The US is launching a maritime coalition to counter attacks that the rebel group says are in response to Israeli “crimes” in the Gaza Strip.
A spokesman for the rebel group said Yemen's Houthis would not stop attacks on Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea, despite the United States announcing the creation of a new maritime protection force to counter them.
“Even if America manages to mobilize the entire world, our military operations will not stop … no matter the sacrifices it costs us,” Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a senior Houthi official, said in a post on X on Tuesday.
The Houthis would only stop their attacks if Israel's “crimes in Gaza cease and food, medicine and fuel can reach the besieged population,” al-Bukhaiti said.
He spoke after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday announced a coalition to protect trade in the Red Sea after attacks forced shipping companies to suspend operations.
The Iran-aligned Houthis have carried out attacks on more than a dozen commercial vessels to pressure Israel to stop bombing the Gaza Strip.
“These reckless Houthi attacks are a serious international problem and require a decisive international response,” Austin said of the new 10-nation coalition. He said the force would operate “with the aim of ensuring freedom of navigation for all countries and strengthening security and prosperity in the region.”
After the US announcement, Houthi Major General Yusuf al-Madani said in a statement: “Any escalation in Gaza is an escalation in the Red Sea… Any country or party that stands between us and Palestine, we will deal with it.”
Spokesman al-Bukhaiti told Al Jazeera on Monday that the group would confront any US-led coalition in the Red Sea.
Not an act of “defiance”
“In Yemen, the military establishment in areas controlled by the Houthis warns that they will continue to attack ships passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea, and they insist they are doing so to protect the people of “To protect Gaza.” Specifically, Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra said while reporting from Doha on Tuesday.
“A senior Houthi official, Mohammed Abdulsalam, who is also a senior negotiator, said the Houthis' attacks are not an act of defiance, but if this new coalition stubbornly insists on launching attacks, they will have to face the consequences of what he did.” described as a major conflict in the region.
“But he said at the same time that the Houthis still insist that the Israelis must end the war if they want the Houthis to stop the attacks,” our correspondent added.
On Tuesday, Abdulsalam told Portal that the US-led naval patrol mission was “essentially unnecessary” – as all waters near Yemen were still safe, except for Israel-linked ships or ships bound for Israel.
The U.S. and British navies announced over the weekend that their destroyers had shot down a total of 15 drones in the waterway.
In the latest incident on Tuesday, Britain's Maritime Trade Operations said four small boats, each with four to five people on board, approached a ship off the coast of Djibouti in a “suspicious” maneuver – but no weapons were seen in the incident .
At least twelve shipping companies, including Italian-Swiss giant Mediterranean Shipping Company, France's CMA CGM and Denmark's AP Moller-Maersk, have suspended transit through the Red Sea for safety reasons. British oil giant BP on Monday became the latest company to announce it would avoid the waters.
About 12 percent of world trade passes through the Red Sea, which is connected to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal. Houthi attacks have effectively redirected a significant amount of trade by forcing cargo companies to circumnavigate Africa, leading to higher costs and delays in the delivery of energy, food and consumer goods.
Ahmed Helal, MENA director at The Global Counsel, told Al Jazeera that the crisis was having a “cascading impact” on inflation. “Major central banks have cut interest rates to combat inflation and lower prices for consumers. But this disruption in a key global trade artery affects regular goods and energy, both oil and natural gas,” he said.
He added that due to the Houthi attacks and the ongoing disruption of natural gas supplies to Europe as a result of the Ukraine war, “European natural gas prices are increasing by 12 percent, British natural gas prices are increasing by 10 percent, and the price of…” Oil is also in recent decline Up 4 percent in 24 hours.”
