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Mossad chief recommends hitting Iran to stop Houthis, Netanyahu disagrees

Barnea raised the suggestion to attack Iran after three strikes against Yemen failed to stop the Houthis from firing missiles into Israel.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Mossad chief David Barnea reportedly has suggested striking directly at Iran to deal with attacks from Houthis. Still, according to Haaretz, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz responded that they preferred to keep hitting the Houthis directly.

Barnea raised the suggestion to attack Iran after three strikes against Yemen failed to stop the Houthis from firing missiles into Israel.

The Mossad reportedly believes it is more effective to hit Iran directly since it funds the Yemenite terror group.

Mossad chief David Barnea has been pushing Israel’s leadership to concentrate on attacking Iran as a way to stem attacks from the Houthi rebels, according to reports Wednesday, as senior officials hinted that strikes against the Iran-backed Yemeni group were set to escalate in the near future.

The stance reportedly adopted by Barnea stands in contrast to the opinion of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, who prefer to keep carrying out strikes against the Houthis themselves rather than against Iran.

According to the Haaretz newspaper, Barnea raised the option during a series of discussions on the lack of results from three earlier rounds of strikes in Yemen. The report stated that the Mossad chief believes it would be more effective to go after Iran, which funds and arms the Shiite rebel group.

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“We need to go head-on against Iran,” Barnea told security officials, according to Channel 13. “If we only attack the Houthis, it’s not certain that we’ll be able to stop them.”

There was no independent confirmation of whether these conversations took place, and the reports were based on statements from anonymous sources.

According to Channel 13, Netanyahu responded to Barnea that Iran was “a different issue, which will be dealt with at the appropriate time.”‘

Members of the security establishment reportedly shared Netanyahu’s assessment.

In the past ten days, the Houthis have fired five ballistic missiles and five drones at Israel, damaging property and causing injuries.