The Biden administration is building an international coalition to halt the threat the Iranian-backed Houthis pose to international shipping routes in the Red Sea, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters in Israel on Friday.
“We will continue to take every step we deem necessary and appropriate to deal with the threat the Houthis pose,” he said, adding that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin would tackle this issue during his visit to Israel and the region next week.
“That response shouldn’t just be [from] the US. It should be a broader coalition of countries working together in concert,” he said.
The Houthis have said they are attacking ships to protest Israel’s military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza, but Sullivan said the issue was much broader, particularly given Iran’s involvement.
“We are building a coalition we are working to ensure and rally the nations of the world, all of whom have an interest in seeing this stop,” Sullivan said.
“While the Houthis are pulling the trigger they are being handed the gun by Iran and Iran has a responsibility to take steps themselves to cease these attacks because they are a fundamental threat to international law and international peace and security,” he said.
“This is not about the US and Israel, this is about the entire international community,” Sullivan explained.
“The Houthis represent a material threat to freedom of navigation to commercial shipping, to lawful commerce and they are doing so in a vital artery,” he added.
“The US is working with the international community, with partners from the region and from all over the world to deal with this threat,” he added.
Houthis continue attacks on maritime traffic
He spoke as a Liberia-flagged container ship sustained damage from an "aerial attack" as it was sailing through the Bab al-Mandab strait, causing a fire on the deck and a container to fall overboard, the British maritime security firm Ambrey said on Friday.
Ambrey reported the vessel was owned by Hapag-Lloyd AG HLAG.DE and had been sailing south through the Bab al-Mandab strait in the southern Red Sea when it was attacked by a projectile 50 nautical miles north of the Yemeni Red Sea port of Mokha.
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis have been attacking vessels in Red Sea shipping lanes and firing drones and missiles at Israel since the start of the Gaza war
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said on Tuesday they carried out a military operation against the Norwegian commercial tanker STRINDA.
The group targeted the tanker with a rocket after the crew refused to respond to all warnings, Houthi military spokesperson Yehia Sareea said in a televised statement.
He added that the group had managed to obstruct the passage of several ships in recent days, acting in support of the Palestinians.
He vowed that the Houthis would continue blocking all ships heading to Israeli ports until Israel allows the entry of food and medical aid into the Gaza Strip - more than 1,000 miles from the Houthi seat of power in Sanaa.