Yves here. Aside from the blip earlier this week when three underseas cables were cut in Yemen waters (and the Houthis strongly denied responsibility), the campaign by the Houthis against Israel-bound and connected shipping in the Red Sea has retreated somewhat from the news despite the continuing costs and disruption it is inflicting on shippers and customers.
However the OilPrice story below recaps fresh Congressional testimony about US efforts to Do Something about the Houthi’s chokehold. From Bloomberg:
The US has struck 230 targets in Yemen following Houthi-led attacks against shipping in the Red Sea, a top Pentagon official said, offering the most detailed public accounting of the airstrikes so far.
Late last month, American forces also interdicted ships carrying lethal aid from Iran to the Houthis, including drone components, missile warheads, anti-tank missile assemblies and other material, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Daniel Shapiro told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee subcommittee on Tuesday.
He said that aid was “in clear violation of international law,” and that while US strikes have likely destroyed hundreds of Houthi weapons, the group appears “committed to sustaining standoff maritime attacks with their remaining inventory of weapons.”
The trumpeting of 230 attacks comes off as a tell. Remember the 85 strikes on Iran-connected assets after three servicemembers died in strikes on base operations maybe in Jordan but more likely in Syria (where they would be completely legitimate targets), which as Scott Ritter put it, was basically a fireworks show? Or the 500 “are you kidding me” sanctions on Russia after Navalny’s death when the US and EU sanctions bazooka has been either ineffective or a backfire? In other words, focusing on numbers as opposed to effect looks to be an admission of impotence.
Notice also the “their remaining inventory of weapons” by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Shapiro. This is a watered-down variant of the line Western officials repeatedly sold on Russia: “They are running out of missiles.”
A confirmation of US ineffectiveness is Senators attacking the US Prosperity Guardian operation in the hearings. No one would question its legality in our rules-based order if it were perceived to be working:
Wow! @timkaine tears apart Biden’s Houthi strategy:
“The defense of other nations’ commercial ships, in no way, and it is not even close; that’s not self-defense… And the president cannot make it self-defense by calling another nation a partner… that’s laughable.” pic.twitter.com/ESGAXItk3q
— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) February 27, 2024
Further updates via Twitter:
Salient facts about the Houthi blockade in the Red Sea…
👉 The humanitarian blockade is intended to halt only Israeli shipping and cargo.
👉 No-one has been killed by the Houthi actions, reportedly.
👉 And the Houthi’s say the blockade will be ended as soon as Israel… pic.twitter.com/jgupvKG6WQ
— Peter Cronau (@PeterCronau) February 28, 2024
Houthi strike on Greek-Lebanese bulker RUBYMAR caused this 18-mile oil slick. US Op PROSPERITY GUARDIAN, EU Op ATALANTA & AGENOR, and Greek-German Op ASPIDES are all failing now. US tanker TORM THOR near-miss on Feb 24 — bunker fuel shortages are the result east of Suez. pic.twitter.com/IsTkP8EqMu
— Dances_with_Bears (@bears_with) February 28, 2024
🚨🇨🇳
China is benefiting massively from the Houthis’ attacks on the Western Ships
“Chinese ships are getting huge discounts on insurance when sailing through the Red Sea, another sign of how Houthi attacks are punishing just the Western linked ships”
– Bloomberg
Because the… pic.twitter.com/S7eCPkrbIX
— Alex Barnicoat (@mrbarnicoat) February 28, 2024
Note that other commentators pointed out that China was benefitting another way from the choking of Red Sea shipping, via customers shifting transport to land routes, using segments of the China Belt and Road Initiative and validating the attractiveness of further investment in it.
By Charles Kennedy, a writer at OilPrice. Originally published at OilPrice
As a German warship joins the fight against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis in the Red Sea, the U.S Department of Defense told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that it has struck 230 targets in Yemen since the Biden administration ordered airstrikes last month.
On Wednesday, U.S. Central Command also said it shot down five Houthi airborne drones in the Red Sea overnight.
Over the weekend, U.S. forces struck Houthi land targets, hitting underground weapons storage facilities, missile storage facilities, air defense systems and other key targets. U.S. forces have also intercepted an Iranian vessel carrying missile parts to Yemen.
“Despite the Houthis’ claims, these attacks are almost entirely unrelated to Israel and Israeli-affiliated shipping, and to be clear, any such attacks would be entirely illegitimate anyway. These are indiscriminate attacks that are as much an affront to maritime commerce as is piracy,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Daniel Shapiro told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee subcommittee, as reported by Bloomberg.
Shapiro also said the Houthi attacks have affected 55 countries who rely on trade through the Red Sea, with more than 12 major shippers suspending transit through the area to date, and insurance costs rising.
According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), approximately 7 million barrels per day of crude and petroleum products traverse the Red Sea, representing 12% of seaborne crude oil trade.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) noted in its February oil report that “while oil on water surged by 60 mb [million barrels] in December due to end-year tax considerations and as several tanker owners diverted ships away from the Red Sea to around the Cape of Good Hope, observed onshore stocks declined by nearly 40 mb”.