AL-MUKALLA: Hostilities in the Red Sea risk exploding Yemen’s civil war, the US envoy to Yemen has said, warning that anti-Houthi forces could exploit tensions and restart their campaign against the militia.
Tim Lenderking condemned Iran’s support for the militia and said that the US is “determined” to rally international pressure on the Houthis to de-escalate.
In a pre-recorded interview at a virtual panel hosted by the Middle East Institute on Tuesday, Lenderking said: “The sense we have is overwhelming that Iran is pushing on an open door here with the Houthis — aiding, abetting, sharing intelligence, helping them target ships, determining which are the more lucrative targets.”
He added: “Again, we see the very, very negative role that Iran is playing in the region by fanning this conflict.”
Since November, the Houthi militia has fired dozens of drones and missiles at commercial and naval vessels in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and Bab Al-Mandab, as well as seized a commercial ship, in what the group claims is an act of solidarity with Palestine, and an attempt to force Israel to lift its siege on Gaza.
The militia has resisted calls within Yemeni and internationally to end its Red Sea campaign, despite being warned that the supply of crucial goods and humanitarian aid to the country could dry up.
On Wednesday, US Central Command said that the Houthis fired six anti-ship ballistic missiles toward the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden a day earlier.
Three missiles were aimed at the Marshall Islands-flagged MV Star Nasia in the Gulf of Aden.
One of the missiles exploded near the ship, causing minor damage but no injuries, while another landed in the sea and a third was shot down by USS Laboon, a US destroyer that was dispatched to the Red Sea in December as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian.
The remaining three missiles, thought to be targeting the UK-owned cargo ship MV Morning Tide in the Southern Red Sea, exploded in the water.
Lenderking said that Houthi drone and missile attacks on ships have halted the UN-brokered peace process in Yemen and have exacerbated the country’s already dire humanitarian crisis. He warned that countries would avoid supporting salary payments, a key term of the proposed peace road map, in Houthi-controlled areas as long as resources were used to attack international shipping.
“What the Houthis are doing is hurting peace in Yemen and it’s going to hurt more and more average Yemenis who are already under a great deal of stress and strain because of the war, because of the damaged infrastructure, because of the lack of humanitarian supplies.”
Lenderking began his trip to the region on Wednesday by meeting Rashad Al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, in Riyadh. They discussed US financial assistance to the Yemeni economy, the consequences of Israel’s war in Gaza and UN-led peace efforts in Yemen, according to the official Yemeni news agency, SABA.
In Sanaa, the Houthis denied the US charge of compromising international maritime traffic security, claiming that hundreds of ships had sailed through the Red Sea since the start of the campaign without issue, while just a few had avoided the route.
Abdul Wahab Al-Durra, the Houthi minister of transportation, told a gathering of businessmen in Sanaa on Tuesday that from Nov. 19 to Dec. 19 last year, 2,128 ships crossed the Suez Canal from the Red Sea, with only 55 changing route to the Way of Good Hope, accusing the US-led Operation Prosperity Guardian of endangering international navigation in the Red Sea.
