PREVIEW: GUEST: Bridget Toomey SUMMARY: John Batchelor speaks with Bridget Toomey of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies about the Houthis, who continue daily attacks against Israel. The UK and Saudi Arabia launched an initiative to support Yemen's
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 22 September 2025
⏱️ 2 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
GUEST: Bridget Toomey
SUMMARY: John Batchelor speaks with Bridget Toomey of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies about the Houthis, who continue daily attacks against Israel. The UK and Saudi Arabia launched an initiative to support Yemen's Coast Guard to slow Houthi resupply from Iran. Ending the Houthi threat would likely require ground action by Yemeni and Gulf forces, although Israel is attempting air strikes to limit capabilities and target Houthi leadership. The US appears "out of the fight" for the time being.
1926 YEMEN
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Building a coffee business? |
| 0:02.0 | Serving the best Americano in town is up to you. But winning back time and growing your business, leave that to sum up. Take orders and payments anywhere with the new sum up terminal. Turn occasional customers into regulars with a free loyalty program. And with the sumup point of sale system, you'll always know when you're running low on your best-selling blends. Visit sumup.co.uk to learn more. |
| 0:26.8 | This is John Batchel, a conversation with Bridget Toomey of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, |
| 0:33.2 | who is my colleague reporting on the Houthis. Here, Bridget identifies what might move the story because the Houthis continue their daily firing of drones and missiles against Israel, |
| 0:41.1 | not against Red Sea shipping for some time, but that hasn't changed the posture of the insurance companies. |
| 0:47.8 | As Bridgetu outlined, what might change the Coast Guard and what might change decapitation might. No guarantees here. |
| 0:58.0 | The Houthis remain out of reach of all the major national security teams. Much more of this |
| 1:04.4 | tonight. Bridget Toomey. So it does seem like the United States is out of the fight for the time being. |
| 1:13.3 | Interestingly, you mentioned the United Kingdom in Saudi Arabia. |
| 1:16.2 | They just launched a new initiative to support Yemen's Coast Guard, which is a, you know, |
| 1:21.9 | that'll be an important, hopefully will be an important factor in slowing Houthi rearmament and resupply. |
| 1:29.6 | Recently, Yemeni forces have been able to make some rather significant weapons interceptions, |
| 1:35.2 | smuggled systems coming from Iran to the Houthis. |
| 1:38.5 | So that is an important step, but it's not sufficient. |
| 1:49.2 | And Israel is looking to do what they can to take on the Houthis, but really to displace and end the Houthi threat would likely require some kind of ground |
| 1:55.3 | action, either by Yemeni forces supported by Gulf states in the U.S. And that's not something Israel has the capacity or kind of the willingness to do right now. |
| 2:06.4 | So I think they're hoping with with airstrikes to limit their capabilities and hopefully be able to find and target Houthi leadership. |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.