Yemen’s Houthi rebels are not impressed by the US launching an international naval force to shield Red Sea shipping from their attacks and vowed to fight it — including US partners and their vessels.
“We are not the kind of people who are afraid of war,” Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said during a televised speech on Wednesday.
His statement comes after Washington formally announced on Monday taking the lead in a multinational, anti-Houthi naval operation to protect the key sea lane from the Gulf of Aden to the Suez Canal.
“This will not deter us in any way from our firm stance,” Al-Houthi said, adding that the US move is “turning the Red Sea into a war zone”.
Another nine nations have said they will join the US in ‘Operation Prosperity Guardian’: the UK, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain.
Al-Houthi on Wednesday warned all of these countries, as well all others Washington is trying to get on board to step back, and launched threats to their shipping.
“Don’t get involved … don’t risk the security of your maritime ships,” he said according to a live translation from Iran’s English-language channel Press TV.
The comments underline the growing sense that the disruption to trade across the region risks lasting some time. Container lines that have diverted services will need certainty about the safety of their ships and crews before considering resuming Red Sea voyages.
The Houthis have attacked about a dozen commercial vessels crossing the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since last month, as a means to pressure Israel and its backers to stop the war in Gaza.
The Houthis have always claimed to be only attacking ships either owned by Israel or heading towards Israel’s ports.
Its attacks, however, have looked increasingly arbitrary lately and caused all the world’s biggest container liners to entirely suspend ship traffic through the region in a move that has thrown shipping markets into disarray.
Al-Houthi reiterated on Wednesday the claim that his group is attacking Israeli-linked ships only and said the policy was successful.
“The enemy was really impacted,” he said.
