“If the Houthis carry out their plan, of course it will change the course of hostility in Gaza, because Israel will have to deal with the Houthis. So the focus will be directed at Houthis not just on Gaza, not just on Hamas or Islamic Jihad or any other resistance movements,” said Mehmet Rakipoglu, a researcher on international affairs at the London-based think tank Dimensions for Strategic Studies.

Sputnik spoke with several experts about the feasibility of a Yemeni deployment to the Gaza Strip and what the culpability is of the United States in it becoming a regional conflict.

Ankara-based security and political analyst Hasan Selim Ozertem said it “may undermine the regional security further and will not contain the conflict within the borders of Gaza. And this may spill over towards Syria and also to the Red Sea regions.”

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🇷🇺🇺🇦 The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) representative office in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) of issues related to Ukraine's war crimes said Ukrainian troops had shelled the DPR territory 25 times over the past day.

"Over the past day, the office reported 25 cases of fire by Ukrainian armed forces," the office wrote on Telegram.

According to the statement, 15 civilians were wounded.

The DPR said that Ukraine fired 79 rounds of various ammunition.

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🇵🇸🇮🇱 Hamas would not discuss the release of hostages until a ceasefire first goes into effect, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing Egyptian officials.

Hamas said earlier in the day that Ismail Haniyeh, the chairman of its political bureau, arrived in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Wednesday morning to hold talks with Egyptian officials on the situation in the Gaza Strip and other issues.

The report cited Egyptian officials as saying that Haniyeh told intelligence officials in Cairo that he was there to obtain a ceasefire and more humanitarian aid for Gaza.

Islamic Jihad also said that the ceasefire must go into effect before negotiations could start and that Israel must free "all of its thousands of Palestinian prisoners" in return for more than 100 hostages held in Gaza, the report said.

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The Colorado Supreme Court's decision to remove former President Donald Trump from the state's 2024 election ballot is very flawed and not expected to hold up in higher courts, ex-US Justice Department prosecutor Ronald Sievert told Sputnik.

"I believe those conclusions are very flawed," Sievert said on Wednesday. "I also think there is serious debate as to whether what happened on Jan 6th was an 'insurrection' as that word was meant in the Constitution-it was written after a civil war against the Federal Government- as opposed to a big riot," he added.

Siever explained that the Colorado Supreme Court's opinion concluded that Trump intended a violent attack on the capitol while ignoring that the former US president said "march peacefully and patriotically." The court also ignored that the day before the January 6 riot, Trump offered to have the National Guard available, which would not be something to consider had he wanted a violent attack on the US Capitol, Sievert said.

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This will damage the Biden campaign: the backlash caused by Colorado’s recent Trump, ballot ruling

The backlash from the decision will not affect Trump’s campaign, but it will greatly affect President Joe Biden and other Democrats, Daniel Lazare, an author and journalist told Sputnik.

“I think that for many voters and certainly for most Republican voters this to them is the final proof that the Democrats are weaponizing the judicial system in order to essentially deny and to knock Trump out before he even has a chance of, you know, appearing on the ballot.”

Republicans will view the decision as a partisan effort to remove Trump from the ballot, and will see such a ruling as an attempt to “steal” the presidential election in 2024. That same Republican viewpoint was also the catalyst for the January 6 US capitol attack which has landed Trump in this most recent legal dilemma.

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🇷🇺🎣🇩🇰 Russia refutes Western media claims of fishermen threatening Denmark's security

Western media reports about the threat posed by Russian fishermen to the security of Denmark are a part of the large-scale campaign of the West against Russia and are aimed at destroying the Moscow-Torshavn relationship, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has told Sputnik.

Media have earlier reported that the extension of a fisheries agreement between Russia and the Faroe Islands, which are part of Denmark on the rights of autonomy, would allegedly allow Moscow to "spy on the West" through this territory.

"The basis for the multi-year cooperation between Russia and the Faroe Islands is the agreement between the government of the Soviet Union, on the one hand, and the government of Denmark and the local government of the Faroe Islands, on the other, on mutual relations in fisheries between the Soviet Union and the Faroe Islands of 1977," the spokeswoman clarified.

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🇨🇳 Xi Jinping tells Biden Beijing will reunify Taiwan with China

Xi Jinping told US President Joe Biden during an encounter on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco that mainland China would reunite with Taiwan, NBC reported, citing three incumbent and former US officials.

🔸 According to the article, the Chinese leader told the US president at a meeting attended by American and Chinese officials that Beijing favors peaceful, not forceful, reintegration of the island.

🔸 Additionally, Xi Jinping denied the claims made by the US military that China plans to "invade" Taiwan in 2025 or 2027.

🔸 Officials familiar with the content of the conversation between Biden and Xi Jinping characterized the Chinese leader as "sharp and outspoken but not confrontational," NBC wrote.

Beijing considers Taiwan as an unalienable part of China’s sovereign territory and opposes any official contacts between the island and other countries.

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🇯🇵 On Wednesday, the Fukuoka High Court Naha branch ordered Okinawa to approve the central government’s construction plan for a key US base. The decision will move forward a construction plan that has been suspended amid legal proceedings, protests of residents and opposition for years.

The branch told Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki to improve the plan within three weekdays. If Tamaki fails to do so, then Tetsuo Saito, the land minister, will approve the plans by proxy.

Saito filed this latest lawsuit in October after Tamaki failed to clarify whether or not he would accept the order to move ahead with the plans. In response to the ruling, Tamaki has said that the ruling undermines the will of residents. The governor can still appeal the decision, but the local government will be unable to stop the construction unless the top court overturns the decision completely.

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🇮🇩 Indonesia understands the Ukraine conflict was caused by NATO's ambitions, Hasto Kristiyanto, the secretary-general of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, told Sputnik.

"For Indonesia, respecting the sovereignty of countries is one of the fundamental principles of foreign policy. That is why we are able to understand the situation with Russia and Ukraine - after all, it is a sovereignty problem caused by NATO's ambitions," Kristiyanto stated.

The secretary-general believes that Indonesia also pays more attention to protecting its own sovereignty.

"We need to prove our independence anew, to let the world know that we have our own sovereignty," Kristiyanto said, adding that it would improve the state of the art of Indonesian diplomacy.

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📹 Russian paratrooper drones destroyed three Ukrainian military motorboats and personnel on the Dnepr River in the Kherson region.

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Australia assures US: Red Sea not our strategic priority

Australia has refused to participate in the US-led Operation Prosperity Guardian in the Red Sea to protect commercial vessels from Houthi attacks, stressing that it wants to focus on the Indo-Pacific.

Instead of sending warships to the Red Sea, Canberra pledged to provide additional personnel to the US-led coalition.

Earlier this week, the Biden administration announced a multinational effort to secure maritime commerce after Houthi rebels stepped up drone and missile attacks on Israeli-allied ships in a bid to force Tel Aviv to halt the Gaza war.

About 12% of global trade passes through the Red Sea, including 30% of global container traffic, including 20% of the world's container traffic, about 10% of oil seaborne transport and 8% of liquefied natural gas.

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