NZ backs retaliation against Houthis

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

New Zealand has joined seven other countries in lending support to air strikes by the US and Britain on military sites in Yemen used by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group, in retaliation for its attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

The joint statement issued by the White House cited “broad consensus” in the international community against the Houthis, and noted a UN Security Council resolution last month calling on the rebels to halt their attacks on shipping “in one of the world’s most critical waterways”. It said the strikes were conducted “in accordance with the inherent right of individual and collective self-defence”.

New Zealand also supported a final warning issued to the Houthis last week to cease their attacks, or “bear the consequences”. They ignored that, launching their largest attack yet earlier this week.

We can expect to hear more about the Government’s stance on Monday when it returns to Parliament for its first Cabinet meeting of the year, but it is clear that New Zealand is drawing closer to the United States under the new Government.

In Sydney last month Prime Minister Christopher Luxon signalled the Government was exploring “pillar two” of the Aukus security partnership between the US, UK and Australia.

On Friday last week, after having supported that final warning, Foreign Minister Winston Peters spoke to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken — afterwards announcing on X (formerly Twitter) that they had discussed the importance of the US-New Zealand strategic partnership, strengthening cooperation to address regional and global challenges, the situation in Ukraine, and the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Blinken was on his fourth visit to the Middle East this week in a further effort to stop Israel’s war in Gaza from escalating, with tensions rising on Israel’s border with Lebanon since the assassination of a Hamas leader in Beirut and a strike that killed a Hizbullah commander — both believed to have been carried out by Israel.

Hearings also began at the UN International Court of Justice, where South Africa has brought a case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.

The Houthis say they have been targeting Israeli ships and vessels heading to Israel, but many of their targets have had no link at all to Israel.

That they were able to continue this for so long without military retaliation was due to concern it could upend a shaky truce in the six-year-long civil war between the Houthis — who now control much of Yemen — and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government, possibly triggering a wider conflict in the region. What happens next is anybody’s guess, but it is clear that Iran’s proxies are on notice.