MOSCOW, January 13. /TASS/. US President Joe Biden decided to attack Yemen for political reasons with a view to distracting voters’ attention from failures in Ukraine and domestic problems facing the United States, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel.
"Biden needs a small victorious war to distract voter attention from foreign policy failures in Ukraine and domestic problems in the United States. This is exactly why the Biden administration failed to inform US Congress of its move to attack Yemen. This is proof that the strike was delivered in pursuit of the incumbent [US] president’s political interests," Volodin maintained as he added that even Biden’s allies "say that he acted in breach of the Constitution."
The speaker of the Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, said that amid Biden’s "extremely low" approval ratings Washington attacked a sovereign country "making international law norms null and void and abusing the UN Charter."
"If the United States is a constitutional nation, Biden should be held criminally responsible, until he unleashes a global war as he struggles to keep power," Volodin concluded.
On Thursday night, the armed forces of the United States and the United Kingdom delivered air strikes on rebel-held positions in several Yemeni cities, including the capital Sanaa and Hodeidah, using aircraft, warships and submarines. US President Joe Biden said the military action was ordered in response to "unprecedented Houthi attacks" on shipping in the Red Sea and that the strikes, targeting Houthi munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities, and air defense radar systems, were delivered in self-defense.
After the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis warned that they would launch strikes on Israeli territory while barring ships associated with the Jewish state from passing through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until Tel Aviv ceased its military operation against Palestinian radical group Hamas in the embattled enclave. According to estimates by the US Defense Department’s Central Command (CENTCOM), the Yemeni rebel group has attacked more than 20 vessels and civilian ships in the Red Sea since mid-November.