The oil company Shell plans to suspend tanker shipments through the Red Sea as repeated Houthi attacks on cargo ships have destabilized the vital transit route.
The Iranian-backed Houthi militia began striking shipping containers following the Hamas invasion of Israel in early October as a means of putting pressure on the international coalition supporting the Jewish State in its ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Shell’s move, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, brings the gas giant in line with other major suppliers, including British Petroleum (BP) and Qatar Energy, which both recently opted to avoid the region altogether. About 12 percent of the world’s oil, crude and refined, travels through the Red Sea via the Suez Canal in Egypt.
The announcement comes days after the United States launched a second round of air strikes targeting the Iranian-backed militant group that has harassed shipping containers traveling through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the narrows separating the Arabian Peninsula from continental Africa. The group’s success has forced dozens of companies to reroute trade around the southern tip of Africa, adding as much as ten days and over 3,000 nautical miles onto the journey.
The latest American strike targeted a radar facility, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed Friday evening.
“This strike was conducted by the USS Carney (DDG 64) using Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles and was a follow-on action on a specific military target associated with strikes taken on Jan. 12 designed to degrade the Houthi’s ability to attack maritime vessels, including commercial vessels,” a statement from the group read.
In mid December, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the creation of a multinational security initiative to curb Houthi activities in the region, known as Operation Prosperity Guardian.
“Operation Prosperity Guardian is bringing together multiple countries to include the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain to jointly address security challenges in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, with the goal of ensuring freedom of navigation for all countries and bolstering regional security and prosperity.”
In late December, a group of more than 40 prominent conservatives known as Advancing American Freedom (AAF) pushed the White House to redesignate the Houthis a terrorist group. The Trump administration labeled the Yemeni group, which controls much of the northern part of the country, a terrorist organization in January 2021. The Biden administration reversed that decision shortly after taking office.
AAF executive director Paul Teller said the removal of the Houthis’ terrorist designation was a grave error. “Removing the Houthis from the list of terrorist organizations was one of the first mistakes of this administration,” Teller said at the time.
“As the Middle East grows more unstable after Hamas’s unprovoked attack in Israel, the Houthis have added to the chaos, and there is no diplomacy that will dissuade them. The United States must return to a posture of clear-headed realism and treat our enemies as they deserve to be treated.”
The White House has sought to reassure they will response forcefully to the Houthis. “We will make sure we respond to the Houthis if they continue this outrageous behavior, along with our allies,” President Joe Biden said during a visit to Pennsylvania last week.
“We’re not interested in a war with Yemen,” White House spokesman John Kirby said earlier in the day. “We’re not interested in a conflict of any kind. In fact, everything the president has been doing has been trying to prevent any escalation of conflict, including the strikes last night.”