ANALYSIS – The U.S. is working with allies to set up a task force against attacks by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, affecting commercial trade passing through one of the world's most vital waterways.
This is a great defensive move that totally ignores the real source behind the attacks – Iran.
Washington faces a dilemma in striking back at the spate of attacks by Houthis at sea. They have said they don't want to be provoked into a broader Mideast war sought by Iran and its proxies.
But in recent months Iranian backed attacks have been increasing despite, or more likely because of, Joe Biden's restraint.
However, sometimes a decisive counterstrike is the best way to avoid continuing and escalating hostilities.
Donald Trump proved this with his surprise January 2020 precision strike against Iran's terror mastermind Qassem Soleimani. While Iran symbolically and mostly impotently, fired a dozen ballistic missiles at U.S. bases in the region days after the attack, after that Iran-back attacks declined significantly.
VOA News reported then:
The January killing of powerful Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq has resulted in a new reality in which Iran is deterred from attacking American assets and those of its allies in the Middle East, said the top U.S. commander in the region.
“I think [killing Soleimani] has had a significant effect in establishing and reestablishing a rough form of deterrence in the theater,” said General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the commander of United States Central Command (CENTCOM) on Wednesday during a webinar at the Middle East Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
Soleimani was a major figure in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who oversaw the country's overseas military activities and its proxy forces. He was killed in Baghdad, along with several other Iranian and Iraqi militia leaders, in an operation ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump.
And now we appear to be facing a similar dynamic with the issue becoming urgent amid a spike in attacks on ships in the Red Sea, which handles around 10% of global trade. The attacks have driven up the cost of shipping goods through the narrow Bab al-Mandab Strait connecting the Gulf of Aden with the Red Sea and beyond to the Suez Canal.
About 23,000 ships each year pass through the narrow strait. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, named Gate of Tears in Arabic for its perilous navigation, is only 18 miles wide at one point, with traffic restricted to two channels – one inbound and one outbound.
Reports say that the United States wants to form the “broadest possible” maritime coalition to protect ships in the Red Sea and send “an important signal by the international community that Houthi threats to international shipping won't be tolerated.”
Biden's National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, told reporters last week that Washington was in talks with other countries over a maritime task force that would “ensure safe passage of ships in the Red Sea.”
The current task force in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, known as Combined Task Force 153, is a 39-country coalition led by the U.S. Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain. The U.S. hopes to expand that task force with additional partners.
If this is partly a prelude to gaining international support for a later strike against Iran, I'm all for it.
If it is simply another weak Biden response to increasing Iranian aggression, it will only make things much worse.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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