President Donald Trump says Iran will be held responsible and punished for subsequent attacks carried out by the Houthis on any commercial vessel in the Red Sea.
Mr Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said the Yemen group is a “proxy of Iran,” and its actions against US allies in the Gulf will be considered an Iranian attack by extension.
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“A year ago the United States of America attacked, very powerfully, the Houthis, for their interference with commerce and trade, by shooting at ships.
Since that time, and during our conflict with Iran, they have acted very responsibly,” the American leader wrote on social media.
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“Unfortunately, now they are starting up again,” he wrote in reference to Houthi strikes, which set two Saudi Arabian vessels in the Red Sea on fire on Wednesday.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that the attack came a few days after the Iranian-allied group imposed a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia and threatened to create a new front in the Middle East war over an attack on Sanaa International Airport last week.
The Houthis blame Saudi Arabia for the attack even though the UN-recognised Yemeni government said it carried out the strike. The Yemeni government is backed by Saudi Arabia, which has implemented an air blockade on the Sanaa airport. The two vessels the Houthis attacked are Saudi-linked.
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Reuters reports that Tehran has also been pressing the Houthis to close the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea if the US continues to attack Iranian power infrastructure.
Tension in another key oil-shipping strait, the Bab al-Mandeb, which is at the mouth of the Red Sea, will further rattle the global market. The recent attack on Wednesday already raised the oil price to over $100, and has increased concerns about energy supplies.
Recent developments also hint at a possible escalation of the war.
Mr Trump earlier admitted he is considering a “massive attack” on Iran and that he is close to reaching a decision.
The attack, he said, will be “bigger than ever before.”
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated that the “alarming disregard for international law” is a major driver of crises across the region.
He pointed out that the “conflicts are increasing in number, complexity, length and scope, while impunity is spreading.”
“The situation is getting out of control. It is teetering on the edge of the unimaginable,” he admitted.
Meanwhile, analysts have linked the CENTCOM strike on Shalamcheh, a border area between Iran and Iraq, to a potential plan to deploy US ground troops, for which the IRGC disclosed earlier that it was “counting down to the minute.”
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