Opinion | Forget the signal chat. The US on the Houthi were a necessary blow to put pressure on Iran.

It is a pity that the recent turmoil on the use of the messaging app of Signal by the senior leadership in the Trump administration obscured the importance of the event that were discussing: a strike against the Houthi on March 15. The attack marked the beginning of a necessary military campaign and a potential turn of the page for the United States in the Middle East.

The Biden administration has mostly chosen to ignore the growing threat to world trade represented by the Houthi, a group supported by Iran that President Trump has designated a terrorist organization. His answers were telegraphs and completely watered to avoid any possibility of escalation by Iran and, in conjunction, any lasting damage to the Houthi. As a result, the impact on the group was at most ephemeral.

It is important to know that hitting Houthi position in Yemen serves first of all the interests of the United States. Trying to ensure a safe passage through Bab El-Mandeb, the Strait that leads to the Red Sea and is essential for international shipping routes, we are doing much more than simply helping European trade. Instead, we are pursuing several larger goals: firstly, we are affirming the importance of free passage on global municipalities; We are the largest maritime nation in the world and the concept of unmarried transit is fundamental for our safety. Secondly, China is looking at us and will draw conclusions from our actions with Yemen on what we will do or will not tolerate happen in Taiwan.

Finally, hitting Houthis weakens the only functional arm of the Iranian malfacteria in the region. Hezbollah, Syria and even Hamas are already significantly degraded; Now also the Houthi are attached to their reckless actions.

Significant success will not come easily. Using air energy alone to defeat militias It was traditionally difficult. In this case, however, there is a distinction that has been neglected by many critics: the goal is not to eliminate Houthi or create a good government. Instead, it is to force them to cease to use high -tech missiles and drones to attack ships at sea. This is a much closer and most achievable mission. Houthi’s attacks have an electronic and visual signature that is only detectable and plays in our high -tech approach.

It is quite likely that the Houthi will do so Use the Yemeni population as human shieldsJust as Hamas did with civilians in Gaza. This means that, despite our best efforts, there will be civil victims. Those are deplorable and our forces will work hard to minimize them, even if the Houthi will almost certainly work to maximize both the actual victims and the anti-American messages on them.

It will not be a campaign during the night, but we have always had the military ability to solve this problem. What was missing so far has been the political will. Certainly, the Biden administration had its reasons not to take effective actions against the Houthi. Perhaps the most significant was the fear of the Iranian escalation. But this is an empty threat. The Iranian military response has been exposed several times in the last year and has been disappointing.

The Trump administration operations Against the Houthi are the act of opening in what could be another very bad year for Iran. To tell the truth, 2024 was perhaps the worst year of recent history for its leaders: their allies and delegates were exhausted, their ballistic missilistic strength was exposed as ineffective against their main opponent, Israel, and were unable to defend their skies from highly effective Israeli backlapers.

As such, we must think beyond the Houthi, at the final source of the problems they present: Iran. Mr. Trump knows it and his social media send Last Monday he completely captures his thought: “The choice for Houthis is clear: stop shooting the ships and we will stop shooting you. Otherwise, we have just started, and the real pain has yet to arrive, both for the Houthi and for their sponsors in Iran.”

Mr. Trump arrives right now with three great successes from his first term. While they are forgotten by many in the United States, these results still resonate forcefully in the Middle East. First of all, his decision to hit and kill the military leader of Iran, the major General Qassim Suleimani, in January 2020. Secondly, the search for Abraham Accords, which established Israeli relations with two Arab States and opened a diplomatic, economic and cultural path for further Israeli integration in the region. Finally, his decision to move the supervision for Israel from the European command, which focuses on Russia, in the central command, who is responsible for Iran.

While the last one might seem like a purely bureaucratic move, it aligned Israel with a command center that addresses the same problem. This created the structure and the processes that allowed Israel to work with the United States and the regional neighbors to successfully defend themselves from two important Iranian attacks last year. This is a big problem.

Iran respects the strength. The Suleimani strike five years ago and now the strikes against the Houthi clearly show that the United States have a president who is not paralyzed by the potential escalation.

Because of these developments, we now have the opportunity to bring Iran to the table for substantial negotiations on its nuclear ambitions: negotiations that must be conducted directly, not through third -party interlocutors and without pre -contracts or concessions to definition of the scenes. Even if we return against Houthis, time is also mature to press Iran to give up any potential pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Tehran has so far resisted direct interviews with the United States. Because it would now be open They? Because it recognizes that the possibility of an American or Israeli strike in its nuclear program is closer to reality than at any time in recent history. The highest goal of the Iranian Statecraft is the conservation of the regime. If the survival of clerical leadership is directly and credibly threatened, Iran will change its behavior. Now we have the tools and the will to create this threat significantly.

This is a vulnerability window that will not last forever, but it is very real. I believe from my previous interactions with President Trump who does not look for war with Iran. I also know that he is willing to push Iran hard to negotiate, and brings with him credibility on the use of strength that has been absent from our position for several years.

Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. is a former head of the Central Command of the United States and is now executive director of the Global and National Security Institute and of the Florida Center for Cyber ​​Security at the University of Southern Florida.

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