On 11 January, British and US forces launched a total of 72 air strikes across Yemen, including on the capital, Sana’a in response to Yemeni attacks during the previous weeks against ships destined for Israel passing along the Red Sea. It represents the 51st British military intervention in North Africa or the Middle East since 1945. In response, Ansar Allah – popularly misnamed the Houthis – have extended their targets from Israeli shipping to that linked to Britain and the US.
Since the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on 7 October, Yemen has been the only Arab state to take significant action in solidarity with the Palestinian people by attacking and seizing Israeli-owned and Israel-bound shipping in the Red Sea. In an exemplary action on 19 November, Ansar Allah seized the container ship Galaxy Leader, owned by Israeli billionaire Rami Unger who has ties to the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis demonstrated their support for the seizure in Sana’a.
The same day the Yemen News Agency SABA reported a statement by the armed forces where they ‘renewed their warning to all ships belonging to the Israeli enemy or dealing with it that they will become a legitimate target’ and ‘the Yemeni Armed Forces affirmed their “continuation of carrying out military operations against the Israeli enemy until the aggression against the Gaza Strip stops, and the heinous crimes continuing until this moment against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza and the West Bank stop.”’
In response, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed ‘This has been an attack on international commerce, international shipping, not an attack on Israel, not an attack on the United States. That’s why more than 40 countries came together to condemn what the Houthis were doing.’ The US has now re-designated Ansar Allah as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US ; it had been de-listed in February 2021.
British defence minister James Heappey added, ‘No matter what you think about the Houthi argument about their support for Hamas, we can’t allow the Houthis to ransom the free flow of global trade to make that point. Those are international waters that must remain open and navigable to commercial shipping…’ Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said that his party was ‘fully supportive’ of the action and called only for the government to publish its legal advice on the strikes. A further strike by British forces took place on 22 January. The Yemeni actions threaten already-slipping imperialist control of the Middle East, and may unravel crucial supply chains.
Shipping through the Red Sea between the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, which lies off the coast of Yemen, and the Suez Canal, shortens the journey from Europe to Asia by around 4,000 miles and sees 10% of the world’s seaborne-traded oil, 12% of global trade and 30% of global container traffic. Ansar Allah’s actions in the Red Sea have reduced the weekly number of vessel passages from 470 before the Galaxy Leader was seized to 290 in the week ending 14 January, a near 40% reduction. The war risk insurance premium for shipping through the Red Sea has risen from 0.07% to 1% of the value of a ship, an increase of over 1300%. This has driven up the cost of running a ship on this route by $3m and the cost of shipping a standard container from $1,875 in December to $5,650 in mid-January, forcing BP to halt all shipments of oil and gas through the Red Sea.
The vast majority of Israel’s trade is sea-borne and it is heavily reliant on imports of food. Since 7 October the war risk premium paid by shipping to stop at the Israel Mediterranean ports rose to one of the highest rates in the world. Activity at Israel’s port of Eilat, which has direct access to the Red Sea, was reportedly down by 85% in December.
Western imperialism is desperate to maintain its grip on the Middle East and on the geostrategic chokepoints for global shipping: the Straits of Gibraltar, of Malacca and Bab-el-Mandeb as well as the Suez and Panama canals. These shipping passages are essential for the movement of goods and commodities across the planet, and ensuring the smooth running of the global profit-making capitalist system headed by US imperialism. The 26 January attack on a British oil tanker shows how fragile the system is.
Ben Adelaide
Hands off Yemen!
British imperialism out of the Middle East!
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 298 February/March 2024
