Middle EastAnalysis

US threats unlikely to scupper Houthi disruption of shipping routes or dull their support of Gaza

Houthis back the Palestinian cause and seek to force US and its partners to demand Israel end the Gaza war and allow supplies into the bombed coastal strip

A billboard depicting battleships and stating 'The crowd will be defeated. They will turn their backs' on a street in Sana'a, Yemen. The Houthis began their Red Sea campaign in November 2023 by hijacking the Galaxy Leader, an Israeli-owned cargo ship and towing it into Yemen’s port of Hodeidah. Photograph: Shutterstock

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Michael Jansen
Thu Jan 4 2024 - 17:32

Yemeni Houthis have declared their defiance of Washington’s warning of dire consequences if they do not halt drone and missile strikes on commercial vessels sailing westwards through the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait, Red Sea and Suez Canal. By rejecting the threat of reprisals, the Houthis could risk attacks on radar stations and military installations.

The United States has hesitated to attack Houthi-controlled north Yemen. The Houthis could retaliate by hitting Saudi oilfields and Emirati sea and airports, which they targeted before the 2022 ceasefire in the Yemen war.

[ US warns Iran-backed Houthis after Red Sea shipping attacks ]

[ Attacks in Lebanon and Iran heighten fears of wider war in the Middle East ]

In a joint statement, the US and its mainly western allies have condemned Houthi strikes on east-west shipping as “illegal, unacceptable and profoundly destabilising”. They said there was “no lawful justification for intentionally targeting civilian shipping and naval vessels”.

As members of the Iran-sponsored axis of resistance along with Syria and the militant groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizbullah, the Houthis disagree. The Houthis are supporters of the Palestinian cause and seek to disrupt shipping to pressure the US and its partners to demand Israel end the Gaza war and allow water, food and medical supplies into the besieged, blockaded and bombed coastal strip.

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The Houthis began their Red Sea campaign in November 2023 by hijacking the Galaxy Leader, an Israeli-owned cargo ship and towing it into Yemen’s port of Hodeidah where it has become a tourist attraction. At the outset, they focused on ships bound for the Israeli port of Eilat, which handles about 30 per cent of Israeli imports. The Houthis also lobbed shells toward Israel that were brought down by air defences. Having failed to secure their objective, the Houthis broadened their targets to include all shipping and have struck 23 ships without inflicting casualties or serious damage.

[ Israel and Hizbullah exchange fire but both sides seek to avoid escalation ]

[ Houthi militants killed by US navy after attack on container vessel in Red Sea ]

The threat posed by anti-ship missiles and bomb-ladened drones has convinced more than a dozen major shipping firms to avoid the Red Sea by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa, doubling fees and delivery times. The Italian-Swiss Mediterranean Shipping Company, France’s CMA CGM, Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk and British Petroleum are among the firms choosing the safe route. About 20 per cent of the globe’s container ships have adopted this option, the International Chamber of Shipping told the BBC.

The growing list of firms abandoning the Red Sea-Suez route has enabled the US to recruit in its coalition Australia, Britain, Belgium, Holland, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and Bahrain, the sole Arab member, which hosts the US Gulf fleet. Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates did not want to be identified with the US, which has totally backed Israel’s Gaza war while Spain and France chose to protect their own ships plying the Red Sea route.

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