A senior Houthi official, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, mentioned these US rivals by name in an interview with the Russian outlet Izvestia on Friday. “As for all other countries, including Russia and China, their shipping in the region is not threatened,” he said, stipulating this will remain as long as they are not linked to Israel or its supporters.

“Moreover, we are ready to ensure the safe passage of their ships in the Red Sea, because free navigation plays a significant role for our country,” he added, but then underscored that attacks on ships will continue if they are “in any way connected with Israel.”

The spokesman went on to blame the Red Sea crisis on Israel’s (and its backers) refusal to reverse course in Gaza, given its aerial and ground campaign as continued. “Ansar Allah [the group’s formal name] does not pursue the goal of capturing or sinking this or that sea vessel,” he claimed. “Our goal is to raise the economic costs for [Israel] in order to stop the carnage in Gaza.”

Some of the vessels which have come under attack thus far actually have connection to dozens of countries, but ships with Russian or Chinese ownership, or deep ties, have yet to be attacked.

Another Houthi official told Reuters separately that the group doesn’t seek to expand its campaign, after a fragile peace took effect with Saudi Arabia and the EUA concerning the Yemeni civil war:

Yemen’s Houthis have said they do not intend to expand their attacks on shipping in and around the Red Sea, beyond their stated aims of blockading Israel and retaliating against the US and Britain for airstrikes.

In an interview with Reuters, spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam, who is also the chief Houthi negotiator in peace talks over Yemen’s decade-old civil war, said the group had no plans to target its longstanding foes Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

“We do not want the escalation to expand. This is not our demand. We imposed rules of engagement in which not a single drop of blood was shed or major material losses,” said Abdulsalam. “It represented pressure on Israel only, it did not represent pressure on any country in the world.”

The US-UK coalition patrolling the Red Sea has at this point launched four rounds of airstrikes against Houthi positions, but this appears to have only deepened Houthi resolve.

As for Russia and China, they’ve been foremost among Washington’s powerful rivals to criticize Israel’s mass bombing of the Gaza Strip. They both have close ties with Iran, as well as with Assad’s Syria, and China is busy inking multi-billion dollar infrastructure and energy deals with Iraq. Of course, these ‘defiant’ countries are under US sanctions as well.

Meanwhile, cue “Putin is behind Red Sea attacks” narrative…

'No one is immune'

'Many geo-political experts are saying that Putin is behind all of this, with China and Iran'

Dr Roger Gewolb says that all countries would be affected by Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, and that Russia could be responsible for starting the attacks. pic.twitter.com/F8XGxrCW68

— GB News (@GBNEWS) January 13, 2024

In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin assured to the Palestinian Authority’s Mahmoud Abbas that “Russia will continue to supply the Gaza Strip with essential goods, including medicines and medical equipment.” But overall, Moscow has been relatively quiet when it comes to the Red Sea crisis, but has condemned the ‘escalation’ of US coalition ships launching missiles on Yemen. Moscow and Beijing remain fiercely critical of the soaring Palestinian civilian death toll, and tensions with Israel’s government have persisted.

On Friday, shipping giants A.P. Møller – Mærsk A/S (Maersk) and Hapag-Lloyd stopped all container ship travel in the Red Sea. The following day, Italian-Swiss-based Mediterranean Shipping Company and French-based CMA CGM followed suit.

This means that four major shipping companies are now no longer doing business in the Red Sea, which plays a critical role in the global economy. The Red Sea’s connection to the Mediterranean Sea and the way it allows for easy vessel travel between Asia and Europe makes it one of the most heavily traveled waterways in the world.

Problems began when Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen started firing missiles and drone attacks at commercial vessels in the Red Sea in retaliation against Israel for its Gaza operation, as well as against the United States and other Western countries that back Israel.

There have now been four separate missile and drone attacks near the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait, which separates Yemen and Djibouti at the south end of the Red Sea next to the Gulf of Aden.

(Related: The world’s second-largest electronic components manufacturer has announced a 20-week delay for “engineered-to-order” [ETO] components in yet another global supply chain disruption.)

10 percent of global trade disrupted by Red Sea conflict

Roughly 10 percent of the world’s international trade occurs in the Red Sea. Each year, some $2.4 trillion worth of trade passes through its waters, which makes these vessel cancellations a major news item in terms of the global economy.

“We are deeply concerned about the highly escalated security situation in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden,” reads a statement from Maersk. “The recent attacks on commercial vessels in the area are alarming and pose a significant threat to the safety and security of seafarers.”

Nils Haupt, a spokesman for Hapag-Lloyd, issued a statement of his own indicating that container ships are currently drifting outside the straight as they await further instructions. Some shipping companies have already completely rerouted their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the conflict area.

Also over the weekend, U.S. Central Command tweeted on X (formerly Twitter) that the Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS CARNEY shot down 14 Houthi drones in the Red Sea.

The Cape of Good Hope, by the way, is located at the very southern tip of South Africa. To reroute there instead of going through the Red Sea adds thousands of miles of extra travel for commercial vessels, which now have a lot further to go before reaching their destination.

Credit Suisse strategist Zoltan Pozsar warned earlier this year that the collapsing old world order would create conflict in international waters that will require intervention by militaries around the world. De-globalization seems to be the name of the game as nations of the world move back towards nationalism.

“I suspect the Iranians have armed the Houthis with some serious anti-ship missiles and there is a fear of embarrassment if a Navy ship is sunk,” one commenter wrote on a story about the Red Sea crisis. “The gayest Navy in the world.”

“The U.S. is itching to go at Iran,” suggested another. “No doubt the false flag will come soon enough, just as soon as Israel has mopped up the Gaza Strip. But ‘wars’ are not about winning; they are about killing our young and making the rich richer.”

Another noted that a lot of the commercial vessel traffic that goes through the Red Sea is bound for Europe, which is likely to see more supply chain problems emerge out of this.

Sources for this article include:

• ZeroHedge.com
• NaturalNews.com