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,
head of Navy’s 5th Fleet, stopped short of say- ing Tehran directed individ- ual attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea and the Gulf 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
“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
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 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 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.