[News] Yemen’s strategic escalation into the Mediterranean

[Anti-Imperialist News]

thecradle.co
<https://thecradle.co/articles/yemens-strategic-escalation-into-the-mediterranean>
Yemen’s strategic escalation into the Mediterranean [image:
6ca2444e-0d51-11ef-ba32-00163e02c055.jpeg]
Khalil Nasrallah <https://thecradle.co/authors/khalil-nasrallah>  - May 8,
2024
------------------------------

In support of Gaza, Yemen’s Ansarallah-aligned armed forces executed their
first direct operation against Israel on 18 October 2023. That operation
involved cruise missiles and drones targeting the port of Eilat in
southern occupied Palestine and came less than two weeks after the
Palestinian resistance’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood flipped the script in West
Asia.

Similar attacks ensued in rapid fire, with further warnings
<https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231031-yemen-s-huthi-rebels-claim-drone-attack-on-israel>
from
the Yemeni military that it would “continue to carry out qualitative
strikes with missiles and drones until the Israeli aggression stops.” One
month later, amidst Tel Aviv’s worsening carnage in Gaza, Sanaa commenced
its targeting of Israeli-linked and destined shipping vessels in the Red
Sea, effectively blocking their passage through the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

*‘Phased’ maritime operations *

This marked Yemen’s first phase of a meticulously planned series
of naval operations. The second phase saw a broader prohibition, blocking
ships from any country from approaching Israeli ports – a waterway siege,
just as Yemen has endured for eight long years. Sanaa’s scope of operations
then broadened in the third phase to include the Indian Ocean
<https://thecradle.co/articles-id/24003>, targeting Israeli vessels
navigating the much longer Cape of Good Hope route – around the African
continent – to deliver goods to the occupation state.
Israel's shipping route before and after Yemen's blockade

As tensions escalated, and to protect Israel, US and British naval forces
cobbled together a ramshackle coalition of non-Arab states, Operation
Prosperity Guardian, to strike Yemen – a country already ravaged by almost
a decade of US-backed Saudi–UAE bombardment and siege.

This provoked a forceful and immediate response from Yemeni forces, who
extended their target range to include US and British naval assets
<https://thecradle.co/articles-id/23849> and, later, to expand their
operational theater to the vast Indian Ocean.

But as Israel’s threats to invade and bombard Rafah intensified in recent
days, Sanaa announced the start of a fourth phase of escalation, a
significant ramp-up in their military response.

This phase will target Israeli ships or those heading to Israeli ports in
the Mediterranean Sea <https://thecradle.co/articles-id/24712> and impose
comprehensive sanctions on all vessels linked to companies that frequent
the occupied state’s ports. Furthermore, the measures will be applied to
all shipping vessels and companies that deliver goods to Israel, regardless
of their final destinations. This effectively bars them from all Yemeni
operational waterways.

The declaration of this fourth phase is a clear signal of widening the
conflict zone to include the Mediterranean and tightening the siege on
Israel, which economically depends on sea trade. It poses a renewed
challenge to Tel Aviv and its allies, increasing pressure, particularly on
Washington and its European partners.
Yemen's scope of operations against Israeli shipping

*Advancement of military capabilities*

Sanaa’s strategic move is timed with ongoing ceasefire negotiations
involving Hamas, which faces intense pressure to accept terms favorable to
Israel, and is part of a broader strategy to influence political outcomes
far beyond Yemen’s borders.

The Yemeni “circle of fire” – its maritime reach – now encompasses the Red
Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, and the
Mediterranean Sea. On land, Sanaa’s focus is on impacting Israel’s
geographic depth, particularly its southern regions which abut the Red Sea.

In multiple speeches, Ansarallah leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi has
emphasized Yemen’s staggering advances in military
capabilities, both quantitatively and qualitatively. These advancements are
made possible by various factors, most notably the real-world testing of
their arsenal.

Recent broadcasts showcased a distant suicide drone targeting a ship in the
Red Sea, equipped with a camera on its nose. Additionally, there has been
significant Yemeni progress in the use of winged and ballistic missiles:
according to military analysts, for the first time
<https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/explained-did-worlds-first-anti-ship-ballistic-missile-attack-just-happened-4798282>
in
history, anti-ship ballistic missiles were deployed against seaborne
vessels, a qualitative advancement in Ansarallah’s military bag of tricks.

*Sanaa’s strategic rise *

Speaking to *The Cradle*, Brigadier General Mujib Shamsan, Chairman of the
Yemeni Military Spokesmen’s Committee for the Media, says that Sanaa
benefited from its operations and confrontation with American and British
forces to fast-track its capabilities.

This is clearly evident through the comparison between the operations it
carried out at the beginning of its decisions up to the end. Operations in
the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean, where it was able
to accumulate and develop its capabilities continuously, whether at the
level of missile force, unmanned air force, or other naval weapons, thus
bypassing various American defense systems, learning many tactics regarding
confronting them, and even bringing it to a state of failure.

The failings of the two western coalitions dedicated to thwarting Yemen’s
siege of Israel have become apparent to all.

Since early April, various European naval commanders have thrown their
hands up in full public view.

Jerome Henry, commander of France’s Aquitaine-class FREMM frigate Alsace –
deployed in the Red Sea for 71 straight days – said on 11 April that his
ship had depleted its entire combat arsenal, and while it would head to
port to replenish those munitions, would return to face an impossible
mission <https://thecradle.co/articles-id/24362>:

We didn’t necessarily expect this level of threat. There was an uninhibited
violence that was quite surprising and very significant. [The Yemenis] do
not hesitate to use drones that fly at water level, to explode them on
commercial ships, and to fire ballistic missiles.

“We had to carry out at least half a dozen assistances following [Yemeni]
strikes,” Henry told French publication *Le Figaro*.

Also in early April, Rear Admiral Vasileios Gryparis, the Greek commander
of the EU’s Operation Aspides, warned
<https://thecradle.co/articles-id/24740> that his mission would not succeed
with *only three warships* available to protect shipments through the Bab
al-Mandab Strait. Since “the launch of the Operation Aspides on 19 February
2024 until now, the threat level remains the same,” lamented Gryparis.

Yemeni Brigadier-General Shamsan points out that the US defense
system failures, and growing risks faced by the anti-Yemen
naval coalitions, have “forced it and its allies to withdraw more than 18
ships from the theater of operations, as the number of American ships that
left reached 10, while eight ships belonging to European tools left.”

Shamsan says the rapid development of Sanaa’s military capabilities during
the ongoing war has positioned Yemen as a pivotal player not only
regionally but globally, owing to its strategic position overseeing one of
the world’s most crucial maritime passages.

As Ansarallah’s phase four operations commence in the Mediterranean Sea,
Shamsan declares that Yemen has now effectively implemented a maritime
blockade and economic stranglehold on Israel, which heavily relies on sea
routes for the vast majority of its imports.

This blockade, in turn, represents a significant leverage point against
both Tel Aviv and its western allies, which have failed to protect their
interests in the Red Sea or counteract Sanaa’s embargo on ships entering
the ports of the occupation state.

Far from being a mere political and military backwater, Yemen has
demonstrated far-reaching military capabilities and impressive
strategic planning that has confounded the world’s greatest naval powers.
Sanaa’s formidable maneuvers in West Asian maritime zones have catapulted
it to the forefront of the region’s Axis of Resistance as the member most
capable of influencing global maritime security and regional stability.

As the US and its allies rally around their newly constructed
<https://thecradle.co/articles-id/24587> “aid pier” on Gaza’s Mediterranean
coastline to, as many suspect, consolidate the area as a future site for US
military operations and protect Israel’s oil and gas platforms, Yemen is
emerging as a frontline adversary in that far-flung theater.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The
Cradle.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20240508/0996b7c6/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 6ca2444e-0d51-11ef-ba32-00163e02c055.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 400873 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20240508/0996b7c6/attachment-0001.jpeg>