The Defense Minister in the Sanaa government, Major General Muhammad Nasser Al-Atifi (Military media)

The Defense Minister in the Sanaa government, Major General Muhammad Nasser Al-Atifi, on Thursday directed to raise the combat and military readiness of the Yemeni naval forces and coastal defense to levels that enable them to carry out any tasks to protect maritime sovereignty, state-run Yemeni news agency SABA reported.

Chairing an "extraordinary" meeting with the leadership of the Naval Forces, Al-Atifi warned "occupying Western forces, which began to infiltrate the region, including the occupied provinces, that the unknown awaits them if their persistence, arrogance, and occupation continue," SABA indicated.

Al-Atifi explained that Yemen's geography requires its armed forces in general and its naval forces in particular "to continue to actively support building and modernizing the naval forces so that they are capable of imposing a strong Yemeni military reality in this vital region, and in a position that prevents foreign interference, solidly deters external greed, and all attempts to impose a foreign reality under flimsy names and slogans, whose title is confronting piracy and smuggling," the news agency mentioned.

"Whatever the justifications of the Western powers, this does not give them the right to interfere in Yemeni sovereignty or impose its influence on our territorial waters," Al-Atifi was quoted as saying.

He added that such methods expose the "dubious" goals of Zionist forces of international influence in the region.

"Perhaps the supporters of the aggression coalition realize that any renunciation of what has been agreed upon will have its aftermath, and they have to bear the consequences because we have refuted all their arguments," Al-Atifi underlined.

He continued, "Our religious, national, legal duty requires us to respond accordingly to remind the enemies that we are present and ready in various circumstances."

On his part, the Chief of Staff of the Naval Forces in the Sanaa government, Mansour Al-Saadi, revealed that the Naval Forces tested ballistic missiles that have distinct capabilities in terms of their long-range distances and their wide destructive capabilities for hostile targets, noting that these missiles can be launched from any point in Yemen.

Al-Saadi made it clear that the naval movements of the forces of aggression are being monitored around the clock, expressing that the Naval Forces' confrontation plan at the defensive and offensive levels is ready to be launched and is only awaiting the directives of the supreme command.

This comes after the US Navy announced on Monday that more than 3,000 US military personnel arrived in the Red Sea aboard two warships.

In a statement, the US Navy's Fifth Fleet confirmed that the US sailors and Marines entered the Red Sea on Sunday after transiting through the Suez Canal in a pre-announced deployment.

They arrived on board the USS Bataan and USS Carter Hall warships, providing "greater flexibility and maritime capability" to the Fifth Fleet, the statement added.

On Tuesday, the deputy foreign minister in the Sanaa government, Hussein Al-Ezzi, warned that any approach of US forces from Yemen's territorial waters "may mean the beginning of the longest and most costly battle in human history."

On his account on the X platform, Al-Ezzi pointed out that in order to preserve the safety of navigation in the Red Sea, US forces should avoid Yemen's territorial waters, because any approach (just a mere approach) "may mean the beginning of the longest and most costly battle in human history."