Yemeni Forces Target Red Sea Oil Tankers Connected to U.S. and Israel
The Yemeni military has claimed responsibility for two separate strikes on oil tankers, one American and another connected to Israel, in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean in a daring escalation of marine hostilities. According to Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the spokesman for the Yemeni military forces, the actions were carried out in response for alleged violations concerning the continuous conflict in Gaza and Lebanon.
The Yemeni military has claimed responsibility for two separate strikes on oil tankers, one American and another connected to Israel, in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean in a daring escalation of marine hostilities. According to Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the spokesman for the Yemeni military forces, the actions were carried out in response for alleged violations concerning the continuous conflict in Gaza and Lebanon.
The Yemeni military claims that while in the Red Sea, two drones and eleven ballistic missiles struck the U.S.-flagged oil tanker, "Olympic Spirit." General Saree said the ship was en route to a port connected with Israel and had passed Yemeni territorial borders. Using international maritime laws as justification for the strike, he said vessels headed toward what he called to as the "Zionist regime" shouldn't travel through waters under control by Yemen because of the ongoing conflict.
Separate from this, the Yemeni troops also targeted the "St. John," another vessel found connected to Israeli objectives, in the Indian Ocean. Saree underlined that these actions are part of a larger Yemeni military strategy aiming at upsetting Israeli economic interests and delivering a strong statement against what he defined as "Zionist occupation."
Yemeni officials present the strikes as direct support for the Palestinian cause, particularly in view of current escalations in Gaza. Yemen has promised more military action to undermine Israeli military and economic activities in the region since the beginning of the "Al-Aqsa Storm" offensive started by Palestinian factions in Gaza. Strategic focal point for Yemeni forces in their recent conflicts is the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, a vital chokepoint for world trade between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
These most recent strikes highlight the complicated geopolitical terrain of the area, where the struggle between Israel and Palestinian organizations has sometimes permeated more general regional rivalries. Deeply entwined in its own civil war for almost ten years, Yemen has sided with Palestinian resistance forces especially as the fighting in Gaza and southern Lebanon has gotten more intense recently.
Given the Red Sea is a vital route for world oil traffic, the international community is intently observing these changes. Given global oil prices already vulnerable to regional instability, unfriendly military activities could cause more general economic disturbances. Although the United States and Israel have not yet openly responded to these latest strikes, past events in the region have usually led to more naval patrols and security actions around important rivers.
Although General Saree's comment underlined that these strikes would last until Israel stopped its military activities in Gaza and Lebanon, which begs questions regarding the possibility of more military clashes in one of the busiest maritime routes worldwide.
With both multinational shipping firms and naval forces needing to ready for any future conflicts, these strikes could cause a review of maritime security in the Red Sea given the complicated alliances and scale of regional hostilities. With Yemen's military actions serving as a sobering reminder of the volatility in the Red Sea, it has progressively become a theater for proxy conflicts between regional and international forces.
