Unprovoked attacks on commercial shipping and other vessels by Iranian-backed Houthi militants continue, threatening maritime security and international commercial trade.
Among the latest were a December 11th missile attack on a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea that caused a fire on board the ship, and a December 13th missile attack on a Marshall-Islands flagged vessel heading for the Suez Canal that missed its target. The attacks by the Houthis have escalated since the horrific terrorist incursion into Israel by Hamas on October 7 that killed more than 1200 people and the subsequent war between Hamas and Israel. The United States has responded by coming to the aid of several ships in the area and by shooting down attacking drones and missiles.
Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Major General Pat Ryder said the United States takes the situation in the Red Sea “extremely seriously.”
“The actions that we’ve seen from these Houthi forces are destabilizing, they’re dangerous, and clearly a flagrant violation of international law,” he said.
“This is an international problem that requires an international solution,” said Major General Ryder. “We do continue to consult closely with our international allies and partners on implementing a maritime task force …and we will have more to provide in the near future, but … we do continue to patrol the international waterway throughout the region to support freedom of navigation and efforts to ensure safety, security and stability.”
At a separate briefing, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby noted that “the Houthis are supported by Iran, not just politically and philosophically, but of course with weapons systems. ... So Iran is absolutely complicit here in what the Houthis are doing.”
“Our message to any actor in the region – state or non-state is: don’t escalate, don’t widen, don’t deepen this conflict,” he said.
Coordinator Kirby pointed out that so far, no actor has “jump[ed] in with both feet to help Hamas. So,” he declared, “we’re going to continue to send a strong message, do additional force posture in the region — carrier strike groups, air missile defense, additional aircraft squadrons, and our willingness to use those capabilities — to make it clear to actors in the region that we take very seriously our national security interests there.”
