A Yemeni government official says the only way for calm to prevail in the Red Sea is a permanent ceasefire in the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip as tensions heighten in the strategic maritime route.
Abdul Malik al-Ajri, a member of the political bureau of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement, made the remarks on Wednesday after the US announced plans to establish a maritime task force in the Red Sea to protect the passage of vessels bound for the Israeli-occupied territories.
“If all of the world’s naval fleets sail to the Red Sea and gather there, they will provide security neither for Israel nor for the regime’s ships and the vessels destined for occupied Palestine,” he added.
“There is no way to prevent the escalation of tensions except through a permanent ceasefire in Gaza… The only way to return calm to the Red Sea is to establish peace in Gaza.”
On Tuesday, the Yemeni Army struck a Norwegian-flagged commercial tanker with a missile as the vessel was in the Red Sea heading towards an Israeli port to offload its cargo.
The Yemeni operation on the tanker Strinda took place about 100 kilometers north of the Bab el-Mandab Strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Spokesman for Yemen’s Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree described the strike as “a victory for the oppressed Palestinian people.”
