Sanaa, May 2 (RHC)-- A high ranking Yemeni official has warned the United States against any hostile action against the Arab country, saying it possess far greater strategic stockpiles of deterrent weapons that Washington could imagine.

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a member of Yemen's Supreme Political Council, made the remarks in a post on X on Wednesday, amid reports that the US is preparing a large-scale aerial offensive against Yemen.

“Don’t play with fire.  Everything you would expect from a strategic stock of Yemeni deterrent weapons, it is much, much more than you can imagine, in terms of quantity, quality and variety,” he said.

Houthi’s remarks came after the spokesman of Yemeni armed forces announced earlier in the day that the country’s army has targeted two American destroyers and two Israeli ships in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean in a fresh operation in solidarity with Palestinians.

Yemen has been a key element of a regional campaign targeting Israeli and US interests, seeking an end to the brutal war on Gaza.

Yemenis have either seized or launched drone and missile attacks on ships linked to the Israeli regime, the U.S. or Britain that have been sailing in regional waters in recent months.  Attacks have also been launched from Yemen on ports controlled by the Israeli regime since October, when Israel started its war on Gaza.

Yemen’s ruling Houthi Ansarullah movement has reiterated that attacks on shipping will continue until Israel completely stops its aggression on Gaza.

Meanwhile, a Dutch media said the Yemeni armed forces have progressed in attacking distant targets, after the Yemeni army targeted the MSC Orion container ship in a drone attack in the Indian Ocean.  

“It seems that the Yemeni army now has weapons with which it can attack targets in the Indian Ocean,” the NOS network said

Portugal-flagged MSC Orion was truck in a drone attack on Monday, (372.8 miles) off the coast of Yemen.  The ship was sailing between the ports of Sines, Portugal, and Salalah, Oman, according to LSEG and other ship-tracking data.

Yemen’s Armed Forces have also announced that they have targeted three other ships, a container ship and two U.S. Navy ships in recent days.  

Meanwhile, a Dutch warship, which had been in the Red Sea for nearly a month, is sailing towards East Asia.  His Netherlands Majesty’s Ship (HNLMS) Tromp is an air-defense and command frigate that has been deployed by the Royal Netherlands Navy, with an objective to provide safe passage to merchant vessels that are passing through the red-sea region.

This was the second warship to depart the Red Sea after EU's "naval mission" failed to confront Yemen.

On Monday, Germany withdrew a warship from the Red Sea following the failure of an EU military mission to confront Yemen’s maritime campaign in support of the Gaza Strip.

The frigate had been deployed in the strategic waterway in February as part of the EU naval operation called Aspides (“shield” in ancient Greek) in the face of pro-Palestine operations by the Yemeni armed forces.