The difficulty of controlling them by physical force is well-demonstrated by the lackluster reaction to their actions. A supposed cessation of hostility ended in a rather abbreviated manner. The United States aggressively launched above a thousand strikes on the Houthis, an organization in Yemen with significant Iranian support, earlier in the current year. To display their dissatisfaction towards the continuing Israeli war in Gaza, the Houthis conducted a year’s worth of attacks on civilian sea vessels in the Red Sea. The U.S. bombardments aimed to dissuade them from perpetrating future mischief.
When President Donald Trump revealed an unexpected truce on the 6th of May, he reported the Houthis’ compliance— ‘They now yield,’ stated the president, ‘They affirm that there will be no further destruction of ships.’ However, an ironic turn of events occurred exactly two months later – an explosion on a ship caused by the Houthis.
Houthi militants boarded a bulk freight ship called the Magic Seas on July 6th, equipping it with explosive devices. Following the day, they launched an attack on another vessel, the Eternity C, utilizing seaborne drones and RPGs. The vessel succumbed to the attack and sunk on the 9th of July, with nine out of 25 crew members either deceased or unaccounted for. It is highly plausible that the Houthis held the remaining six sailors captive.
For the entire year of 2024, the group was responsible for sinking only two ships, with no incidences after June. This changed dramatically when they successfully sunk another two in a span of less than seven days. The global reaction to these disruptive acts, however, was more or less apathetic – depicting how significantly the Houthis have disturbed worldwide shipping and how flexing raw military power doesn’t seem to effectively curb their actions.
It’s important to note that the timing of these episodes was hardly coincidental. The agreement of nonaggression allows the Houthis a two-month reprieve to regather their strength. During the recent military competition between Israel and Iran, they absented themselves from the proceedings. As this strife has ended, the United States has started to downsize its military complement in the area – including clustered missile destroyers that offered protection to commercial vessels.
This constituted a prime opportunity for the Houthis to reassert their capability to threaten the Red Sea. The Houthis’ display of unity with the Palestinians locked in their struggles in Gaza serves as a helpful distraction away from Yemen’s own disputes. Though the targeted ships often only have a remote connection to Israel.
Neither the Magic Seas nor Eternity C had recently docked in Israel. The former was on a freight mission from China to Turkey with a cargo of steel and fertilizer, while the latter had just accomplished a humanitarian dispatch for the World Food Programme in Somalia. Yet the operators of the ships (two companies with Greek origins) possess other vessels that are currently utilizing Israeli ports.
The leader of the Houthis, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi stated in a televised broadcast that more attacks were imminent. This declaration will likely unsettle the Western firms that had just started considering resuming their operations in the Red Sea.
A total of 244 commercial vessels voyaged through the corridor between July 7th and July 13th, according to Lloyd’s List, a naval periodical. This number marks an increase from the previous week’s count of 232. However, the current figure is still about 50% below an average week’s count during the summer season of 2023, before the commencement of the Houthi assaults.
The United States, for its part, hasn’t done much other than issuing a few admonishing declarations. Regional officials believe President Trump is unlikely to command an increased offensive against the Houthis unless they aim their weapons at U.S. ships; presently, not a great number are present.
Despite the occasional airstrikes on Yemen from Israel, they are too erratic to truly make a concerted impact. Both nations are experiencing what was learned by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates a decade ago: uprooting the Houthis is a challenging endeavor.
American strikes have certainly resulted in the partial destruction of the Houthis’ arsenal. Yet, the group still has numerous routes to smuggle in support from Iran, either through maritime means or overland via Oman.
The National Resistance Forces, a confederation of anti-Houthi units, announced on July 16th that they had intercepted a shipment of 750 tonnes of weapons destined for the Houthis. This significant achievement also reflected a troubling truth – a lot slips through cracks, undetected and unnoticed.
As long as the Houthis have a substantial cache of weaponry and the determination to employ them, they are capable of instigating mayhem in the Red Sea.