“The American Atlantic Council”: The Attacks by Sanaa Forces in the Red Sea Reveal the Erosion of American Leadership in the Region

NYN | Reports and Analysis

The American Atlantic Council think tank published an extensive report titled: “Red Sea Attacks Highlight Erosion of American Leadership in the Region,” stating that “the United States failed to rally regional and international support for its (Prosperity Guardian) operation launched to confront these attacks, revealing the growing difficulties Washington is facing.”

The report published on the Council’s official website on Thursday explained that “six months after the Biden administration launched the (Prosperity Guardian) operation to ensure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the White House’s biggest challenge is not the Houthi threat, but the United States’ failure to rally partners and allies behind its leadership.”

It pointed out that “the international response to the Houthi threat is not a success story, as the Biden administration has struggled to mobilize diplomatic support and military contributions.”

It discussed how “European allies were skeptical, expressing their disapproval of Washington’s support for the Israeli operation in Gaza and questioning the strategic objectives of the (Prosperity Guardian) operation. As a result, on February 19, the European Union announced the ESPIED operation, a special maritime security operation of its own.”

Indicating that “the establishment of the ESPIED operation has raised tensions between officials on both sides of the Atlantic,” it noted that “American officials said that ESPIED sends a message of division among NATO allies without providing a reliable alternative at the military level.”

The American Center believes that “the European operation has its problems, especially with regard to the modest naval capabilities provided by the contributing states. To this day, the operation relies only on four warships to confront the Houthi attacks, and the Europeans also suffer from limited air defense capabilities.”

It added: “The French Navy has repeatedly used (Aster-air-to-air) missiles to confront the multiple Houthi ballistic missiles. The intercept operations were successful, but the cost of a single Aster missile is around $1.1 million, and it is doubtful, in terms of logistics and finance, that the European naval forces have the means to continue a campaign of this scale for months, and this highlights the disconnect between European ambitions in the field of maritime security and the reality of their military resources.”

The report said that “the US response to the Red Sea crisis was met with distrust from Gulf partners, and among the six Gulf Cooperation Council members, only Bahrain joined the Prosperity Guard operation, specifically, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates rejected the US operation due to their differences with Washington over the conflict in Yemen that preceded the Red Sea crisis.”

The report explained that “Saudi Arabia and the UAE felt frustrated by the evolution of the US position on the war in Yemen, and from their point of view, Washington initially supported the Saudi-led operation in Yemen during the Barack Obama administration, but later the Congress changed and criticized the Gulf countries when they faced a dead end on the battlefield with the Houthis.”

It clarified that “the current US campaign against the Houthis in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi is seen as a limited-design operation and is unlikely to solve the problems of the Saudis and Emiratis, and worse, their participation may backfire on them, leading to the resumption of Houthi attacks on their cities, and taking the fragile Yemen talks off course.”