Brussels wants to launch a bespoke EU mission to protect commercial vessels in the Red Sea from attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels. #EuropeNews
Brussels wants to launch a bespoke EU mission to protect commercial vessels in the Red Sea from attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
In a document dated January 10 and seen by Euronews, the EU’s diplomatic service proposes sending "at least three" warships with "multi mission capabilities" to the region as early as next month.
The document recommends the "fast-tracking implementation" of an operation mandated to act "from the Red Sea to the Gulf," in order to protect maritime security in a region plagued by instability in recent weeks.
Why not let Liberia, Malta, Bahamas, and wherever else those ships are flagged with deal with it? It is the duty of the countries under which the ships are registered to take care of the protection in international waters. How many ships running in the Persian Golf/Red Sea/Horn of Africa region are actually registered to a (non-Malta) EU state or the USA?
Just because it flies under a certain flag doesn't mean it only serves that country.
Also, the people on those ships deserve the right to work safely, regardless of who is providing that protection.
That being said, other countries that rely on these ships should be helping as well. US warships are doing it to prove their weapons and train the crew, but in the end it's all paid for by the US taxpayers.
If flies under that flag just to save on taxes and labor laws. The ship owners don't want safety, or at least they don't want to pay for it. Let them suffer. Care for the crews, if possible, but let the owners rot.
In a document dated January 10 and seen by Euronews, the EU’s diplomatic service proposes sending "at least three" warships with "multi mission capabilities" to the region as early as next month.
The document recommends the "fast-tracking implementation" of an operation mandated to act "from the Red Sea to the Gulf," in order to protect maritime security in a region plagued by instability in recent weeks.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, a raft of drone and rocket attacks in the Red Sea by the Houthis, an Iran-backed rebel group that controls a part of Yemen, has threatened to severely disrupt trade flows into Europe.
Tensions escalated at the turn of the new year when ten Houthi militants attempting to sabotage a Danish-operated ship were killed by Prosperity Guardian officers, prompting Iran to send in its own frigate on January 1.
But the request was shut down by Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez, who said the country was "willing" to consider a bespoke European mission to patrol the area and protect Europe's commercial interests.
American and British forces, with backing from the Netherlands, stepped up their response to the attacks overnight with the first air and missile strikes in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
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