Major shipping companies are stopping transits through the Red Sea due to attacks from Yemen’s Houthis that have come in response to the Israeli onslaught in Gaza.
The Economist reported that Maersk, CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) have all paused or suspended services in the Red Sea. The Hong Kong-based container shipping line OOCL has announced it was suspending all shipments to and from Israel.
The suspension of shipping in the area risks a major impact on the global economy. By avoiding the Suez Canal, vessels bound for the Mediterranean Sea will add thousands of nautical miles to their voyages by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of Africa.
The Houthis, formally known as Ansar Allah, have declared all commercial vessels that are heading to or from Israel will be targeted. Houthi officials have said the only way to “restore calm” to the region is for a lasting ceasefire to be reached in Gaza.
Attacks continued over the weekend, with US Central Command saying US and British warships downed 15 drones earlier Saturday morning that were fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen. The Houthis govern most of the territory that used to be the country of North Yemen before Yemen unified in 1990. The area is where 70-80% of Yemen’s population lives.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is headed to the region this week and is expected to announce the formation of a new international naval operation to respond to the Houthi attacks, known as Operation Prosperity Guardian. Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of Ansar Allah’s political bureau, responded to the news and said the US would be forming the “filthiest coalition in history.”
“How will the countries that rushed to form an international coalition against Yemen to protect the perpetrators of Israeli genocide be perceived?” al-Bukhaiti said, according to Al Mayadeen.
The US is warning it could take military action against the Houthis and has threatened to kill a Yemen peace deal reached between Saudi Arabia and Ansar Allah. The US has backed a Saudi-led coalition in a brutal war against the Houthis since 2015, which has killed at least 377,000 people.
A ceasefire in Yemen has held relatively well since April 2022, but it could fall apart if the US bombs the country or redesignates the Houthis as a “foreign terrorist organization,” which would make the implementation of the peace deal impossible.
Source: AntiWar.
