“We tell the Americans that your aggression against Yemen will fail,” Ali al-Qahoum, a member of the Houthi Political Bureau, told Anadolu.
“We will confront the US aggression with all might, and they will leave the region defeated,” he added.
The Houthi leader said the Yemeni group “is on alert to engage in an open battle against the Americans.”
The US and UK launched airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen in retaliation for attacks against commercial ships in the Red Sea.
The Houthi attacks have forced commercial ships to take a longer, costlier route around Africa, creating fears of a new bout of inflation and supply chain disruption.
Houthis say their attacks against ships believed to have links with Israel aim to pressure Tel Aviv to halt its deadly onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
On Saturday, US President Joe Biden termed the Houthi group as "terrorist," despite his administration delisted the movement from the terrorism list in 2021.
“The American-British aggression against Yemen has not and will not have an impact,” al-Qahoum said. “It is an aggression and crime that violated sovereignty and international laws.”
“Americans will regret their aggression and will pay a heavy price,” the Houthi leader vowed.
Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, killing at least 24,100 Palestinians and injuring 60,834 others, according to Palestinian health authorities, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.
The deadly onslaught has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.