The UN Security Council called for an immediate cessation of the attacks. A corresponding resolution presented by Japan and the USA was adopted on Wednesday in New York with eleven votes in favor and one against. Four countries – Russia, China, Algeria and Mozambique – abstained.
The resolution strongly condemned Houthi attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea. Rocket and drone attacks, which have increased sharply since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic organization Hamas, would harm international trade, undermine maritime law and undermine peace and security in the region. The attacks must end “immediately,” the resolution states.
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“Be prepared for something”
Just hours earlier, the British government had threatened the pro-Iranian Houthi militia with retaliation. “We have to make it clear to the Houthis that this has to stop and my simple message to them today is: be prepared,” British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps told Sky News on Wednesday. According to US information, British and US forces intercepted 18 drones and three missiles over the Red Sea on Tuesday.
Photo Portal/United Kingdom Ministry of Defense of the bridge of the “HMS Diamond” during the missile launch
According to the US Central Command for the Middle East (Centcom), there were no reports of injuries or damage. Shapps spoke of the Houthi rebels’ “biggest attack” to date in the Red Sea. “Enough is enough,” said the Defense Minister. He also emphasized that there was “no doubt” that Iran supported the attacks, providing weapons and intelligence information.
The Houthi rebels, who control much of Yemen, said they attacked a US ship. A “large number” of missiles and drones targeted a US ship that “supported” Israel in its war against Hamas, military spokesman Jahja Sari said on X (Twitter).
“Complex Attack”
So far, the West has avoided direct attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen, so as not to endanger the fragile calm of the civil war in that country. The US also wants to avoid an escalation of the conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.
Centcom said the Houthis launched “a complex attack using Iranian-designed expendable attack drones” and fired anti-ship missiles and cruise missiles from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen. They were shot down by F/A-18 fighters, three US destroyers and the British destroyer HMS Diamond. The Red Sea is a central trade route through which up to twelve percent of world trade passes. Yemen lies in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.