.
Ukraine dramatically expanding its "territorial defense" units who were trained by US contractors to “NATO standards”
about 30 NATO military exercises involving Ukraine
Just after the start of his second term, Trump approved the restart of Israel's genocide in Gaza.
A President of the US can stop any war being run with its data and weaponry by turning off the spigot of arms and data supply. Trump has not. He is, therefore, using each war to extract advantage, or he approves of it, or both. His pivot from declaring that his regime was seeking a peace (or at least a ceasefire) in Ukraine, to withdrawing from that role happened after Ukraine signed an agreement which gave the US access to Ukraine's national resources. Mission accomplished.
The core problem of the US Empire is that the rest of the world is coordinating resistance to its demands, while the power of the US is diminishing.
Since Yemen instigated its blockade, damaging Israel's economy, it has had to fight the US too. The US has destroyed buildings and killed civilians with bombs and missiles. Yemen has shot down between 20 and 30 MQ-9 Reaper drones and made a US aircraft carrier spill 2 FA-18’s to the bottom of the Red Sea.
Yemen has gained international acclaim for its principled stance against the Israeli genocide, and proven its military capabilities.
The US has shamed itself militarily, politically and morally.
Update 2025-05-13
[A lovely photo of an FA-18 (yet to fall off its carrier) by the NYT from their article in which they acknowledge that this newsletter beat them to the story by 5 days.]
Larry Johnson reported that the NYT agreed with this article, 5 days afterwards. The NYT, quoting Ansar Allah officials and deliberately continuing to incorrectly name the group “Houtis”, almost quoted this article’s headline to finish:
“Yemen defeats America.”
They did not include the details from the Middle East Eye included in this newsletter’s next article, that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia requested the end of hostilities before Trump’s upcoming visit.
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Sources
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; United Nations; 1948
Trump Says US Will Stop Bombing Yemen; Dave DeCamp; Antiwar; 2025-05-06
Trump Blinked in the Face of Houthi Resistance, But Called it Victory… Pakistan and India Ramp Up for War; Sonar21; Archive.today; 2025-05-07
Yemen - U.S. Concedes Maritime Defeat; b.; Moon of Alabama; 2025-05-07
U.S. and Houthis reach truce—How it came together; Ryan Grim; Drop Site News; 2025-05-06
Trump announces US will stop bombing Houthis - POLITICO; Politico; Archive.today; 2025-05-06
Trump Says U.S. Will End Bombings of Houthi Militants in Yemen; NYT; Archive.today; 2025-05-07
Israel 'disables’ Yemen’s main airport with air strikes; Ft; Archive.today; 2025-05-06
From Yemen, Houthis strike Israel's Ben Gurion Airport – DW – 05/04/2025; DW; Archive.today; 2025-05-07
The Road to War in Ukraine — The History of NATO and US Military Exercises With Ukraine — Part 3; Sonar21; Archive.today; 2025-04-27
Our trip to Yemen; Daly & Wallace; i4cTrouble; 2025-04-01
Part 2 of our report from Yemen; Daly & Wallace; i4cTrouble; 2025-04-07
Update Sources
Why Trump Suddenly Declared Victory Over the Houthi Militia - The New York Times; NYT; Archive.today; 2025-05-13
A Critical Week for Donald Trump and the World; Sonar21; Archive.today; 2025-05-13
News Review: The Art of No Deals; YesXorNo; 2025-05-13
Videos
Scott Ritter & Mohammad Marandi: Yemen Shocks the World: No-Fly Zone Over Israel Declared!; Alkhorshid interviews XX_TRY_TITLE_XX; Dialogue Works; 2025-05-06
Trump Drops Bombshell on Yemen—But Yemen Fires Back with a Bold Statement!; Alkhorshid interviews Laith Marouf; Dialogue Works; 2025-05-07
Report from Tehran: Iran's Aerospace Forces Say They're Ready To Strike Back; Dimitri Lascaris; Reason2Resist; 2025-05-05
Copyleft: CC0
And reports of yet a second US fighter falling overboard from the same carrier after the crew ejected, who were safely rescued by helicopter from the sea.
The world's poorest, and possibly the most moral, country is inflicting great physical and reputational harm on an empire that is literaly crumbling from within.
An empire that has abandoned scientific thought and the technology that enabled its rise and now is directed by a large anti intellectual, religious minority who believe biblical prophesy is being borne out in the Israeli Zionist project with a fatalistic, nuclear end game.
China has proven that Scientific Thought can bring massive benefits to the planet and humans, having learned the destructive folly of Western Christian religious thinking in the Taiping Rebellion.
An empire that espouses Christian religious thinking as its core belief system seems doomed as evidenced by the fall of the Roman and other Christian empires,with the American being the latest.
Will it go with a bang or a whimper, that is the question?
That bang might signal the end of our eccentric species that has "overrun the planet".
Have a nice day.