US-led coalition in Red Sea to be considered enemy targets: Sanaa

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Al Mayadeen
1 Jan 2024 19:39
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Yemen's Sanaa Parliament has put out a resounding statement in response to the American aggression on Yemeni Navy assets on Sunday.

Special Yemeni Forces stand guard near a stage, in Sanaa, where the spokesperson of the Yemeni Armed Force, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, announced the targeting of multiple Israeli ports-bound ships, in Yemen, on December 22, 2023. (AFP)

The United State's attack on the Yemeni Navy's speed boats is an American attempt to expand the struggle in the Arab region, which comes in line with Washington's attempts at spurring the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, the Yemeni Parliament in Sanaa affirmed on Monday.

A statement released by the Parliament pointed to American and British militaries, as well as states that have allied themselves with the two Western powers, saying that their presence in Yemeni territories equates to an act of occupation. The legislative body stressed the need to deal with occupation forces on the basis that they are "enemy targets", emphasizing that "American mobilization constitutes a real threat to the safety of international maritime routes in the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea."

The statement affirmed the Yemeni Armed Forces' right to defend Yemen's sovereignty, which encompasses its maritime exclusive economic zone and islands, against foreign threats. Sanaa's Parliament also called on all Yemeni national parties to come together under a united front in the face of American and British threats, which constitute a danger to the security of states in the region.

Emphasizing the need to bolster national resilience in the face of invaders and occupiers, the parliament pointed to the role that Washington and its allies had to play in promoting double standards on humanitarian issues in an attempt to cover up the Israeli occupation's brutal and monstrous genocidal war on Gaza.

In this context, the body called on Arab and Islamic states to rise to their religious, humanitarian, and moral obligations, regarding the atrocities and hardships faced by the Palestinian people.

US to bear the consequences

Earlier on Sunday, the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) announced that ten of its Navy members were either killed or reported missing after US forces in the Red Sea carried out an attack on three Yemeni Naval speed boats, which were carrying out "their duty" in preventing Israeli and Israeli ports-bound ships from sailing through the Red Sea.

Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the YAF's spokesperson, announced that the YAF successfully struck Maersk Hangzhou with three anti-ship missiles, after its crew refused to head to the warnings of the Yemeni Navy, and abruptly changed course.

Saree explained, "While the Yemeni Armed Forces' naval units were carrying out their routine official duties in securing stability, protecting maritime navigation, and fulfilling their humanitarian and moral responsibilities, including Yemen's commitment to prevent Israeli ships or those headed to the occupied Palestinian ports from passing through the Red Sea, American enemy forces attacked three boats belonging to the Yemeni Navy."

The spokesperson confirmed that the United States "bears the consequences and repercussions of this crime," stressing that the US military's "maneuvers in the Red Sea to protect Israeli vessels will not deter Yemen from fulfilling its religious, moral, and humanitarian duty to support and champion the oppressed in Palestine and Gaza."