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Houthis Open Office in Baghdad a Stone’s Throw From Fortified US Embassy Compound

© Photo : X / @ansarallah_iraqAnsar Allah (Houthi) representative Abu Idris Al-Sharafi makes a statement during a visit to the Baghdad Operations Command of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces. Screengrab of Ansar Allah in Iraq X video.
Ansar Allah (Houthi) representative Abu Idris Al-Sharafi makes a statement during a visit to the Baghdad Operations Command of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces. Screengrab of Ansar Allah in Iraq X video. - Sputnik International, 1920, 09.07.2024
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The militia has brought shipping through the Red Sea to a partial standstill, vowing to target all ‘Israel-linked’ merchant vessels and warships in the area until Tel Aviv halts its war in Gaza. Although the Houthis control most of western Yemen, most countries recognize the Aden-based Presidential Leadership Council as Yemen’s official government.
Yemen’s Ansar Allah militia (better known as the Houthis) have reportedly established an office in Baghdad, Iraq, with the apparent push to cement their growing regional clout coming amid their continuing guerilla blockade campaign in the Red Sea against Israel and its allies.
The new office is situated in Baghdad’s Al-Jadriya district, about 2 km from the heavily fortified Green Zone, which includes the US Embassy compound and other foreign embassies, across the 14th of July Bridge on the other side of the Tigris River.

The office was opened by Houthi official Abu Idris Al-Sharafi, a close associate of senior Houthi figure Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, and a key proponent of Houthi ties with Iraq.

A Houthi delegation led by Al-Sharafi visited the headquarters of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces last Friday, with the Yemeni militia leader characterizing the Yemeni and Iraqi militias as an “inseparable unit.” Over the weekend, Al-Sharafi visited with tribesmen in Samawah and other southern Iraqi provinces.
Members of the Yemeni Coast Guard affiliated with the Houthi group patrol the sea as demonstrators march through the Red Sea port city of Hodeida in solidarity with the people of Gaza on January 4, 2024, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the militant Hamas group in Gaza. - Sputnik International, 1920, 09.07.2024
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The Houthis have been interfacing with Iraqi officials since at least 2016, although official Baghdad has expressed a desire to avoid being drawn directly into any conflict with the US or Israel.
An adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani told local media on Monday that the new Houthi office was “not” a formal “office or representation as it is being promoted, but a headquarters for movement members who previously stayed in one of the hotels in Baghdad.”
“Iraq is keen that the group does not have any activities hostile to any country from Iraqi territory,” the anonymous official stressed.
The Houthis, an Iraqi militia coalition calling itself the Islamic Resistance, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have spent months targeting the interests of Israel and its allies across the region, with the Yemeni campaign focused on trying to block Israeli and Israeli-linked commercial ships from traversing the Red, Arabian and eastern Mediterranean Seas.
Houthi naval missiles on parade in Sanaa, September 2023. - Sputnik International, 1920, 08.07.2024
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A US-led effort to crack down on the Houthis via a bombing campaign inside Yemen and patrols in the Red Sea has not been met with any measurable degree of success so far, with Ansar Allah vowing to continue and ramp up its attacks, and the Pentagon spending hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of ammunition to destroy mostly low-cost Houthi drones and missiles.
The US’s inability to bring the Houthis to heel has led to considerable demoralization among America’s allies, with one British publication lamenting back in May that the militia had effectively “defeated the US military,” humbling Washington into recognizing that it “cannot be an omnipotent force, fighting every battle around the globe.”
USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). - Sputnik International, 1920, 02.07.2024
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