Member of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen, Muhammad Ali al Houthi, confirmed that there is no talk about the Israeli ship being held by the Ansar Allah group before the war in Gaza stopped.
Muhammad Ali al Houthi in a post on X on Tuesday, “If America and Israel stop and desist from killing the Palestinians in Gaza and bring in water, medicine and food, then they can talk about the Israeli ship”.
He added, “What the Navy did is consistent with the principle of reciprocity”.
He wrote in another post, “Our Yemeni naval forces are a defensive force against the aggression’s battleships and only threaten the ships of the Israeli entity and those owned by Israelis, by the grace of God Almighty, five days were enough for our Yemeni naval forces to capture the first Israeli ship”.
On Monday, the Yemeni Houthi group warned against any interference in Yemen’s territorial waters, threatening an appropriate response to this step.
The commander of the Houthi coastal defense forces, Muhammad al Qadiri, the day after the group announced the seizure of an Israeli ship in the Red Sea and taking it to the Yemeni coast, warned against any foreign interference in their territorial waters or islands, vowing an appropriate response to any step of this kind.
He explained that his forces have the appropriate weapons and missiles to deal with any developments and with appropriate bullets and strikes at any time and in any place.
He added, “We’re entering a new phase in which we are witnessing a qualitative development within the naval forces, and they are spread across a wide area of Yemen western coast”.
These statements come the day after the group announced that it had seized an Israeli ship in the Red Sea and taken it to the Yemeni coast.
On Sunday, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Houthis in Yemen “hijacked” a ship owned by a British company and operated by a Japanese company.
Denying that there were Israelis on board, the office indicated that there are 25 individuals on board the ship of different nationalities, including Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Filipinos, and Mexicans.
On Sunday, the Ansar Allah group vowed to target ships owned or operated by Israeli companies supporting the Gaza Strip, calling on countries to withdraw their citizens working on the crews of these ships.
