AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

We end today’s show in Yemen, as the Pentagon launched a wave of airstrikes on Sana’a and other parts of Yemen this week. U.S. Central Command said it targeted Houthi command and weapons production facilities. The attacks came just after Israel bombed the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah and the main airport in Sana’a, killing at least six people.

For more, we’re joined by Shireen Al-Adeimi, Yemeni American assistant professor at Michigan State University and a nonresident fellow at Quincy Institute.

Professor, welcome back to Democracy Now! As we just have a few minutes, if you can talk about the significance of the U.S. attacks and the Israeli attacks, one on the airport in Sana’a as the head of the World Health Organization, Ghebreyesus, was getting on the plane?

SHIREEN AL-ADEIMI: Yeah. So, as we know, that the U.S. formed Operation Prosperity Guardian essentially to protect commercial ships and other vessels going through the Red Sea that the Houthis — also, of course, they’re known as Ansarallah — have been rerouting in support of the Palestinians, given the genocide that’s occurring in Gaza. And so the U.S. has moved their carriers, USS Truman and others, to the Red Sea and have been launching airstrikes, what they’re calling Houthi targets, which honestly is just a phrase that justifies and legitimizes the bombing. These are targets that are largely on civilian targets. You mentioned Sana’a International Airport, which is the only operating airport in northern Yemen, and the port city of Hodeidah, which, of course, is the lifeline of Yemen, which is still reeling from a decade of the U.S.-Saudi-UAE campaign, the war of aggression over the last 10 years.

And then, most recently, Israel has joined by striking these sites directly. And so, these are strikes on Yemeni infrastructure. These are strikes on Yemeni civilians. They’re aimed at deterring Ansarallah’s capabilities, because they have been supporting the Palestinians. But as we know, that the only thing that will stop Ansarallah from rerouting ships in the Red Sea and stopping their attacks, their drone and missile attacks in Israel, is an end to the genocide in Gaza and an end to the starvation of the Palestinian people.

AMY GOODMAN: If you could explain? As I mentioned, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus was just meters away from the blast when the Israeli bomb dropped at the airport. What was he doing in Yemen, Professor Adeimi?

SHIREEN AL-ADEIMI: So, he was in Yemen as part of a mission to try to release some World Health Organization employees who have been held by Ansarallah. And he said that the negotiations have been going very well, that they reached agreements on four major points. So that was the mission. And, of course, this is public knowledge, where the World Health Organization goes. You know, this is a civilian airport, and it was known. He himself says that he assumes that whoever needed to know where he was, that he was there in that location at that particular time, would have known. So, it is not a coincidence that Israel targeted the airport while he was there, just meters away, as you mentioned. He still says that he suffers from tinnitus from the blast. There were six people who were killed, 40 Yemenis who were injured.

So, this is a really significant development that, honestly, I’m pretty shocked that it’s not more widely known and reported on. It just seemed to have just disappeared in the news, the targeting of the World Health Organization’s secretary-general, essentially. And I would say “targeting” is the appropriate word, because, like I said, they would have known that he was there at the time. So, I think it sends a message to the World Health Organization, to — you know, maybe they don’t know why he was there, but Israel can apparently do no wrong. So this is not surprising that they’ve gotten away with doing what they’ve done in Palestine, in Yemen, bombing their neighbors across the Middle East, and yet, you know, they’re given the green light to commit these atrocities and to target whomever they want, to target Yemeni infrastructure, to target an airport that only functions really to Amman and back, a couple of flights each week, and all because they want to continue doing what they’re doing in Palestine with no consequences.

AMY GOODMAN: Professor, President Trump is about to become president again in just over two weeks. Do you expect U.S. policy towards Yemen to change?

SHIREEN AL-ADEIMI: I don’t, because for the past 22 years, a U.S. president has been bombing Yemen, starting with the Bush administration, continuing on with Obama, who expanded the drone campaign and the launched the, you know, full support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen from 2015 to the end of his presidency. Then we had Trump, who just continued selling weapons to the Saudis and supporting their war every step of the way. Then President Biden said that he would end the war in Yemen but really just continued supporting them, but just under a rebranding, essentially, as a defensive rather than an offensive war, and now Biden is directly bombing Yemen. And so, I don’t expect U.S. policy in Yemen to change.

I expect Yemenis to continue doing what they can to defend themselves, but, unfortunately, we’ve seen over the last 22 years that the U.S. will continue to break its own laws. It’s unconstitutional to attack another country without congressional approval. And honestly, what is Congress doing while all of these presidents have —

AMY GOODMAN: Five seconds.

SHIREEN AL-ADEIMI: — been attacking? So, unfortunately, I don’t expect policy to change. But this should not be accepted. This should not be normalized. And we, as citizens, should be doing everything we can to stop it.

AMY GOODMAN: We have to leave it there. Professor Shireen Al-Adeimi, thank you so much for joining us.

A happy birthday to Dennis McCormick and Clara Ibarra! I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.