The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen said on Sunday they will begin limiting their wanton attacks on civilian ships in the Red Sea to Israeli vessels, but added they could resume attacking ships from other countries if the Gaza ceasefire agreement does not hold.
The Houthis made their announcement in an email sent to global shipping companies, who did not seem inclined to trust promises of safe passage from the Yemeni terrorists.
The email was sent by the “Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center” or HOCC, an agency the Houthis created to communicate with shipping companies. The terrorists describe their harassment of merchant vessels, which includes 134 attacks over the past year with everything from ballistic missiles to remote-controlled boats packed with explosives, as a “humanitarian” operation intended to benefit the Palestinians.
The HOCC has sent emails to shipping companies before, sometimes using the personal email addresses of corporate executives to warn them about potential attacks against ships that angered the Houthis by docking at Israeli ports.
The email on Sunday told ship owners, management companies, labor unions, and industry groups that the “military operations” of the “Yemeni Armed Forces” against non-Israeli vessels will be discontinued due to the Gaza ceasefire. The Houthis are not a legitimate government, nor are they a legitimately recognized national military force, but they prefer to describe themselves as the “armed forces of Yemen” in their communiques.
The message added that Israeli ships “will remain prohibited from transitioning the Red Sea, Bab-el-Mandeb, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean” until “the full implementation of all phases” of the ceasefire agreement.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a narrow passage separating the Gulf of Aden from the Red Sea, which in turn leads to the Suez Canal, Houthi attacks have reduced traffic through this once-vital sea lane by more than half, depriving Egypt of Suez Canal revenue and imposing higher shipping costs on global commerce.
“We hope you understand that the actions taken by the Yemeni Armed Forces through these sanctions stemmed from a sense of religious, humanitarian, and moral responsibility toward the oppressed Palestinian people,” the Houthis told their victims.
The Supreme Leader of the Houthis, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, gave a speech on Monday in which he said his forces will be “maintaining constant readiness to intervene immediately should the Israeli enemy resume any escalation, commit acts of genocide, impose a siege on Gaza or deny food and medicine to the people of Gaza.”
“We are ready to return to escalation again alongside our brothers, the fighters in Palestine,” he warned.
Jakob P. Larsen, head of maritime security for the BIMCO shipowners’ association, told the Associated Press (AP) on Monday that the Houthis might also resume their attacks if President Donald Trump restores the terrorist designation for the insurgents that was lifted by President Joe Biden as one of his first official acts in 2021.
“It remains unclear how the Trump administration will act in the conflict with the Houthis and whether potential punitive actions against them will be considered,” Larsen said.
In the time since Biden lifted that designation, the Houthis engaged in numerous flagrant acts of terrorism and human rights abuses, culminating in the attacks on shipping that Biden seemed completely unable to control. The Biden administration restored a weaker, watered-down “global terrorist” branding to the Houthis in January 2024 after the Yemeni terrorists attacked several commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
A group of Republican senators on Friday introduced a bill called the Dismantle Iran’s Proxy Act that would restore the much tougher Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation for the Houthis, freezing Houthi assets and making it a criminal offense to materially support the group.
“Re-designating the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization is long overdue. Since the tragic events of October 7, 2023, the Houthis have worked alongside other Iranian proxies to attack our ally Israel and destabilize the region,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).
