Turkey has claimed the US and UK are intent on turning the Red Sea into a bloodbath, as countries across the Middle East and Europe voiced fears that US-UK strikes against Yemen may destabilise the region and lead to a wider escalation.
The attacks also exposed tensions between the European Union and the US over the protection of commercial ships using the critical Red Sea waterway. EU states are still unwilling to put their navies under the command of the US.
Although anxiety about the attacks, and their deterrence value, was widespread, the most vocal criticism came from Turkey, a Nato member, where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said [the strikes] “are not proportional. All of these constitute disproportionate use of force.”
“It is as if they aspire to turn the Red Sea into a bloodbath,” he said.
Countries and militant groups backed by Tehran also accused the US and the UK of infringing the sovereignty of Yemen. Russia demanded a recall of the UN security council.
Saudi Arabia, which over the past year engaged in peace talks with Yemen’s Houthis, issued a statement calling for escalation to be avoided, adding it was monitoring the situation with “great concern”. It said: “The kingdom emphasises the importance of maintaining the security and stability of the Red Sea region, as the freedom of navigation in it is an international demand.”
Riyadh is deeply concerned that the attacks will destabilise the delicate plans it has authored, and passed to the UN, to create a new national Yemen government in which the Houthi rebels would be legitimised, allowing Saudi Arabia to extricate itself from its nine-year effort to crush them.
Oman, another key mediator in Yemen’s long-running civil war, expressed its “worry” at the strikes on Houthi rebel military targets that, according to the Houthis, left five people dead.
The Gulf sultanate “can only condemn the use of military action by friendly countries” while Israel pursues war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a foreign ministry spokesperson said. “Oman has warned several times about the risk of the extension of the conflict in the region due to the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian territories,” it said.
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the prime minister of Qatar, the site of a major US military base, had already urged the US not to resort to military action. He said: “From Qatar’s policy perspective, we never see a military action as a resolution. Our biggest worry is to have consequences that will keep us in a loop that will never end and will create real tension in the entire region.”
Kuwait’s foreign ministry also expressed “great concern”. The kingdom called for “self-restraint and avoiding escalation”.
In Bahrain, another of Yemen’s Gulf Arab neighbours, protesters marched holding Palestinian flags and pro-Yemen banners after Friday prayers, denouncing the airstrikes. Bahrain, which houses the US fifth fleet, was one of the few Arab countries prepared to issue a warning of military strikes.
However, the United Arab Emirates, a prominent member of the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis since 2015, condemned the rebels’ attacks on shipping. “The UAE expresses its deep concern regarding the repercussions of the attacks on marine navigation in Bab al-Mandab (strait) and the Red Sea,” a foreign ministry statement said.
More predictably, the Lebanese-based Iranian backed group, Hezbollah, said it “strongly condemn[ed] the blatant American-British aggression” against Yemen, which it said had stood with the Palestinian people.
“The American aggression confirms once again that US is a full partner in the tragedies and massacres committed by the Zionist enemy in Gaza and in the region. It is the one that continues to support the machine of killing and destruction, and to cover up its aggression and crime and the attacks on everyone who stands by the oppressed Palestinian people throughout the region.”
Iran itself was also quick to condemn the attacks. “These attacks are a clear violation of Yemen’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a breach of international laws. These attacks will only contribute to insecurity and instability in the region.”
The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said the strikes, which had killed five fighters and wounded six others, would not go without “punishment or retaliation”, and that the group would continue to target ships headed for Israel.
Yemeni analysts predicted the strikes would strengthen Houthi popularity owing to the general support for the Palestinian cause across the north and south of Yemen.
European support for the strikes was limited. A joint statement issued by 10 countries, including the US and the UK but endorsed by only three EU states, said: “These precision strikes were intended to disrupt and degrade the capabilities the Houthis use to threaten global trade and the lives of international mariners in one of the world’s most critical waterways.
“Today’s action demonstrated a shared commitment to freedom of navigation, international commerce, and defending the lives of mariners from illegal and unjustifiable attacks.”
The three EU signatories were Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, although other EU countries are likely to voice support separately.
Washington will feel certain that the qualified initial vocal support belies strong private backing from Gulf leaders, and the widespread acceptance that freedom of navigation had to be restored in the Red Sea. France, for instance, a country that has refused to join the US-led military action, said the Houthis bore the “extremely serious responsibility” for the escalation because of their refusal to stop attacking ships.
But the US may be concerned by the shrunken active coalition involved in the strikes. Only UK planes took part alongside the US, striking two targets, but the Pentagon claimed support had been given by the Netherlands, Australia, Canada and Bahrain. By contrast, on 3 January 12 countries had issued a joint final warning to the Houthis to end their attacks on shipping. Countries that signed the statement, but did not join Thursday’s action, included Belgium, Germany, Denmark, New Zealand, Italy and Japan.
The US announced on 18 December that 20 countries had joined a US-led maritime protection alliance in the Red Sea, termed Operation Prosperity Guardian, but almost half of its claimed membership was never disclosed, and some EU states, notably Spain, pulled out, saying they had not been fully consulted and wanted to set up an alternative EU force. This force would not be under US navy command and control.
The US will be buoyed that a tough UN security council statement on Tuesday urging the Houthis to desist was passed by 11 votes to nil with four abstentions, including Russia. But Moscow was explicit that the resolution was not under chapter 7 so did not authorise military action. Russia may press for a statement condemning the US for taking the escalatory steps the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had been urging the region to avoid.
The Houthis say they are attacking only Israeli-linked ships, in an attempt to force Israel to lift the siege on Gaza but the secretary general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Arsenio Dominguez, told the UN this week the Houthis were not confining their attacks just to shipping linked to Israel.
In the only sign of Houthi compromise in the face of the US assault, a spokesperson, Mohammad Abdul Salam, emphasised navigation was “safe and normal for all ships except for Israeli ships or those heading to the ports of the Israeli entity”.
