France in a coalition of 10 countries launched by the United States against Houthi attacks – Libération

2023-12-19 19:02:02
The American Secretary of Defense announced Operation “Prosperity Guardian” on Monday, December 18, in response to the attacks which have increased in recent days against ships considered by the Yemeni rebels to be “linked to Israel”.

The response will undoubtedly be muscular. Faced with repeated attacks by the Houthis against merchant ships in the Red Sea, the United States announced Monday evening, December 18, the establishment of a coalition of ten countries to fight against the Yemeni rebels. “The recent escalation of reckless Houthi attacks from Yemen threatens the free flow of commerce, endangers the lives of innocent sailors and violates international law,” said US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, announcing “the establishment of Operation Prosperity Guardian”.

In addition to the United States, this coalition will be made up of France – whose head of diplomacy Catherine Colonna estimated on Sunday that the Houthi attacks “cannot go unanswered” – the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the Seychelles. This “multinational security initiative” will act “under the aegis of the Combined Maritime Forces [CMF, un partenariat maritime international à la direction tournante qui a pour mission d’assurer la sécurité en haute mer, ndlr] and under the direction of Combined Task Force 153. Created in April 2022 to ensure security in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden, it is one of five task forces managed by the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF).

Shipowners are deserting the area

Visiting Israel on Monday, Lloyd Austin earlier called on Iran to stop its “support” for Houthi operations against commercial shipping. The Jewish state is not one of the states mentioned by the head of the Pentagon as being part of the coalition in the Red Sea, while the Houthis have claimed to attack ships they consider to be “linked to Israel”.

Faced with attacks from Yemeni rebels which have increased in recent days, maritime transport giants are deserting passage through the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait which separates the Arabian Peninsula from Africa, and through which 40% of world trade passes. Following the example of many shipowners, the British hydrocarbon giant BP and the Taiwanese maritime transport giant Evergreen announced on Monday that they would suspend all transit in the Red Sea.

At the end of last week, the Dane Maersk, the German Hapag-Lloyd, the French CMA CGM and the Italian-Swiss MSC announced that their ships would no longer enter the zone “until further notice”.

“Highway of the sea”

Controlling much of Yemen, the Houthis have warned that they will target ships sailing off the country’s coast if they have links to Israel, in response to the war between the Jewish state and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Several missiles and drones were shot down by warships patrolling the area.

The Red Sea is a “sea highway” connecting the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, and therefore Europe to Asia. Around 20,000 ships pass through the Suez Canal each year, the entry and exit point for ships passing through the Red Sea.