Last week, citing more than 30 Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea over the past month, U.S. officials designated the Houthis in Yemen as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT)” group.| The Soufan Center
Iran’s “axis of resistance,” comprised of groups such as Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Houthi rebels in Yemen, and mostly Shia militia groups in Iraq and Syria, demonstrates the success of General Qassem Soleimani’s blueprint for spreading Iranian influence throughout the Middle East.| The Soufan Center
Escalating exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah suggest that the Israel-Lebanon front still has the potential to devolve into all-out conflict, especially as tensions were heightened following yesterday’s targeted assassination of senior Hamas figure Salah al-Arouri, killed by a strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, an area known to be a stronghold for Hezbollah.| The Soufan Center