I'm John Batchel with my colleague Bill Rajo, Senior Fellow Foundation for Defense of Democracy.

We're visiting with David Dahood of the FD about the threat to Israel from the octopus.

The brain is in Tehran.

The arms include Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, but not recently.

David, there's a report that the Houthis are seeking sanctuary in Oman,

presuming that Oman will not be attacked by an adversary to the Houthis.

There's also been remarks by the Trump administration that the Houthis cease now or the hammer falls.

What is your measure of the Houthis? Have they pulled in their fangs and are fearing a massive

attack on themselves? Is that why they're in Oman? Well, Oman is traditionally played like

the Switzerland of the Middle East. They, even there is one, neither Shiite nor Sunni, uh, and they've kind of adopted

this, this position of neutrality.

They've often acted as intermediaries, um, between the West and say Iran negotiations

between the United States and Iran over the nuclear deal.

For example, under the Obama administration, um, was the Obama administration was done with Omani mediation. The Omanis did come out very much in support of Hamas, I guess,

to some degree you could say to resistance access during the last war with Gaza. So kind of this

neutral zone, it would be smart for the Houthis to move there,

given that we also at the same time have good relations with the Omani's,

and they've positioned themselves as worthwhile interlocutors,

at least they're interlocutors who can work on worthwhile issues for the United States.

So that gives them kind of a protective shell, the Houthis, right?

They're in a country that the United States may not attack directly.

Where are they now?

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