“Vessels are advised to transit with caution and to report any suspicious activity,” UKTMO added.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken stressed the seriousness of the Houthi threat to global trade, and renewed US warnings against responding.
A photo from the bridge of HMS Diamond during a Sea Viper missile launch in the Red Sea.credit: modern
“I will not send a telegram or preview anything that may happen,” Blinken said in Bahrain, the last stop on a Middle East tour aimed at calming the region. “All I can say to you again is, we've made it clear – we've made it clear with more than 20 other countries – that if this continues, as it did yesterday, there will be consequences. And I'll leave it at that.”
British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps described the attack as “the largest Iranian-backed Houthi attack in the Red Sea to date,” saying Diamond used Sea Viper missiles and rifles to shoot down several drones.
Shapps said in a statement: “The UK, along with its allies, have previously made clear that these unlawful attacks are completely unacceptable, and if they continue, the Houthis will bear the consequences.” “We will take necessary measures to protect innocent lives and the global economy.”
The Houthis, the Shiite group that has controlled the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, since 2014, later claimed responsibility for the attack in a televised statement by rebel spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree. Sarie claimed that the attack “targeted an American ship that was providing support to the Zionist entity,” without providing any other information. He also described this as an “initial response” to US forces sinking Houthi ships and killing 10 rebel fighters last week.
Saree said that the Houthis “will continue to prevent Israeli ships or those heading to the ports of occupied Palestine from sailing in the Red Sea until the aggression stops and the siege of our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip ends.”
The Houthis say their attacks aim to end the Israeli air and ground offensive targeting the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. However, links with ships targeted in insurgent attacks became more fragile as the attacks continued.
The Red Sea connects the Middle East and Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal and the narrow Bab el-Mandab Strait. The strait is only 29 kilometers wide at its narrowest point, limiting traffic to two channels for incoming and outgoing shipments, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Nearly 10 percent of all oil traded at sea passes through it, and an estimated US$1 trillion ($1.49 trillion) worth of goods pass through the strait annually.
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A US draft resolution before the UN Security Council, obtained by The Associated Press late Tuesday, says the Houthi attacks are disrupting global trade “and undermining navigational rights and freedoms as well as regional peace and security.” The resolution demands the immediate release of the first ship attacked by the Houthis, the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated cargo ship with links to an Israeli company that the rebels seized in November along with its crew.
The initial draft of the resolution would have recognized “the right of member states, in accordance with international law, to take appropriate measures to defend their commercial and naval vessels.”
The final draft is weaker, which eliminates any recognition by the United Nations of the right of any country to defend its ships.
A coalition of countries led by the United States is patrolling the Red Sea to try to prevent attacks. There has been no large-scale retaliatory strike so far, despite warnings from the United States. However, Tuesday's attack appeared to be a test of what response, if any, would come from Washington.
Meanwhile, a separate tentative ceasefire between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition fighting on behalf of the exiled Yemeni government has held for months, despite Yemen's long civil war. This has raised concerns that a broader conflict at sea – or a potential retaliatory strike by Western forces – could reignite those tensions in Yemen. It could also drag Iran, which has so far largely avoided getting directly involved in the broader war between Israel and Hamas, into further conflict.
AP
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