LONDON: A group of Western countries have jointly warned the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen against any new attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Since November 2023, the militia has carried out more than 20 attacks on commercial shipping in the area after the terrorist group announced its support for Hamas in its ongoing war with Israel, the BBC reported. The Houthis have used missiles, drones, fast boats and helicopters to carry out the attacks and have often claimed that the targeted ships were linked to Israel. In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, the group of 12 countries – Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK and the US – issued a formal warning to the Houthis and called for an offensive in the Red Sea.
The attack is “illegal, unacceptable and deeply destabilizing.” He said there was “no legal justification for deliberately targeting civilian shipping and naval vessels”, adding that the Houthis “will face consequences” if the attacks continued, the BBC reported. Nations also called for an “immediate end” to the attacks, they said, posing a “direct threat to freedom of navigation” in the vital waterway through which about 15 percent of global trade passes. According to the International Chamber of Shipping, 20 percent of the world’s container ships are currently avoiding the Red Sea and steaming around southern Africa as a result of the attacks. The development comes as the Houthis claimed a new attack on a cargo ship in the Red Sea. The militia carried out an operation targeting the ship CMA CGM TAGE, the group’s military spokesman Yahya Sariya said in a live broadcast by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.
“This operation began when the ship’s crew refused to respond to calls from our forces, including aggressive warning messages,” he said. The spokesman stressed that the Houthis confirm that unless food and medical aid is allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, they will block Israeli ships or ships headed to Israel through the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. Will continue to prevent people from going into the ocean. Wednesday’s attack came nearly three days after a military helicopter of US Navy forces patrolling the Red Sea killed 10 Houthi militants and sank three of their boats as they tried to approach a merchant vessel. The Houthis have been waging a civil war against Yemen’s government since 2014 and control much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa and the strategic Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.
