NEW YORK December 19. 2023 (Saba) - The American newspaper "The New York Times" considered, on Tuesday, that Operation "Prosperity Guardian" is a "symbolic step" that allows the White House, on the one hand, to say that more countries support the security of the Red Sea, and on the other hand, "to increase the confidence of shipping companies."
The newspaper said: US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, promoted a new US-led maritime security initiative in the Red Sea, but analysts said that “it is unlikely to immediately stop a wave of drone and missile attacks launched by the Yemenis.”
The newspaper explained, “There is no significant change in the number of ships committed to patrolling the lower third of the Red Sea to accompany specific commercial ships carrying specific cargo.”
The newspaper quoted a senior American military officer as saying: At any given time, there are about 1,000 commercial ships of all types crossing the Red Sea, and about 400 of them are located in the lower part of the Red Sea, which is the area most vulnerable to the Yemenis’ missiles and drones.
Also, a senior Western intelligence official said that the new initiative is unlikely to deter future attacks on Yemen.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, confirmed that at the same time, any retaliatory strike by the United States could lead to escalation. Pointing out that “the goal of the Yemenis is to highlight Western support for Israel, and any retaliatory scenario would do that.”
According to the newspaper, current and former American military officers with experience in the region said: The announcement aims to at least give shipping companies greater confidence to resume routes through the Red Sea, mitigate rising fuel and insurance costs, and address potential problems in the supply chain.
It is noteworthy that after Sana’a carried out its threats to target Zionist ships or ships heading to “Israel” in the Red Sea, unless the Gaza Strip entered the Gaza Strip for the food and medicine it needed, Washington responded, through the Minister of Defense, by launching the multinational “Prosperity Guardian” operation, under the umbrella of the Joint Naval Forces and the command of its “Task Force 153”, to “protect the Red Sea”.
This operation includes the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the Seychelles Islands and Spain, with the aim of jointly addressing what are alleged to be “security challenges” in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Likewise, Politico newspaper quoted an American military official as saying that several countries had agreed to participate in the new force in the Red Sea, “but they preferred not to name it publicly.”
The Yemeni armed forces had carried out several operations against ships linked to the Zionist enemy in the Red Sea, after announcing that they would prevent all ships, regardless of their nationality, from passing to and from the Zionist ports through the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, until they entered the Gaza Strip for food and medicine.
E.M
resource : Saba
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