The Houthis, an Iranian-backed rebel group, has been targeting ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis are based in northwestern Yemen and, in 2014, the rebel group took over the country’s capital city of Sanaa. There has since been a civil war in Yemen that has killed 377,000 people, according to CNN. The civil war has ruined the country’s infrastructure and plummeted their Human Development Index (HDI), a measure of life quality given by the United Nations (UN).
The rebels have been attacking commercial Red Sea ships since Dec. 2023. This has created major blocks to trade through the Suez Canal and Red Sea, which normally carries about 15% of global shipping traffic. Large oil companies have paused trade through this route, causing gas prices to skyrocket. Without the shortcut through the Red Sea, ships are forced to navigate around the southern tip of Africa, a much more costly and time-consuming journey.
These attacks have been targeted towards Israel, as the conflict between Israel and Palestine continues to escalate. They are meant to cause Israel economic pain in a time where receiving aid and trade is extremely difficult to begin with. A Houthi spokesperson said that the rebels “‘will continue to prevent Israeli ships going to the ports of occupied Palestine from navigation in the Arab and Red Seas,’” according to CNN.
It is believed that Iran is backing the Houthis by way of supplying and smuggling weapons. In an attempt to stop the Houthi attacks, the US and its ally Saudi Arabia have pleaded with Iran to stop supplying weapons to the rebel group. Iran denies any involvement with the rebels and claims to only politically support the group.
In response to Houthi aggression, US president Biden has ordered airstrikes on Houthi-occupied areas in Yemen.
CNN reporter Christian Edwards suspects that this could lead to greater conflicts between the US and Middle East, saying that “the US may find itself being pulled more deeply into the Middle East by the Houthi rebels, who have made themselves impossible to ignore.”