US President Donald Trump has threatened to strike Yemen and Iran if the Iran-backed Houthi rebels continue to attack ships in the Red Sea.
“A year ago the United States of America attacked, very powerfully, the Houthis, for their interference with commerce and trade, by shooting at ships. Since that time, and during our conflict with Iran, they have acted very responsibly. Unfortunately, now they are starting up again, shooting at two Saudi Arabian ships last night,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
“If they do this again, the US will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a surrogate and/or proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis themselves.”
Trump added that he was “very disappointed” with the Houthis because “they have, until now, acted very professionally and smart.”
EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas also called on Yemen’s Houthi rebels to halt attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
“The attack on an oil tanker in the Red Sea is unacceptable, illegal and further inflames an already volatile situation in the region,” Kallas said.
“The Houthis must cease all actions that endanger international shipping and the lives of seafarers,” she said.
The EU’s foreign policy chief added that the bloc’s naval mission to the Red Sea “remains firmly committed to protecting freedom of navigation for all.”
The statement comes after the Iran-aligned militant group said that it had attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.
Days earlier, the Houthis had announced a blockade of Saudi ports in the Red Sea.
Meanwhile, Germany’s navy is expected to move two vessels from the Red Sea region to the eastern Mediterranean “in the coming days,” a Defense Ministry statement said.
The ministry said it was pulling the ships due to “the volatile political situation… and the absence of any foreseeable near-term start of operations” in the Strait of Hormuz, dw.com reports.
The ministry added that keeping the vessels deployed in the region indefinitely “represented a strain on their technical systems.”
The two vessels would be “kept in a state of readiness for deployment” and would return to the Middle East “as soon as reliable indicators for an imminent start of the mission are in place,” the statement read.
According to the AFP news agency, the ships in question are the “Fulda” minesweeper and the “Mosel” supply ship currently in Djibouti waters.
