US facing dilemma in striking back at spate of Yemeni naval operations
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In an interview for Bloomberg, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks says the United States is working with its allies and partners to halt the increased operations by the Yemeni Armed Forces.
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Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks during a briefing in the Pentagon. (AP)
The US is collaborating with partners to launch a global campaign to halt an increase in Resistance operations by the Yemeni Armed Forces that have raised concerns about commercial goods moving through one of the world's most crucial waterways.
In an interview for Bloomberg, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks stated that freedom of navigation "is a rule of the international system that should be upheld," calling the recent operations an "international problem" that the US was working with allies and partners to resolve.
Last week, the Yemeni Armed Forces announced the introduction of a new actionable decision in support of Gaza, which will see the prohibition of all ships bound to the occupation entity, regardless of their nationality, from passing through the Arabian and Red seas until food and medicine sufficient to the needs of the population enter the besieged Strip.
In late November, the Yemeni Resistance vowed to continue its operations against "Israel" until it ceases its aggression on Gaza and its crimes against the Palestinian people.
Implementing previous warnings, the Yemeni Armed Forces captured last month the Israeli Galaxy Leader vessel in the Red Sea via a naval operation landing on its deck, before leading it to the sea off the coast of Hodeidah.
The army also successfully targeted two Israeli ships earlier this month, using a drone and missiles, while forcing several shipping vessels to reroute or entirely change course away from the Red Sea, subsequently increasing delivery periods, costs, and insurance rates.
On Monday afternoon, the Yemeni Armed Forces conducted an operation on the Norwegian oil tanker, the STRINDA. The US military reported material damage from the attack, with no casualties.
While Hicks stated that an international reaction is on the way, she did not provide a date or designate it as a task force.
Officials in the Biden administration are unsure how to respond to the recent series of operations since they desperately fear being drawn into a regional confrontation.
Concurrently, Tim Lenderking, the US special envoy for Yemen, has recently met with the Saudi-backed government in Yemen and has also discussed the US response to the YAF's operations with Saudi officials.
Yemen says peace not to prevail in Red Sea without Gaza ceasefire
The United States has reportedly stepped in again to hurdle Yemen's peace process, a report published by The Guardian reveals.
Citing unnamed diplomats, the publication said the US has threatened the Sanaa government that its negotiated peace plan with Saudi Arabia, which has been handed to the UN peace envoy, will fail if the Yemeni Armed Forces' (YAF) attacks on ships heading to "Israel" continue.
After a brutal 9-year war on Yemen, which is still ongoing, a three-phase peace plan has been negotiated between the Sanaa government and Riyadh, according to The Guardian.
Washington, however, is threatening to designate Ansar Allah movement as a "terrorist organization", which would halt the application of this plan, according to the diplomats cited by the British newspaper. Although successive US administrations have led an onslaught on Resistance factions in the region, no US administration has taken such measures against the Yemeni Resistance movement.
Meanwhile, Ansar Allah Political Bureau member Abdul-Malik al-Ajri said Wednesday that there is no way to restore calm in the Red Sea without a ceasefire in Gaza.
Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wondered last week on CNN that Iran was looking at the US and questioned: "Do we have the resolve?"
Meanwhile, the Iranian Students' News Agency cited Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani Thursday coining the US proposal as "foolish" and warning that it would suffer "tremendous problems" if it went forward.
“No one can maneuver in a region that we dominate,” Ashtiani affirmed.
