Recently, four international shipping companies have successively announced the suspension of navigation in the Red Sea because Yemeni Houthi armed forces have attacked many ships while sailing in the waters of the Red Sea.
Analysts pointed out that since the start of the new round of conflict between Palestine and Israel, the Houthis have launched frequent missile and drone attacks on Israel on the grounds of “supporting Palestine” and have continuously attacked ships “linked to Israel ” in the Red Sea. . Tensions in the waters of the Red Sea mean that the risk of flooding from the conflict between Palestine and Israel has intensified, and has affected international shipping.
Merchant ships are often attacked
Yemen’s Houthi armed forces issued a statement on the 15th saying that the organization launched missiles at the container ship “Alanya” and the container ship “Palatiyum 3” bound for Israel. The statement said the Houthis will continue to block all ships from going to Israel until supplies needed by the people of the Gaza Strip arrive.
According to the US Central Command, the Houthi armed forces launched two ballistic missiles during the attack, one of which hit the Liberian-flagged container ship “Paratyum 3” in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The “Alanya” was sailing north in the southern part of the Red Sea in the 15th century. Houthi armed forces threatened to attack the ship demanding that it turn around and sail south. In another attack that day, an armed Houthi drone struck the Liberian-flagged ship, Jesra, in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the southern Red Sea.
The German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, the owner of the Jesla, announced on the 15th that it would suspend all container shipping through the Red Sea from now until the 18th. Denmark’s Maersk Line also announced on the same day that it would suspend all container shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea. The Mediterranean Shipping Company and France’s CMA CGM are demanding that their cargo ships stop sailing in the Red Sea and avoid the Suez Canal route on the 16th.
Since the start of a new round of conflict between Palestine and Israel, the Houthis have repeatedly attacked targets in the Red Sea using missiles and drones. On November 19, the Houthi armed forces announced that they would detain the cargo ship “Galaxy Leader” associated with Israel in the waters of the Red Sea. Earlier this month, Houthi armed forces confirmed that they used missiles and drones to attack the merchant ships “United Explorer” and “Ninth” sailing in the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb. On December 11, the organization launched a missile attack on a Norwegian-flagged oil tanker, saying the tanker was carrying “oil destined for Israel.”
The Houthis say all ships owned or operated by Israeli companies or flying the Israeli flag are “legitimate targets” for the group. The Houthis will continue to block the navigation of “Israeli ships” in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea until Israel stops its military strikes in the Gaza Strip.
Impact on international shipping
US Central Command said, “The latest round of attacks demonstrates once again that the actions of the Houthis pose enormous risks to international shipping.” The London insurance market has classified the southern waters of the Red Sea as a high risk area. If a merchant ship needs to pass through this area, it must notify its insurance company in advance and purchase additional war insurance. Analysts believe that if tensions in the Red Sea and surrounding waters escalate and international shipping continues to be disrupted, the international supply chain will inevitably be affected.
Yemeni political analyst Ibrahim Jalal said that Houthi armed forces’ attacks on international shipping will increase the cost of cargo transportation security, thereby raising commodity prices. Eyal Pinko, a senior researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies in Israel, believes that a large amount of trade between Europe and Asia takes place through the waters of the Red Sea, and the security situation at this bottleneck has attract great attention from the outside world. If the Red Sea is blocked by Yemen’s Houthi armed forces, the Western economy and global supply chains will be “deeply affected.”
However, there is also a view that Houthi armed attacks only target individual countries and have a relatively limited overall impact on international shipping. Walid Zahran, a professor of economics at Egypt’s Arab Institute of Science and Technology and Maritime Transport, said the Houthis’ main targets are Israeli merchant ships, not ships from other countries.
Flood risks are intensifying
Analysts pointed out that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has resumed after the temporary ceasefire failed, and Israel has aggressively attacked the southern Gaza Strip, exacerbating the risk of conflict spillover.
In addition to attacking maritime targets, the Yemeni Houthi armed forces have also continued to launch long-range strikes in Israel. On the 16th, the armed organization claimed to have launched “cross-border drone attacks” on multiple targets in the southern Israeli city of Eilat.
In addition, the US Embassy in Iraq was attacked by “two rounds of artillery” on the 8th. Artillery shells fell into the construction complex area, but no casualties were caused. On the same day, a total of five US military bases in Iraq and Syria were attacked.
Ahmed Rafiq Awad, a professor at Palestine’s Al-Quds University, pointed out that armed groups in Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq are increasingly involved in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “Houthi armed forces’ attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea have raised concerns in the United States and other Western countries, and Israel plans to join relevant countries in patrolling the Red Sea. These have increased the risk of conflict spillovers. “
In Pink’s opinion, as Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip continues to expand, the situation in the Red Sea will continue to be tense, and the involvement of US military forces may also increase.
The British “Financial Times” published an article stating that the most dangerous scenario is the start of an all-out regional war, which includes countries in the region and the United States. The Russian Satellite News Agency reported on the 17th that the US Pentagon is considering attacking Houthi armed forces, raising concerns that the risk of war expansion is increasing.
(Article source: TCC News)
Article source: TCC News
Original title: Merchant ships are frequently attacked in the Red Sea and international shipping is affected by the spillover of the conflict between Palestine and Israel.
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