Red Sea turning into ocean of blood
-: R Muthu Kumar :-
Tit-for-tat fighting between the Lebanon-based Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and Israel has escalated over the past week. Add to that Houthis say the US and UK will pay a ‘heavy price’ after Yemen strikes. To heat up the brewing pot, US President Joe Biden announced strikes last Thursday in an escalation of tensions that have been brewing in the Middle East since the Hamas terror attacks against Israel of October 7.
Car deliveries as well as production targets in and arount manufacturing plants in all of Europe are badly hit. More over the attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi militants, in solidarity with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in its fight against Israel in Gaza, and the counter strikes by American army led coalition army has disrupted one of the world’s most important shipping routes, forcing container vessels to travel via southern Africa and avoid the Suez Canal.
That adds about 10 days and $1 million fuel costs to a journey from Asia to Europe. In the West, countries such the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Spain and France have either voiced support for the US-British action or said the Houthis bear responsibility for the escalation.
Russia has said that it is “not legitimate from the point of view of international law. The US and the UK are trying to divert attention from the genocide in the Gaza Strip with ill-conceived airstrikes against the Ansar Allah movement, also known as the Houthis, in Yemen, Hezam al-Asad, a member of the movement’s political bureau, said last week.
The US and the UK carried out overnight airstrikes against Houthi positions in four governorates of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa and the cities of Al Hudaydah, Saada and Taiz, provincial government officials told mediamen. The US and UK officials confirmed the airstrikes, saying these were targeting Houthi military facilities and positions in Yemen in response to attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea and not civilian population centers.
The strike in Yemen is likely to provoke both the Houthis and Iran, and it threatens to spiral into a wider war. The Middle East has seen widespread conflict since the breakout of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in early October, including more than a hundred attacks on U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq. In the Red Sea, the Houthis have launched 27 attacks since November 19.
Iranian-backed groups claim to be standing in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza by attacking the U.S. in the region. The Houthis in particular say they are targeting Israel-based ships or boats headed to Israel.
“Through these hostile and ill-conceived operations, Washington and London are trying to divert attention from the ongoing crimes of genocide. We will continue to defend our principled position on the key issue for us – Palestine – and neither the US nor the UK will be able to dissuade us from supporting our people in the Gaza Strip, whether in the Red or Arabian Seas,” al-Asad wrote on X.
The Red and Arabian Seas will remain closed to Israeli-associated ships until the conflict in the Gaza Strip ends, the political bureau member added.
Yemen has been targetted by US military action over the last four American presidencies. A campaign of drone strikes began under President George W. Bush to target the local affiliate of al-Qaeda, attacks that have continued under the Biden administration. Meanwhile, the US has launched raids and other military operations amid the ongoing war in Yemen.
That war began when the Houthis swept into the capital, Sanaa, in 2014. A Saudi-led coalition including the United Arab Emirates launched a war to back Yemen’s exiled government in 2015, quickly morphing the conflict into a regional confrontation as Iran backed the Houthis with weapons and other support.
That war, however, has slowed as the Houthis maintain their grip on the territory they hold. The UAE even came under Houthi missile fire multiple times in 2022. After the Emirates left the war, Saudi Arabia reached a Chinese-mediated deal with Iran to ease tensions in hopes of finally withdrawing from the war.
Between 2015 and 2023, the Houthis had fought to a standstill a regional coalition led by Saudi Arabia that sought to restore the previous Yemeni government to power. The US had backed the Saudis with intelligence and military supplies.
Meanwhile, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) held public hearings on an urgent case submitted by South Africa charging Israel with genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. South Africa called on the ICJ, also known as the World Court, for an emergency order declaring that Israel is violating the terms of the 1945 Genocide Convention to which all members of the United Nations are obliged to subscribe. The court normally takes one or two weeks to decide on provisional measures but does not have the means to enforce its ruling.
South Africa accused Israel of killing Gazans at a high rate without distinction, of cruel and inhuman treatment, bombing areas meant to be safe zones, deprivation of food and water and health-care, and destruction of homes, infrastructure, schools, and universities which provide Palestinians with life and a decent way of life. Senior Israeli figures have spoken of Palestinians as “human animals” and a nation which is responsible for Hamas’ sudden attack which killed 1,139 on October 7.
Jordan, Palestine, Malaysia and Turkey are among countries backing South Africa. If and when the ICJ issues an emergency order for Israel to ceasefire, pressure should be stepped up on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to tackle Israeli individuals and their US collaborators over their participation in genocide.
