President Al-Zubaidi to 'The Guardian': “Now is the time to counter the Houthis and push them back into their position.”

President Aidarous Qassem Al-Zubaidi, President of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) and Vice Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), in an interview with 'The Guardian', stated that “Now is the time to counter the Houthis and push them back into their position.”

The west should seize the opportunity to target the Tehran-backed Houthi leadership in Yemen while the Iranian government is weakened, the vice-president of the UN-backed government in Aden has said.

Aidarus al-Zoubaidi said that Iran’s reverses in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza had left the country “massively weakened”. “They have one remaining domain and that is Yemen,” Zoubaidi told the Guardian. “Now is the time to counter the Houthis and push them back into their position.”

He said Yemen ground forces should work in cooperation with western airstrikes as part of a multi-pronged strategy.

Speaking from the World Economic Forum in Davos, he also called on the new US administration to designate the Houthis a foreign terrorist organisation, and praised Donald Trump for showing “decisive leadership”.

His remarks suggest that the Presidential Leadership Council, based in the city ,Aden, regards the weakening of Iran and the return of Trump as an opportunity to launch a joint military offensive against the Houthis, including the potential use of ground forces.

He predicted: “Iran will not give up on the Houthis, but on the contrary double down on its support for the Houthis as the last remaining component of its chain of proxy forces. So this is the right time for us also to double time and push them to the maximum”. Iran says the Houthis are an independent political force.

Zoubaidi said the Aden government was willing to provide intelligence advice to all those mounting attacks on Houthi positions. “We are willing to work with everyone on this”, he said

He said the attacks mounted so far largely by the US and the UK on the Houthis “had not been effective because it’s not targeting the Houthi leadership, or their main locations or headquarters. It’s not joined-up, or comprehensive. It’s just airstrikes. Joined-up means also a military operation on the ground”.

Zoubaidi said the social structure of Houthi support was different from that of Hezbollah and Hamas, so simply going after its leadership would not be enough.

For more details attached here under the link for the full interview:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/21/strike-houthis-while-iran-is-weak-un-backed-yemeni-government-urges-west