Houthis Ask Red Sea Ships To Report Their Destinations To Avoid Attacks

On Sunday, Yemen’s Houthi militia called for vessels planning to sail in the Red Sea to inform them in advance of the destinations and declare no links to Israel to avoid attacks. Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, the Houthi leader, proposed defusing what he refers to as the “militarization” of the Red Sea or igniting a war between the militia and the US-led maritime forces in the waters by demanding that all vessels sailing in that area supply them with the much-needed information.

In a post on X, Al-Houthi said: Each vessel that sails via the Red Sea, Bab El-Mandeb (the strait that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden), or the Arabian Sea must broadcast that they have no relation with Israel. This is an easy, low-cost way out that will incur zero business financial expenditures. The measure does not need the Red Sea’s militarisation and will also not jeopardize international navigation.

Since November 19, the Houthis have detained a commercial vessel called the Galaxy Leader and carried out over 20 missile as well as drone assaults on commercial as well as navy ships in the Red Sea as part of the ban on Israel-bound vessels from making use of the essential maritime channel.

The Houthis claim that their actions were aimed at forcing Israel not to continue bombing Gaza. The US Central Command reported on Saturday that the naval destroyer USS Laboon shot down a drone that was launched by the Houthis close to the commercial vessels in the Red Sea international waters. At the same time, Houthi leaders have kept on reiterating the threats to attack US Navy ships in the Red Sea in punishment for the deaths of 10 of their combatants last week.

Mahdi Al-Mashat, the head of the Houthi political council, mentioned on Saturday that the militia would back down from the retaliatory attack on the US Navy vessels if America promptly handed over the marines who had fired at the fighters in the waters of the Red Sea on December 31.

Speaking to the commanders of allied military forces in Hodeidah, the Houthi leader said that the retaliation cannot be avoided, except in one scenario: if one gives over the murderers and criminals among the troops who had murdered the Houthi heroes associated with their armed forces to be tried out in the Republic of Yemen. In the meantime, Yemen’s army in Taiz said on Saturday that one of the soldiers was murdered when a Houthi drone had targeted an army post while the government troops had repelled the two Houthi ground assaults.

Abdul Basit Al-Baher, a Yemeni official based in Taiz, reported to Arab News on Sunday that the Houthis have already conducted two assaults on government soldiers in the north and west of Taiz on Sunday as they aspire to take control of the fresh areas in the city. The news came as Rashad Al-Alimi, the president of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, met with the UN’s Yemen envoy in Riyadh on Sunday to discuss the ongoing UN-led attempts to renew the peace process in Yemen, per the official news agency. Yemen’s leader further reaffirmed the government’s commitment to cooperating with Grundberg’s efforts to push for peace in the war-torn nation.

Reference: Arab News

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Source: Maritime Shipping News