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UK Navy Reports Two Vessels Attacked In Red Sea, One Damaged
UK Navy Reports Two Vessels Attacked In Red Sea, One Damaged
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels may have launched attacks on two vessels transiting southwest of Mukha, a port city on the highly contested southern Red Sea.
Bloomberg says the UK Navy has confirmed two attacks on vessels in a series of headlines hitting the Terminal around 1400 ET.
- UK NAVY: REPORTS 2 ATTACKS ON VESSEL SW OF AL MUKHA, YEMEN
There are also reports that one of the vessels is “damaged.”
- UK NAVY SAYS ATTACKS RESULTED IN DAMAGE TO VESSEL
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations confirmed an incident 14 nautical miles from Mukha earlier.
The Houthis, who support the Palestinian terror group Hamas, have been launching drone and missile attacks on Western vessels since November, disrupting a critical maritime chokepoint known as “Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.”
About a week ago, 16 maritime industry associations and social partners co-signed an open letter to the United Nations urging increased military patrols on heavily traveled shipping routes. This comes after commandos seized a container ship affiliated with Israel as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz two weeks ago.
We have diligently published notes highlighting how maritime chokepoints across the Middle East are under threat, including the Suez Canal, Bab-El Mandeb Strait, and Strait of Hormuz, through which a quarter of all global trade flows.
The Red Sea disruption is far from over. The United States and its allies in the West are losing the battle in defending the world’s major shipping lanes, as Biden’s Operation Prosperity Guardian has been an absolute failure.
All of this symbolizes the world fracturing into a multipolar state, one full of chaos. And it will only get worse from here, hence why military spending worldwide is in a massive bull market.
Maersk Warns “Significant Disruptions To Global Shipping Network” As Red Sea Attacks Persist
Maersk Warns “Significant Disruptions To Global Shipping Network” As Red Sea Attacks Persist
President Biden’s second week of military strikes against Iran-backed Houthi anti-ship missile bases and continued attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea by the rebels have raised serious concerns about supply bottlenecks jeopardizing global growth.
On Thursday, top container shipper AP Moller-Maersk sent a memo to customers, warning how the global shipping network is fracturing because of the elevated risks in the Red Sea:
“While we hope for a sustainable resolution in the near-future and do all we can to contribute towards it, we do encourage customers to prepare for complications in the area to persist and for there to be significant disruption to the global network.”
Major shipping companies like Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have diverted hundreds of vessels on lengthier and costlier routes around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid Houthi rebels. Shell was the latest company to suspend all Red Sea shipments earlier this week.
Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday that global shipping networks will be disrupted for at least a few months:
“So for us this will mean longer transit times and probably disruptions of the supply chain for a few months at least, hopefully shorter, but it could also be longer because it’s so unpredictable how this situation is actually developing.”
Earlier this week, Stifel shipping analyst Ben Nolan told clients, “Red Sea issues are getting worse, not better.”
The knock-on effects of Red Sea disruptions have pushed companies to rent more vessels, thus reducing capacity, which has increased shipping rates in recent weeks.
“This week saw a scramble for prompt tonnage,” said MB Shipbrokers (formerly Maersk Broker) in a market report on Friday, referring to ships that can be chartered immediately.
…click on the above link to read the rest…
Saudi oil shipment halt: A potential watershed in the Yemen war
Saudi oil shipment halt: A potential watershed in the Yemen war
A spike in oil prices as a result of a temporary halt in shipments through the strategic Bab el Mandeb strait may be short-lived, but the impact on Yemen’s three-year-old forgotten war is likely to put the devastating conflict on the front burner.
The halt following a Saudi assertion that Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen had attacked two Saudi oil tankers traversing the waterway drives home the threat the conflict poses to a chokepoint in international trade and the flow of Gulf oil to world markets. The Houthis said they had attacked a Saudi warship rather than oil tankers.
An estimated 4.8 million barrels of oil are shipped daily through Bab al Mandeb that connects the Red Sea with the Arabian Sea off the coast of Yemen, Djibouti, and Eritrea.
The halt of oil shipments could provoke an escalation of the conflict with external powers intervening in a bid to assist Saudi Arabia and the UAE in defeating the Houthis and dealing a blow to Iran’s regional presence.
By the same token, the halt potentially offers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates an opportunity to focus international attention on resolving a civil war aggravated and turned into a regional conflict by the two Gulf states’ military intervention in March 2015.
Rather than proving to be a swift campaign that would have subdued the Houthis, the intervention has turned into a quagmire and a public relations fiasco for Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
International criticism of their conduct of the war is mounting as a result of its devastating human cost. Voices in the US Congress, the British parliament and other Western legislatures as well as human rights groups calling for a halt of arms sales to Saudi Arabiaare growing ever louder.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Saudis Mull Launch Of Regional War As Russia Pounds Targets In Syria For Fourth Day
Saudis Mull Launch Of Regional War As Russia Pounds Targets In Syria For Fourth Day
While the US has certainly made some epic strategic blunders in Syria that raise serious questions about just how “intelligent” US intelligence actually is, there’s little doubt that if one were to look behind all of the media parroting, the Pentagon and Langley understand all too well what’s going on in the Middle East.
That is, the significance of the Russia-Iran “nexus” in Syria isn’t lost on anyone in the US military and you can bet there have been quite a few high level discussions over the past 72 hours about the best way to counter Moscow and Tehran’s powerplay before it spills over into Iraq and ends up degrading Washington’s influence in Baghdad.
As we put it on Friday, “if Russia ends up bolstering Iran’s position in Syria (by expanding Hezbollah’s influence and capabilities) and if the Russian air force effectively takes control of Iraq thus allowing Iran to exert a greater influence over the government in Baghdad, the fragile balance of power that has existed in the region will be turned on its head and in the event this plays out, one should not expect Washington, Riyadh, Jerusalem, and London to simply go gentle into that good night.”
Sure enough, some experts now predict Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey will move to counter Russia militarily if Moscow continues to rack up gains for Assad. Here’s The Guardian with more:
Regional powers have quietly, but effectively, channelled funds, weapons and other support to rebel groups making the biggest inroads against the forces from Damascus. In doing so, they are investing heavily in a conflict which they see as part of a wider regional struggle for influence with bitter rival Iran.
In a week when Russia made dozens of bombing raids, those countries have made it clear that they remain at least as committed to removing Assad as Moscow is to preserving him.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
How The War Party Betrayed America’s Non-Interventionist Foreign Policy Tradition
How The War Party Betrayed America’s Non-Interventionist Foreign Policy Tradition
So Vladimir Putin in his U.N. address summarized his indictment of a U.S. foreign policy that has produced a series of disasters in the Middle East that we did not need the Russian leader to describe for us.
Fourteen years after we invaded Afghanistan, Afghan troops are once again fighting Taliban forces for control of Kunduz. Only 10,000 U.S. troops still in that ravaged country prevent the Taliban’s triumphal return to power.
A dozen years after George W. Bush invaded Iraq, ISIS occupies its second city, Mosul, controls its largest province, Anbar, and holds Anbar’s capital, Ramadi, as Baghdad turns away from us — to Tehran.
The cost to Iraqis of their “liberation”? A hundred thousand dead, half a million widows and fatherless children, millions gone from the country and, still, unending war.
How has Libya fared since we “liberated” that land? A failed state, it is torn apart by a civil war between an Islamist “Libya Dawn” in Tripoli and a Tobruk regime backed by Egypt’s dictator.
Then there is Yemen. Since March, when Houthi rebels chased a Saudi sock puppet from power, Riyadh, backed by U.S. ordinance and intel, has been bombing that poorest of nations in the Arab world.
Five thousand are dead and 25,000 wounded since March. And as the 25 million Yemeni depend on imports for food, which have been largely cut off, what is happening is described by one U.N. official as a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
“Yemen after five months looks like Syria after five years,” said the international head of the Red Cross on his return.
On Monday, the wedding party of a Houthi fighter was struck by air-launched missiles with 130 guests dead. Did we help to produce that?
What does Putin see as the ideological root of these disasters?
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
In Major Escalation, Yemen Rebels Fire Scud Missile Into Saudi Arabia
In Major Escalation, Yemen Rebels Fire Scud Missile Into Saudi Arabia
Just two days after reports indicated that Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels were prepared to participate in UN-brokered peace talks with Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi’s government in exile, clashes on the Saudi border have intensified.
On Friday, the Saudi press agency said it had used Apache helicopters and artillery to repel a Houthi-led advance, killing “dozens” of militants. Four Saudis were also killed.
Meanwhile, Riyadh stepped up airstrikes around the Yemeni capital targeting what the Saudis say were arms depots. The Houthis, however, say the aerial bombardment is inflicting untold civilian casualties, mostly women and children. Here’s Reuters:
Coalition Arab bombings killed around 58 people across Yemen on Wednesday and Thursday, the state news agency Saba, controlled by the Houthis, said.48 people, most of them women and children, were killed in air strikes on their houses in the Houthi heartland in the rural far north adjoining Saudi Arabia.
The reports could not be independently verified.
On Saturday, Riyadh claimed the Houthis, in concert with forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, fired a scud missile at Saudi Arabia for the first time.
The scud, which apparently targeted the city of Khamis Mushait in southwest Saudi Arabia, was intercepted by two Patriot missiles. “At 2:45am on Saturday morning, the Houthi militias and ousted [president] Ali Abdullah Saleh launched a Scud missile in the direction of Khamees al-Mushait, and praise be to God, the Royal Saudi air defences blocked it with a Patriot missile,” a statement said.
Khamis Mushait is home to the US-desiged and constructed King Khalid Air Force base, from which airstrikes on Houthi positions have been launched throughout the conflict.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
US Approves Saudi Use Of Banned Cluster Bombs (But Only If They’re Extra Careful)
US Approves Saudi Use Of Banned Cluster Bombs (But Only If They’re Extra Careful)
Following a report on Sunday, where Human Rights Watch said video and photographic evidence showed that Saudi Arabia used cluster bombs near villages in Yemen’s Saada Province at least two separate times, the US State Department said it is “looking into” the allegations but, as Foreign Policy reports, said the notoriously imprecise weapon — banned by much of the world — could still have an appropriate role to play in Riyadh’s U.S.-backed offensive (as long as it was used carefully).
Human Rights Watch details credible evidence indicates that the Saudi-led coalition used banned cluster munitions supplied by the United States in airstrikes against Houthi forces in Yemen, Human Rights Watch said today.
Cluster munitions pose long-term dangers to civilians and are prohibited by a 2008 treaty adopted by 116 countries, though not Saudi Arabia, Yemen, or the United States.
Photographs, video, and other evidence have emerged since mid-April 2015 indicating that cluster munitions have been used during recent weeks in coalition airstrikes in Yemen’s northern Saada governorate, the traditional Houthi stronghold bordering Saudi Arabia.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Proxy War Crosses Border? Houthis Reportedly Clash With Saudi Troops Near Najran
Proxy War Crosses Border? Houthis Reportedly Clash With Saudi Troops Near Najran
Earlier today we reported that local militiamen in the key Yemeni port city of Aden had captured two Iranian officers suspected of aiding Houthi rebels in the battle to control the city where fighters still loyal to President Hadi are determined to beat back an advance by the Houthis in the wake of a humanitarian crisis and reports that the Shiite militia has its sights set on the local branch of Yemen’s central bank located in the city’s Crater district.
Now, reports suggest the Houthis are battling Saudi forces near Najran, with some contending the rebels have overtaken a Saudi post which, if true, would appear to mark an escalation in the conflict as it would indicate the Houthis are willing to take the fight to the Saudis on their own turf.
Reports are now coming in that three Saudis have been killed in Houthi shelling. Via Bloomberg:
Mortar attack by Houthi rebels in Yemen fired into Saudi Arabia killed 3 Saudi soldiers and injured 2 others, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported, citing unidentified official.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Leave the Houthis Alone!
Leave the Houthis Alone!
Saudi Arabia‘s US-backed aggression against the sovereignty of Yemen is a textbook example of how local conflicts are internationalized – and become tripwires for regional wars and even global conflagrations.
Like Libya, Yemen is yet another Middle Eastern country that doesn’t really exist: it is actually at least two separate countries, perhaps three – the southern provinces, which are primarily Sunni, the northern tribes, who adhere mostly to they Zaydi form of Shi’ite Islam, and the area around Sa’na, the capital, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth, where all Yemen’s clashing cultural, political, and religious factions meet.
The north/south division dates back to the nineteenth century British colonization, when, in 1839, the British seized the port city of Aden and administered it as a subset of the Indian Viceroyalty. It became a major trading center after the opening of the Suez canal, and the Brits pushed outward, extending their influence throughout what had been a land perpetually divided between the Ottoman Empire and local imams, including the distinctive Zaydis in the north. In 1911, the Zaydis rose up against the British and their local collaborators, abolished the north/south division negotiated by the British Foreign Office, and established the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen under Imam Yahya. Yahya’s dream was to recreate the ancient Qasamid dynasty, founded in the seventeenth century: a “Greater Yemen” extending into what is today Saudi Arabia as well as the whole of modern Yemen.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Impending Iran Deal Could Crush Current Rally
Impending Iran Deal Could Crush Current Rally
The headline for the week was Saudi Arabia’s attack on rebels in Yemen, which threatens to ignite tensions between regional rivalries in the Middle East. The proximate cause was the advance by Houthi rebels on Aden where the Yemeni President is located. Saudi Arabia spent several weeks secretly reaching out to its regional allies to build support for an attack on the Houthis, signing up support from Turkey, Egypt, and an array of Gulf States. The advanced knowledge of the United States government appears to be a matter of dispute, with some top level Pentagon officials saying they were only given one hour’s notice before the attack. Nevertheless, the U.S. is providing logistical support – refueling and satellite imagery.
This attack comes at an awful time which may not be a coincidence. The negotiations between the P5+1 nations and Iran are coming down to the wire. The outlines of a deal are visible, but the sides are hoping to use the next few days to seal the deal. Saudi Arabia’s attack on Houthi rebels is not just about Yemeni stability. It is a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies on one side, and Iran on the other. The U.S. finds itself confronting Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen at the same time that it is attacking ISIS in Iraq alongside Iran. How this affects nuclear negotiations is anybody’s guess.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
In Yemen, It’s The Bad Guys Vs. The Bad Guys
In Yemen, It’s The Bad Guys Vs. The Bad Guys
Saudi Arabia and Egypt stand poised to conduct a massive ground invasion of Yemen, and the western media will be full of tales about how “Operation Decisive Storm” is liberating that country from the evil Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. And without a doubt, the Houthis are bad guys and so are their Iranian benefactors. But don’t be fooled into thinking that the war in Yemen is a battle of good vs. evil. The truth is that the conflict in Yemen is actually a proxy war between two sets of bad guys that both ultimately plan for Islam to take over the entire planet. On one side, the Iranians are very honest about the fact that they view us as an enemy, and they plan to impose their version of radical Shia Islam worldwide as soon as they can. On the other side, the Saudis pretend to be our friends, but they don’t hide the fact that they believe that their version of Sunni Islam will eventually rule the world. And their version of Sunni Islam includes constant beheadings, the destruction of all churches and the death penalty for anyone caught smuggling a Bible into Saudi territory. At the end of the day, there is very little difference between the Saudis and ISIS. In fact, ISIS gets a lot of funding from Saudi sources, and there is more support for ISIS on Twitter from Saudi Arabia than from anywhere else. Saudi Arabia is a horribly repressive regime where women are treated like dirt, where the secret police conduct a never ending reign of terror and where even a minor deviation from sharia law can mean the loss of a limb. But because our politicians and the mainstream media constantly tell us that they are “our friends”, we cheer them on.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Yemen Ground Invasion By Saudi, Egyptian Troops Imminent
Yemen Ground Invasion By Saudi, Egyptian Troops Imminent
As reported first thing today, while the initial phase of the military campaign against Yemen has been taking place for the past 18 hours and been exclusively one of airborne assaults by forces of the “Decisive Storm” coalition, Saudi hinted at what is coming next following reports that it had built up a massive 150,000 troop deployment on the border with Yemen.
And as expected, moments ago AP reported that Egyptian military and security officials told The Associated Press that the military intervention will go further, with a ground assault into Yemen by Egyptian, Saudi and other forces, planned once airstrikes have weakened the capabilities of the rebels.
Will this invasion mean that Yemen as we know it will no longer exist and become annexed by Saudi Arabia? According to coalition military sources, the answer is no, but that remains to be seen:
Three Egyptian military and security officials told The Associated Press that a coalition of countries led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia will conduct a ground invasion into Yemen once the airstrikes have sufficiently diminished the Houthis and Saleh’s forces. They said the assault will be by ground from Saudi Arabia and by landings on Yemen’s Red and Arabian Sea coasts.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Saudi Arabia, with US Support, Invades Yemen
Saudi Arabia, with US Support, Invades Yemen
As a study released today shows the US has killed perhaps more than 2 million people in the last decade of its wars on the Middle East, the US is now supporting a Saudi invasion of Yemen.
The government of Saudi Arabia began a military operation in Yemen against the Shiite Houthi rebels, early Thursday local time. Some reports say the operation could involve 150,000 troops and 100 fighter jets.
According to Reuters news agency, the United States coordinated with the Saudi government ahead of the attacks.
In a statement released late Wednesday, the White House confirmed it will provide logistical and intelligence support for the operation.
Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s most repressive states, and has a deal with Pakistan for delivery of nuclear weapons at its request (see BBC’s “Saudi Nuclear Weapons on Order from Pakistan”).
In 2010, Obama secured a 60 billion dollar arms sale to the Saudi dictatorship, then a 640 million dollar sale of banned (as reported by Foreign Policy mag) cluster bombs.
In the 1980s, the US supported an invasion by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq of Iran. The US providedHussein with advanced weaponry, chemical weapons, and plans for building chemical weapons facilities. The attack killed some 1,000,0000 Iranians.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Five explosions rock Yemeni capital – Middle East – Al Jazeera English
Five explosions rock Yemeni capital – Middle East – Al Jazeera English.
Five bombs have exploded in Sanaa’s old quarter, where many supporters of the Shia Muslim Houthi group live, killing at least one person and wounding another, according to a Yemeni security official.
No one claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attacks, but the Houthis have been fighting the Sunni Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) group and allied tribesmen since its fighters captured Sanaa in September and forced the resignation of the government.
Witnesses said the blasts occurred early in the morning at a time when only a few people were on the streets.
One of the bombs exploded when a member of the Houthi armed group tried to dismantle it, residents said.
Several houses and some cars were damaged by the explosions.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels storm governor’s house – Middle East – Al Jazeera English
Yemen’s Houthi rebels storm governor’s house – Middle East – Al Jazeera English.
Rebels continue their military advance, storming government buildings, as Iran comes out in support of their cause. |
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Houthi fighters withdrew from the town of Radaa, an al-Qaeda stronghold, which they seized on Friday [AP]
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| Yemen’s Houthi rebels have stormed the office and home of the governor of Sanaa, after blowing up the house of an Islamist politician in Ibb province, where they had agreed to a ceasefire with local tribesmen, officials said.
On Sunday, the rebels struck the house of a senior member of rival political group, the al-Islah party, in Yarim city, Ibb province, just hours after signing the truce, while Iran gave its public backing to the Houthis. In Sanaa, the Houthis also stormed government buildings, calling for the resignation of the governor, who they accuse of corruption. …click on the link above to read the rest of the article… |
