by Brian Shilhavy, Health Impact News:
The naval war in the Red Sea continues to develop, with expectations growing that the U.S. will soon start bombing Yemen, while the Houthis continue to threaten shipping by attacking all ships passing through. The U.S. is building a coalition in the area to protect ships, but that coalition apparently does not involve any of the key Arab oil-producing states (except for the small island country of Bahrain), such as Saudi Arabia, which has recently made peace with Yemen after years of war with them.
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So the big question now is will Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, and other Gulf nations join this effort, or stay out in support of the Palestinian people?
Military actions in the Red Sea seem inevitable now, based on the rhetoric coming from both sides.
Houthi attacks out of Yemen on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and vital Bab al-Mandab Strait has become daily, resulting in the Pentagon unveiling a multi-nation naval task force to thwart the ongoing missile and drone assaults. But the Houthis say they’ll remain undeterred in operations meant as retaliation for the Gaza war, vowing to keep up the attacks.
“The American-formed coalition is to protect Israel and militarize the sea without any justification, and will not stop Yemen from continuing its legitimate operations in support of Gaza,” wrote Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Salam on X.
The Houthis starting weeks ago declared war on any ship headed to Israeli ports or that’s linked to the country; however, a number of vessels have been targeted which apparently have no connection.
There’s a growing list of major shipping and container companies which have temporarily halted transit through the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Red Sea:
- Italian-Swiss giant Mediterranean Shipping Company
- France’s CMA CGM
- Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd
- Belgium’s Euronav
- oil giant BP
- Denmark’s A.P Moller-Maersk
- Taiwan shipping firm Evergreen
- Norway-based Frontline
A couple of these represent the bulk of traffic, for example Maersk accounts for 15 percent of global container freight and Frontline is among the world’s largest shipping companies. At this point we might say, who hasn’t halted operations in these ultra high risk waters at this point, as insurance premiums and risk related costs rise.
On Monday US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the launch of Operation Prosperity Guardian – a new “multinational security initiative” involving the navies of ten coalition nations which will patrol the Red Sea. “Countries that seek to uphold the foundational principle of freedom of navigation must come together to tackle the challenge posed by this non-state actor,” Austin said while on a trip to Israel.
The US defense chief identified the countries which will make up the coalition as follows:
Operation Prosperity Guardian is bringing together multiple countries to include the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain, to jointly address security challenges in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, with the goal of ensuring freedom of navigation for all countries and bolstering regional security and prosperity.
“The Red Sea is a critical waterway that has been essential to freedom of navigation and a major commercial corridor that facilitates international trade,” Austin had emphasized.
Given that US and UK warships have already intercepted drones and inbound rockets, there’s a high likelihood that these allied nations will see military action in the tense waterway. (Full Article.)
Iran has warned that the U.S. will face “extraordinary problems” if they start a war in the Red Sea:
Iran warns US will face ‘problems’ with Red Sea task force plans
Iran’s Defence Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani has warned that a planned United States-backed multinational task force to protect shipping in the Red Sea would face “extraordinary problems”.
Ashtiani’s comments came after the US said last week it was in talks with other countries to set up a task force following a spate of attacks by the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen on ships in the Red Sea.
“If they make such an irrational move, they will be faced with extraordinary problems,” Ashtiani told the official Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA).
“Nobody can make a move in a region where we have predominance,” he said, referring to the Red Sea. (Full article.)
Former CIA analyst Larry C. Johnson appeared on Redacted yesterday to discuss what some of those “problems” might be for the U.S. in the Red Sea, which he says includes reduced military forces arming their ships, as well as the need to port and restock ammunition.
Hussain Al Bukhaiti, a political analyst aligned with the Houthi movement, states that the Houthis are not afraid of the United States and their coalition.
The U.S., of course, has been killing people in Yemen since the Obama administration without any formal declaration of war, and Obama was the first President in the history of the U.S. to execute, by drone attack, a 16-year-old U.S. citizen who was living in Yemen without any due process of law.
When Trump became President, he continued Obama’s actions by killing more U.S. citizens in Yemen without any trial or due process of law, including an 8-year-old girl, as one of his first actions as President of the United States. (Source.)
Those who have read the Bible know all too well that this is not the first battle in the Red Sea where the outcome proved disastrous for the stronger military forces. As recorded in Exodus chapter 14, the King of Egypt (Pharaoh) chased after the caravan of fleeing Hebrew slaves and met up with them at the Red Sea, where Moses parted the Red Sea that allowed the Hebrews to pass through on dry ground, and when Pharaoh’s great army chased after them, the Red Sea closed up and became a graveyard for Egypt’s mighty army, the most powerful army in the world at that time.
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