The United States has disclosed that the aggression coming from the Houthis has caused atleast hundreds of attacks since November on shipping in the Red Sea while affecting over forty countries tied to ships with forty different countries.
Secretary of State, Antony Blinken who made the disclosure during his visit to Bahrain as part of an intensive diplomatic push across the region noted that United States has been focusing on making sure that the conflict that is ongoing in Gaza doesn’t spread to other places.
Blinken added that to avoid the escalation of the conflict has been the United States focus since October 7th, and it remains its focus till today, accused Iran of launching the biggest attack, UAVs, missiles yesterday.
According to him, “These attacks have been aided and abetted by Iran with technology, equipment, intelligence, information; and they are having a real-life impact on people.
“We talk about concepts like freedom of navigation and the importance of upholding it, and I know that can sound a little bit abstract, but it means something very real in the lives of people.
“What’s happened because of these Houthi attacks against commercial shipping is that thousands of ships have had to divert, take longer routes, pay more for insurance, and that gets translated into higher prices for people for everything from fuel, to medicine, to food.
“It’s disrupting supply chains and so it’s having a real impact on people around the world in their daily lives. We know all about the hostages in Gaza; well, the Houthis have taken more than 25 hostages from the ships that they’ve seized since this fall.
“So all of this has required us – this challenge, this threat to the interests of countries around the world, has required us to respond.
“We put together Operation Prosperity Guardian with more than 20 countries, including Bahrain, to do everything we can to preserve freedom of navigation, freedom of shipping in the Red Sea.
“And in fact, the United States and the United Kingdom – two participants in Operation Prosperity Guardian, responded effectively to the attacks just yesterday. We also had some 20 countries come together to make clear that if these attacks continue as they did yesterday, there will be consequences”.
US Secretary who had an opportunity to meet with President Abbas in Ramallah earlier, talked about the importance of reforming Palestinian Authority, governance so that it can effectively take responsibility for Gaza.
“So that Gaza and the West Bank can be reunited under a Palestinian leadership. It’s very clear to me from President Abbas that he’s prepared to move forward and engage in all of these efforts. Indeed, as we speak, I think, President Abbas is with President Sisi of Egypt, with King Abdullah of Jordan, talking about these very issues.
“And I can say that after this week in the region, it’s clear that countries around the region are seized with the need, first of all, to prevent the conflict from spreading, but also to design a better path forward for the region as a whole and particularly for Israelis and Palestinians alike”, he said.