Navy: Iran ‘very directly involved’ in Houthi attacks
JERUSALEM — Iran is “very directly involved” in ship attacks that Yemen’s Houthi rebels have carried out during Israel’s war against Hamas, the U.S. Navy’s top Mideast commander told The Associated Press on Monday.
Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of the Navy’s 5th Fleet, stopped short of say- ing Tehran directed individ- ual attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
H o w e v e r , Cooper acknowledged that attacks associated with Iran have expanded from previously threatening just the Persian Gulf and its Strait of Hor- muz into waters across the wider Middle East.
“Clearly, the Houthi actions, probably in terms of their attacks on merchant shipping, are the most signif- icant that we’ve seen in two generations,” he told the AP in a telephone interview.
“The facts simply are that they’re attacking the inter- national community; thus, the international response I think you’ve seen.”
Iran’s mission to the United Nations and the Houthi leadership in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
However, the Houthis later claimed to have attacked a U.S.-flagged ves- sel, something that the 5th Fleet dismissed as “patently false.”
Since November, the Ira- nian-backed Houthis have launched at least 34 attacks on shipping through the waterways leading up to
Egypt’s Suez Canal, a vital route fo r energy and cargo coming from Asia and the Middle East onward to Europe.
The Houthis, a Shiite rebel group that’s held Sanaa since 2014 and been at war with a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s exiled government since 2015, link their attacks to the Israel-Hamas war. However, the ships they’ve targeted increasingly have tenuous links to Israel — or none at all.
In recent days, the U.S. has launched seven rounds of airstrikes on Houthi military sites, targeting air bases under the rebels’ control and suspected missile launch sites.
However, risks for the global economy remain as many ships continue to bypass that route for a longer trip around Africa’s southern tip. That meant lower revenue for Egypt through the Suez Canal, a vital source of hard currency for the country’s troubled economy, as well as higher costs for shipping that could push up global inflation.
As Cooper took command of the 5th Fleet in 2021, the threat to shipping focused primarily around the Persian Gulf and its narrow mouth, the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all oil traded passes.
A series of attacks blamed on Iran and ship seizures by Tehran followed the collapse of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
MARIETTA, Ga. — A judge on Monday ordered court records to be made public in the divorce involving a special prosecutor hired in the election case against Donald Trump and others and accused of having an affair with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
The judge ordered the unsealing of the divorce involving special prosecutor Nathan Wade after a request brought by a defense attorney who alleges Wade is in an inappropriate relationship with Willis. The judge also put off a final decision on whether Willis will have to sit for questioning in the divorce case, but delayed her deposition that had been scheduled for Tuesday.
Willis has defended her hiring of Wade, who has little prosecutorial experience, and has not directly denied a romantic relationship. Willis has accused Wade’s estranged wife of trying to obstruct her criminal election interference case against
Trump and others by seeking to question her in the couple’s divorce proceedings.
Willis was served with the subpoena to sit for a deposition in the divorce case the day that defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant, who represents former Trump campaign staffer and onetime White House aide Michael Roman, filed a motion alleging the romantic relationship between Willis and Wade.
Joycelyn Wade’s attorney has filed court documents showing Wade bought plane tickets in Willis’ name, arguing there “appears to be no reasonable explanation for their travels apart from a romantic relationship.”
The affair allegations have roiled the case, which charges Trump and 18 allies of working to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. Trump and others have seized on the allegations to attack the case and Wade’s qualifications as a prosecutor.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and called the charges politically motivated.
During a brief hearing in the Cobb County Superior
Court, Judge Henry Thompson said he can’t rule on whether Willis should have to sit for a deposition in the divorce case until after Wade himself is questioned later this month.
A lawyer for Joycelyn Wade wrote in court papers filed Friday that Nathan Wade has taken trips to San Francisco and Napa Valley, Florida, Belize, Panama and Australia and has taken Caribbean cruises since filing for divorce and that Willis “was an intended travel partner for at least some of these trips as indicated by flights he purchased for her to accompany him.”
It’s one of four cases Trump is facing as he vies to return to the White House. Prosecutors are using a statute normally associated with mobsters to accuse the former president, lawyers and other aides of a “criminal enterprise” to keep him in power.
Four people have already pleaded guilty in the Georgia election case after reaching deals with prosecutors. The remaining 15, including Trump, have pleaded not guilty.