Op-Ed
The United Nations Security Council has been holding multiple emergency meetings recently. All are connected directly or indirectly to Israel’s vicious genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and the United States’ unconditional backing of it with weaponry, munitions, on-the-ground military strategists and shooting down missiles and drones targeting Israel. Most have concluded with weak at best or outright U.S. vetoed resolutions coming out of the body when the sessions are over.
This one held yesterday was different.
It was a discussion regarding what to do about the disruption of Red Sea shipping at the hands of the Houthi-led rebel half of Yemen since November. That was supposed to draw pressure on Israel to stop its mass killings and wholesale destruction of all of Gaza. In that sense, it was part of the same thread of actions and reactions to the unconscionable violence the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has unleashed on the Palestinian people both in Gaza and the West Bank settlements.
What was different for the Security Council meeting this time is that it did conclude with surprising unanimity to condemn what the Houthis were doing. Apparently, it is relatively easy to get the wealthiest nations in the world to issue a rebuke when trade is not running smoothly, while it is impossible to take far lesser actions from the same group against the nation of Israel when it comes to its mass slaughter of now close to 23,000 innocent Palestinians alone since October 7.
Background for this Emergency Meeting of the UN Security Council
The Houthis originally lashed out against Israel for their ruthless murders in Gaza with missiles launched into the Israeli territory. Most of those were shot down on the way, some via the U.S.-supplied Iron Dome defense system within Israeli territory and some via warships the U.S. sent to protect and outfit the fascist Israeli military.
The Houthis then shifted their tactics to something with a far more promising payoff possibility regarding the war. They decided to direct their assaults to cause shipping delays to Israel and to those who continue to support it in the war, by using a combination of threats and force to throttle maritime trade passing through the Red Sea.
The Houthi actions, which began in early November, began as mostly warnings against container ships and oil cargo carriers either owned by Israel or carrying cargo for Israel. That shifted as of November 19, when the Houthis seized the Galaxy Leader, an Israeli-owned ship operated by a Japanese cargo company. They have continued to hold it to the present day.
The Houthis escalated their warnings further, with broadcasts sent out to Israel connected ships entering Bab-al-Mandeb to turn around, and some having missiles launched against them when they did not comply. Due to the potential danger, insurance companies substantially raised their rates for ships transiting the Red Sea.
That strait, whose name translates in Arabic as the “Gate of Lamentation”, a metaphor which is particularly appropriate for what the Houthis are attempting to stop in Gaza, is 20 miles wide and borders the Yemeni coast. It is the shipping lane for all ships passing through the Red Sea, either from the Indian Ocean from the south or from the Suez Canal from the north.
According to United Nations’ figures, 15% of all global shipping passes through Bab-al-Mandeb, amounting to a typical average of 40 to 50 ships per day and a total of over 20,000 per year. Thanks to Houthi warnings and now escalating actions some shipping companies have been rerouting their ships around Africa, delaying deliveries and increasing fuel costs. However, there are still some 200 ships safely transiting the Red Sea.
Among the companies which have made the decision to redirect some or all ships they used to send through the Red Sea are the top two maritime shippers in the world, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and Maersk. Others include Hapag-Lloyd, a German shipper which suffered a loss when the Houthis shot a drone into its Al Jasrah merchant vessel on December 15, British Petroleum, the Taiwanese shipping giant Evergreen, Japan’s Ocean Network Express line, Hong Kong provider OOCL, and CMA-CGM, a major ocean cargo carrier based in France.
The threat of attacks and hijacking by the Houthis alone raised insurance rates on the ships passing through by 2.5 times what they were before this. Rerouting the vessels added 6 to 14 days of shipping time for the cargo, along with the costs of additional fuel, maintenance, and crew expenses required for the longer transit.
It was expensive for all concerned. Israel alone saw most of the ships it had expected to come through the Gulf of Suez rerouted entirely, costing the country billions of dollars in delayed trade within just one month.
In response, the United States launched Operation Prosperity Guardian, a suitably named naval task force which was intended to protect the wealth of those nations who stand with Israel as they move their cargo through the Red Sea. According to the Department of Defense, that new operation was supposed “to jointly address security challenges in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, with the goal of ensuring freedom of navigation for all countries and bolstering regional security and prosperity”. Besides the United States which directs the task force, participants which had pledged ships to it included the United Kingdom, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles, and Spain.
Within days after the naval operation was announced, the whole plan began to unravel. First it was that France, Italy, and Spain announced they would be withdrawing from what the U.S. designated as Task Force 153. They had the collective realization that any joint operation like this which would be led by the United States was something they wished to avoid at all costs. In their withdrawal announcements, they said they would not participate in anything like this unless it was directed either by the European Union or NATO.
Just a short time later Australia also announced they would no longer send warships to be a part of the task force but provided no public explanation. It is surprising they would bow out after having recently formed a special Pacific military alliance with the United States and the United Kingdom, called AUKUS.
Meanwhile, the Houthis continued warning, blocking, and blasting additional cargo vessels entering the Red Sea. The most recent such attacks were on January 3.
One involved the merchant vessel Tage, a container ship operated by the French shipping giant CMA CGM SA, which was on its way northwards through the Red Sea. A spokesperson for the Houthi armed forces said publicly that it had attacked the Tage after the vessel’s crew ignored warnings to turn it around. People representing CMA CGM reported after the Houthi announcement that it was not damaged and was proceeding northwards as originally planned. No other attacks were reported on this ship.
At around the same time as the Tage was attacked, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a British naval detachment, announced via its web operations that there had been a separate attack on another vessel in the Red Sea not far from the reported attempt on the Tage. Witnesses not far from the scene reported hearing explosions at the Red Sea waterline roughly between 1 and 5 nautical miles from where the Tage had been targeted.
To date, no one has been killed or injured as a result of the Houthi attacks but the U.S. did kill 10 Yemen sailors.
What Happened in the UN Security Council on January 3
With Operation Prosperity Guardian having already fragmented and the Houthis continuing to hold Israeli linked Red Sea traffic at bay, the most powerful nations of the world are facing a messy dilemma. They are finding that having the biggest warships and in aggregate a massive arsenal of weaponry is proving to be no match against one of the smallest quasi-governmental organizations of the world, that led by the Houthis from their separatist home in Yemen.
Dementia-ridden war criminal Joe Biden and his own “war cabinet” of sorts, including the treasonous Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, evil clown Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and National Security Advisor genocide Jake Sullivan, have been meeting to address the issue. Based on leaks which have come from those discussions, Biden's handlers are reportedly considering a more violent missile attack on the Houthi forces on their home front. Those close to him are concerned that with such a small country, the U.S. could not possibly execute what it might want to do there, which would be a mostly “surgical” strike to convince those involved to back off on their actions in the Red Sea. It is likely U.S. warplanes and drones would end up killing many innocent civilians in the Houthi-controlled territories within Yemen. While that is something that while it may not bother Team-Biden much, it would steel the determination of the resistance to
Biden also appears all alone among world leaders in his handlers consideration of a direct major strike on the Houthi nation. That is of course with the exception of Israel itself, which has proven more than willing to expand the war within its borders just this week in Lebanon, when its forces blew up Hamas Deputy Leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut on January 2. It also is believed Mossad forces were behind a bombing in Iran yesterday which killed 103 mourners assembled near the tomb of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Qassem Soleimani, on the fourth anniversary of the assassination of that Iranian military leader at the hands of forces directed by Donald Trump on behalf of his masters in Israel.
What happened yesterday during the United Nations Security Council in response to this mess came across as a disgusting mix of proselytizing on behalf of the U.S. and its allies about what the Houthis were doing, and posturing possibly to support whatever heavy-handed drone and missile attacks Biden’s team might be planning for the Houthis. There was always a chance the UN Security Council might come together to do something specific to force the Houthis to stop what they are currently doing but given its current track record and the desire of nations like Israel and the U.S. to operate mostly outside the control of the UN, few believed that was going to happen.
In his testimony to the Security Council on this matter, Chris Lu, one of several U.S. representatives to that body, spoke of how the situation in the Red Sea had reached an “inflection point”. By that he clearly was implying that if nothing was done to halt the Houthis it could force U.S. hands to do something drastic on their own to stop them.
“These attacks pose grave implications for maritime security, international shipping, and commerce,” Lying Lu opened.
He added by declaring that the shipping attacks also “undermine the fragile humanitarian situation in Yemen”, by blocking the delivery of aid to the millions who have been displaced or injured, and are suffering from malnutrition, lack of water, and medical care within the country. What he didn't say is that the UN had been pressured to stop food deliveries to Houthi held Yemen.
He continued, calling the Houthi actions a threat to “navigational rights and freedoms”. As such, he went on, they represent a “global challenge” which demand “a global response”.
Though there is no evidence the Houthi attacks are having any effect on ships bringing such aid to Yemen, Lu’s argument is ironic in that the United States seems completely comfortable with denying the flow of food, water, fuel, and medical care into Gaza. Further, in Gaza, unlike in Yemen, which has been embroiled in a civil war for over ten years, blocking the flow of those humanitarian supplies is a war crime in direct violation of the Geneva conventions and other internationally recognized “rules of war” which the U.S. and Israel alike have signed up to.
Japan, which is stuck with a situation where its own maritime shipping companies are now refusing to ship in the Red Sea and whose Israeli-owned Galaxy Leader merchant vessel which it operates is still being held in Houthi custody, also registered its strongly worded directive to the Security Council over what the Houthis are doing.
“The Security Council should not let this continue,” said Kazuyuki Yamazaki, Japan’s ambassador to the United Nations, during his testimony yesterday. “In this regard, and in view of the urgency and the importance of the matter, Japan believes the Security Council should take an appropriate action to deter additional threats by the Houthis and maintain international peace and security.”
Other comments made by UN Security Council members warned Iran to stay out of the situation. Several said unequivocally that Tehran was actively supporting the Houthis in their attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes. Iran has consistently denied it has anything to do with what the Houthis have been doing.
While the UN Security Council meeting failed to agree on a specific resolution for the 15-member-nation group to vote on, what did come out of that gathering yesterday was a statement issued by the United States about the Red Sea maritime crisis on behalf of it and twelve other nations.
“Let our message now be clear: we call for the immediate end of these illegal attacks and release of unlawfully detained vessels and crews,” the statement read.
“The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways,” it continued. “Ongoing attacks in the Red Sea are illegal.”
The statement was issued jointly by the United States, and on behalf of Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, and New Zealand.
The message fell short of calling for a specific action for the UN Security Council to take. The official copy of the statement also lacked a key signature, that of Bahrain. That nation is embroiled in multiple disputes with Iran at this moment. With Iran a strong ally of the Houthi rebel forces and since Iran recently sent one of its warships into the Red Sea in support of the Houthi actions, it is believed Bahrain backed out of signing off on the joint statement for fear of further angering Iran and its Bahrain's majority Shia Muslim population, which is more sympathetic to Iran than Bahrain's brutal ruler.
In addition to issuance of that statement, several members of the UN Security Council yesterday demanded the immediate release of the Galaxy Leader vessel seized in November, along with its 19-person crew.
With the Houthis not expected to back down from their blockade on Israeli linked ships, and with the Security Council unwilling to take a stronger stand against them, the move to watch is Team-Biden’s. Yesterday’s meeting did little to give any further backing to the United States to launch a major missile-and-drone attack on the Houthis. Still, they might feel slightly more empowered after the talks to do just that and always eager to do as Israel commands them.
As clues which support that, immediately after the White House released the joint statement described above, a senior official told reporters that while he could not comment on specific planned next steps for the administration on this, that official called the message “very clear”.
“I would not anticipate another warning. I think this statement speaks for itself,” he said.
The Houthis “must end their deadly and destabilizing attacks on vessels,” he said, adding quickly that, “The US will always take action to defend freedom of navigation.” What the puppet masters didn't admit is that the Houthi attacks have not been deadly at all, only the U.S. has been killing sailors and sinking ships in the Red Sea. And of course the disruption is really on ships supporting the genocide, as demonstrated by the some 200 ships currently transiting the Red Sea in safety. And it is also a total lie that the US will always take action to defend freedom of navigation as it routinely imposes unilateral sanctions and hijacks ships and steals their cargo.
In parallel, UK Prime Minister and Israel puppet Rishi Sunak warned it might soon be required to take “direct action” to put a stop to the Houthi interference in shipping in the Red Sea. The UK could partner with the U.S. in a joint action in Yemen, which might give the White House the political "cover" it is looking for, to claim this is not another lone serial-killer operation.
Israel also might go after the Houthis directly, just as they have after Iranian military training sites in Syria, in the assassination of Deputy Leader al-Arouri on January 2, and in what is believed to be a Mossad-led terrorist attack which killed over 100 at the gathering beside the tomb of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Qassem Soleimani. If that happens, Israel risks a harsh and overt counterattack directly from Iran.
In a sane world not controlled by evil billionaires, Israel and fascist Jews, the UN Security Council would have supported Yemen's blockade on shipping to Israel and supported them. It would have defended human rights and taken steps to end the genocide. Instead, the UN Security has again shown itself to be an enemy of humanity.
Yemen is accepting volunteers to aid the resistance against evil and tyranny.