The U.S. offered to recognize the Houthi government in Sanaa in a bid to stop the Yemeni terrorist group's attacks, a senior Houthi official said Monday, in remarks that a U.S. official said were false.
The Houthi official's remarks came a day after a ballistic missile from the Iran-aligned group reached central Israel for the first time, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say Israel would inflict a "heavy price" on them.
"There is always communication after every operation we conduct," Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi's political bureau, told Al Jazeera Mubasher TV. "These calls are based on either threats or presenting some temptations, but they have given up to achieve any accomplishment in that direction."
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, called the remarks "a total fabrication."
Al-Bukhaiti said the calls after attacks included some from the U.S. and the United Kingdom indirectly through mediators and that the threats included direct U.S. military intervention against countries that intervene militarily "in support of Gaza."
Besides attacks on Israel, the Yemeni group has also continued to launch attacks on ships they said are linked or bound to Israel as a show of support for Palestinians amid the war in Gaza.
The Houthis have damaged more than 80 ships in missile and drone attacks since November, sinking two vessels, seizing another and killing at least three crew members.
The war in the Gaza Strip started after Iranian-backed Hamas' terrorist attack Oct. 7 in southern Israel led to the massacre of at least 1,200 Israeli civilians, with about another 250 taken hostage.
Yemen has been embroiled in years of civil war. In 2014, the Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa, and ousted the internationally recognized government. In January, the United States put the Houthis back on its list of terrorist groups after initially being taken off by the Biden administration.
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