Iran Sends Warship to Red Sea After US Sinks Houthi Boats

Bloomberg: Iran dispatched a warship to the Red Sea after the US Navy destroyed three Houthi boats, a move that risks ratcheting up tensions and complicates Washington’s goal of securing a waterway that’s vital to global trade.

The Alborz destroyer traversed the Bab El-Mandeb strait, a narrow choke point between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, on Monday, Iranian state media said without providing further information on the vessel’s mission.

Iran’s foray into the Red Sea a day after the US action compounds a highly volatile situation in the channel that handles about 12% of the world’s commerce. The move could be seen as a challenge to the US-led maritime task force established last month to halt attacks on ships by the Tehran-backed Houthi rebels who control a swath of Yemen’s northwest, including the capital Sanaa and the Red Sea port of Al-Hudaydah.

A Houthi delegation met with officials in Tehran after the US killed several members of the militant group during an attack on a Danish-owned container ship. AP Moller-Maersk A/S suspended all Red Sea transit for 48 hours to assess the situation.

The Houthis, in November, began attacking vessels they claimed were headed to or owned by entities in Israel in a bid to end an Israeli offensive in Gaza, after Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group, staged a shock attack inside Israel on Oct. 7.

In one month, the Houthis hijacked one container ship and launched over 100 drone and ballistic missile attacks, targeting 10 merchant vessels involving more than 35 different nations, according to the Pentagon.

* AP Moller-Maersk - Maersk (date A.P. Møller-Mærsk Gruppen) is a Danish company specializing in maritime cargo transportation and maintenance of port terminals.