A spokesperson for Yemeni rebels accused Israel of taking part in the Saudi Arabia-led coalition against Yemen and warned that Israeli military bases in Africa are within range of Houthi missiles.
Colonel Aziz Rashid, military spokesman for the Houthis, was quoted by Al Masirah, a news outlet tied to armed group, warning that his forces would soon have missiles capable of reaching bases in Israel itself.
“In the event that the military situation develops, all possibilities will be considered,” he said.
While Israel is not recognized by Saudi Arabia, Riyadh and Jerusalem have shared interests in curbing the expanding role of their mutual enemy Iran across the region. Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia are at their worst in years with both accusing the other of subverting regional security.
Israel for its part has continued to warn of the growing presence of Iranian militias on its northern border.
Israel established diplomatic relations with Eritrea in early 1993 and assisted in the Eritrean war of independence. A 2012 report by intelligence group Stratfor uncovered Israeli naval bases in Eritrea’s Dahlk archipelago and Massawa along with a listening post in Amba Soira.
These docks were previously reported as being used by submarines and ships taking part in the ongoing covert war against Iranian networks smuggling weapons to Hamas and Hezbollah through the Red Sea and then to Sudan and Egypt.
Iran, which arms the Houthis, was also reported by Stratfor to have a military installation in Assab, Eritrea. Tehran is reported to be spending hundreds of millions of dollars supporting the Houthi rebels including having sent Hezbollah militants to the war-torn country to train the rebels.
In early July the Head of the IDF Intelligence Directorate Major General Herzi Halevi confirmed reports that Hezbollah operates and manages two underground weapons factories in Lebanon set up by the IRGC in response to alleged Israeli strikes against weapons convoys in Syria.
Israel also believes that Iran has begun to build similar factories in Yemen and according to Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim News Agency the Houthi have various homegrown missiles, including Qaher-1 which has a range of 500 kilometers as well as the Borkan-1.
The Houthis have launched several ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia, including one which targeted Riyadh a day before US President Donald Trump visited the Kingdom in May.
Yemen has been gripped by violence since September 2014, when the Houthi rebels stormed Sanaa and forced the internationally recognized government to flee south.
The Saudi-led coalition began bombing raids on Houthi positions across Yemen in March 2015 in support of Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and has since been accused of bombing schools, markets, hospitals and other civilian targets, killing over 10,000 people and leaving tens of thousands more injured.
The war has created a humanitarian crisis in one of the poorest countries in the Middle East, forcing aid groups to cope simultaneously with a food crisis as well as the world’s worst cholera outbreak which the International Committee of the Red Cross expects to hit 1 million cases by the end of the year.
Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Classical-Top-brass-in-concert-478268
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