Yemen, the poorest Arab country, is the piece that has finally made the United States and the United Kingdom another party on the ground in the Middle East conflict.
Hostilities in the region due to the Gaza war are advancing into a new (and unpredictable) phase after the joint and massive sea and air attack by the US and British army yesterday against the Houthi rebels.
Washington and London had until now limited themselves to responding to around twenty attacks by pro-Iran militiamen against ships in the Bab el Mandeb Strait. Yesterday they attacked several regions of Yemen for the first time. Also its capital, Sana’a. And the Houthi rebels confirmed that at least five of their members have been killed.
The Americans and British seek to deter the militia from carrying out new attacks in the Red Sea. And, at dawn, Washington, in an executive decision by its president, Joe Biden, did not hesitate to hit up to 16 places in the Arab country and more than fifty targets with precision munitions, especially radar and storage and launch facilities. of drones and missiles. Fighter planes and Tomahawk missiles were the protagonists. And the British, in a decision that their Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made without consulting Parliament, in turn used Typhoon aircraft and guided bombs.
The insurgents assure, however, that they will continue their actions in support of Gaza, attacking ships that they consider linked to Israel or that go to Israeli ports and pass through the Strait of Bab el Mandeb, which is the one that gives access to the sea. Red and is central to international trade. Around 15% of the world’s maritime transport passes through here and it is essential on the route between the Asian and European markets, and also for oil trade.
The UN demands an end to the attacks, but the conflict only escalates. The United States holds Iran responsible for the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. And its president, Joe Biden, has assured that he “will not hesitate” to launch new offensives against the Yemeni militia. Tehran warned yesterday that the bombings by the United States and the United Kingdom are fueling insecurity and instability in the region. Moscow has also criticized them. And Saudi Arabia has been quick to call for “moderation.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the other hand, stated that London and Washington are attacking Yemen to turn the Red Sea into a “sea of ??blood.”
Washington and London maintain that their goal is to “reduce tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea.” But for now, the action, backed by Australia (which sent support staff), Bahrain (although thousands of its citizens protested about it yesterday), Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, Korea and Japan, fires the war tension in the area. And just yesterday the Islamic Resistance militias in Iraq, which consider themselves backed by Iran, claimed to have attacked a “vital target” in Eilat, the southernmost Israeli city.
A military expert explained to this newspaper this week in Jerusalem that the crisis with the Houthis is “far away” for Israel. The Israeli authorities have not yet commented on Eilat.
Given the instability in the area, Egypt is trying these days to convince shipping companies to continue operating through the Suez Canal. Those responsible for the channel point out that the delicate situation on the commercial route is “temporary.” The giant Maersk and other large shipping companies, on the other hand, are already diverting ships and redirecting them to go around Africa.
It is feared that the continuation of the war escalation could disrupt the prices of both energy and the simplest utensils. The former are imported in large quantities from the Middle East, and the latter, above all, from China, and until now they crossed the Strait of Bab el Mandeb to continue towards the Suez Canal. Now, in many cases they are forced to go around the entire African continent, with transport costs that have already tripled and oil prices that yesterday, as a warning, rose by around 2% at the time of the that the United States and the United Kingdom carried out the attacks.
In addition, Iran confirmed a couple of days ago that it has captured an “American” oil tanker in the other key strait for transporting crude oil and gas from the Arab countries, the Hormuz strait. Added to this is the fear and previous cases of piracy in the area, and also the recent territorial disputes between Ethiopia and Somalia over the Ethiopians’ agreement with the separatist region of Somaliland to obtain access to the Red Sea.
The attacks against the Houthis backed by Iran mark a significant escalation of the war in the region, which adds the war in Gaza and its nearly 24,000 deaths, new hostilities on the border with Lebanon between Israel and Hizbullah and specific operations in Syria or Iraq . It also coincides with the end of the tour of the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to the Middle East in order to seek support to prevent the expansion of the war from the Gaza Strip to the region.
Although with each passing day it expands a little more.