Published on December 18, 2023 at 6:03 p.m. Updated December 18, 2023 at 6:35 p.m
Mobilizing an international coalition against Yemen's Houthi rebels led by the United States is no easy task. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chief of Staff Charles Brown embarked on the delicate mission during a tour of the Middle East with a stop in Israel on Monday.
Almost all countries in the region have more or less openly condemned the Houthis for their more than two months of multiple rocket and suicide drone attacks on cargo ships off the coast of Yemen in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, a highly strategic sector of the Red Sea.
12% of world trade
Only Iran supports and arms this Shiite militia. Lloyd Austin also insisted on this point, declaring after a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu that “Iran’s support for the Houthis must stop.”
There is an enormous amount at stake. The Houthis directly threaten the gateway to the Red Sea and then, further north, the Suez Canal, which carries 12% of global trade and seaborne oil shipments, as well as a third of container traffic.
American aircraft carrier
In order to avoid these attacks, the largest international shipping companies, fearing for the safety of their ships, like the British oil tanker BP on Monday, preferred to change course as a precaution and largely bypass the entire African continent.
Tensions have reached such a level that the International Chamber of Shipping on Friday made an urgent appeal “to countries with influence in the region” to “put an end to the Houthi attacks.” The United States has taken the lead, deploying more than a dozen warships, including an aircraft carrier, to the region.
The French Navy in action
The French Navy is also working intensively with a frigate that intercepted a drone that threatened a Norwegian tanker last Monday. These attacks are likely to continue. The Houthis want to express their solidarity with the Palestinians who are confronted with the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.
They warned that they would attack any “ship heading towards the Zionist entity.” [Israël, NDLR] regardless of the flag under which the boats fly or the nationality of their owners or operators.” A definition so vague that any building can fall into the crosshairs.
Restraint
The militia also fired several rockets at the Israeli Red Sea port of Eilat, which were intercepted in flight. The Jewish state has not responded for now, hoping that an international alliance led by the United States would bring the Houthis to their senses. “If this is not the case, we will act to end this maritime siege,” warned Tzahi Hanegbi, Israel’s national security adviser.
The Jewish state is currently the only country in the Middle East that is so openly in favor of an international intervention force. Other partners in the region are reluctant to stand firmly behind Washington.
Bloody civil war
But Egypt, whose revenues from Suez Canal transit rights are in free fall, is reluctant to join forces with the United States as it faces criticism over its support of Israel in the war in Gaza.
Saudi Arabia, involved in a bloody four-year civil war in Yemen against the Houthis, agreed to a ceasefire deal with the militia last year to move closer to Iran.
Threats from Iran
Abu Dhabi, a target of Houthi missile attacks like Saudi Arabia in recent years, reopened its embassy in Yemen last year. Iran, at the head of the “Axis of Resistance,” which notably includes the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Houthis, has made threats for its part.
Iranian Defense Minister Mohammed Reza Ashtiani has warned that countries in the region that agree to take part in a US-led anti-Houthi coalition will face “big problems”. A way to make it clear that the Gulf is within the “sphere of influence” of Iran, which wants to be the dominant power in the region.