Shipping companies seem to be avoiding the area altogether, re-routing round
South Africa means voyages are longer & costing more. The American reaction has
been to attack the Houthis via aircraft carriers on
Operation Prosperity Guardian.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas
Hamas ex
Wiki
Hamas,[e]
an acronym of its official name, the Islamic Resistance Movement,[f]
is a Palestinian
Sunni
Islamist[53]
political and military organization governing the
Gaza
Strip of the
Israeli-occupied
Palestinian territories.
Headquartered in
Gaza
City, it has a presence in the
West
Bank, the larger of the two Palestinian territories, where its secular
rival Fatah
exercises control.
How Yemen Is Blocking US Hegemony In West Asia [ 29 December 2023 ]
QUOTE
Given the renewed focus on Yemen's de
facto government led by Ansarallah and its armed forces, it is time to move
beyond the simplistic and dismissive characterization of the Houthis as
merely a ‘rebel’ group or a non-state actor.Since the start of the war by the Saudi-led
coalition against Ansarallah in 2015, the Yemeni resistance movement has
transformed into a formidable military force that has not only humbled Saudi
Arabia but is also now challenging Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza as
well as the superior firepower and resources of the US Navy in the world’s
most important waterway.
Economic fallout of Yemen’s
naval operations
In response to Israel unleashing
unprecedented violence on Gaza, killing
over
20,000 people, predominantly
women and children, Yemen’s Ansarallah-led armed forces announced on
14
November their intent to target any Israeli-linked ship passing through the
strategic
Bab el Mandeb
Strait in the Red Sea. This crucial waterway serves
as the gateway to the Suez Canal, through which approximately 10 percent of
global trade and 8.8 million barrels of oil travel each day.
On 9 December, Ansarallah announced it would
expand its operations further to target any ship in the Red Sea on its way
to Israel, regardless of its nationality. “If Gaza does not receive the food
and medicine it needs, all ships in the Red Sea bound for Israeli ports,
regardless of their nationality, will become a target for our armed forces,"
an Ansarallah Armed Forces spokesperson said in
a statement............
Delays, transit times, and insurance fees
for commercial shipping have skyrocketed, threatening to spark inflation
worldwide. This is especially worrisome for Israel, which is already
contending with the
economic repercussions of its longest and deadliest conflict with
the Palestinian resistance in history..........
The disruption in the Red Sea directly
undermines a key element of the White House’s 2022 National Security
Strategy, which unequivocally states that
the US will not permit any nation “to jeopardize freedom of navigation
through the Middle East’s waterways, including the Strait of Hormuz and the
Bab al-Mandab.”
Coalition of the unwilling
On 18 December, in response to Sanaa’s
operations, Secretary of State Lloyd Austin declared
the establishment of a naval coalition named Operation Prosperity Guardian,
with some 20 countries called to counter Yemeni attacks and ensure safe
passage of ships through the Red Sea.
Austin announced the new maritime coalition
would include, among others, Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Norway,
the Netherlands, the Seychelles, and Bahrain.
UNQUOTE
This is real news, important news. It is Geopolitics
in action.
America And Britain Attacked Yemeni Positions
QUOTE
“These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our
partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors
to imperil freedom of navigation,” U.S. President Joe Biden said.
A U.S. official said more
than a dozen locations were targeted in strikes that were not just symbolic
but intended to weaken the Houthis’ military capabilities. “We were going
after very specific capability in very specific locations with precision
munitions,” the official said.
UNQUOTE
Thus Americans and Brits prove their complicity, their guilt.
US And Royal Air Force Attacked The Yemen [ 12 January 2024 ]
QUOTE
The Ministry of Defence said the UK used four RAF Typhoon FGR4s, supported
by a Voyager air refuelling tanker. The aircraft flew from
RAF Akrotiri in
Cyprus at roughly 7.30pm UK time on Thursday and dropped their payload on
the Yemeni sites at about 11.30pm. They had returned to Cyprus by 3am.
UNQUOTE
This was a long flight, over Egypt and down to the Yemen. Refuelling in
flight is not that easy by day or night.
PS RAF Akrotiri was
once home to
Lincolnshire Poacher, a
Numbers Station,
transmitting numbers as voice in five number groups, presumably to Secret
Squirrel people using OTP. Its first home was
Bletchley Park.
Operation Prosperity Guardian ex Wiki
Operation Prosperity Guardian is a
United States-led
military operation by a multinational coalition formed in December 2023
to respond to
Houthi-led attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.[6]
Following the breakout of the
ongoing Israel–Hamas war in October 2023, the
Houthi movement in Yemen blockaded Israel in the
Red Sea
and launched a series of attacks against commercial vessels heading or
related to Israel.[7][8]
On 18 December 2023,
U.S. Secretary of Defense
Lloyd Austin announced the formation of an international maritime
security force aimed at ending the blockade[9]
and countering threats by
Houthi forces against international
maritime commerce in the region.[10]
The coalition currently has more than 20 members, of which ten are
anonymously involved.[11][12]
Egypt and
Saudi Arabia, both economically reliant on unhindered commercial
shipping in the area, are absent from the listed participants.[13]
France,
Italy and
Spain have
also declined to participate.[14]
The chairman of the
Suez Canal Authority, Usama Rabia, claimed that "navigation traffic in
the Suez Canal was not affected by what is happening in the Red Sea".[15]
Nevertheless, on 10 January, the
United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted a resolution demanding a
cessation of Houthi attacks on merchant vessels.[16]
The day of the UNSC resolution, the Houthis launched their largest-ever
barrage of 18-24 attack drone and missile at international ships and
warships in the Red Sea.[17][18]
In response, on 12 January, the coalition launched its
first airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, to which the Houthis
have pledged to retaliate.[19]
