Israeli ship seized by Iran's allies in the Middle East Houthis (Al Jazeera)

The first airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen mark another milestone in a long series of failures of Western policy in the Middle East and the long-standing failure to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The fact that America, backed by Britain, was forced to use force in response to Houthi attacks choking commercial ships in the Red Sea shows that Washington's political influence is waning, its diplomacy is ineffective, and its power is scorned.

Iran is a dominant power

The Houthis' pledge to continue attacks on ships highlights another fact: the dominant power in the Middle East is no longer the United States or even Israel, but Iran, the Houthis' main ally.

US President Joe Biden has alienated world public opinion, and many Americans, with his reckless pledge of unconditional support for Israel and vetoing UN plans for a ceasefire in Gaza, adding that Biden's Middle East policy seems old and far from reality.

Iran is now in the driver's seat and has key foreign policy goals: taking the United States out of the Middle East, maintaining regional supremacy, strengthening key alliances with China and Russia, and destroying Israel.

Axis of resistance

Iran-sponsored networks of "axis of resistance" militias, such as the Houthis in Yemen, Hizbullah in Lebanon, militias based in Iraq and Syria, and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), are working to strengthen Iranian influence in and at a distance, he said.

Iran has clearly assembled a remote-controlled coalition of those willing to stay after taking America out of the region.

Power to be reckoned with

Iran took practical steps to mend ties with its Arab rivals in the Gulf last year, striking a deal to mend ties with Saudi Arabia, and the most important aspect of this deal is that China has brokered it. The latter, along with Russia, are new friends of Tehran, which has transformed Iran's fortunes and made it a power to be reckoned with.

Now, 45 years after its revolution, Iran is immune from sanctions, ostracism and threats, and America, Britain and Israel are facing formidable adversaries that are part of a trilateral global alliance (Iran, China and Russia) backed by powerful militias in the region and economic power.

Source: The Guardian