American Report Confirms US Failure to Control World’s Key Maritime Passages

NYN | Reports and analyses:

The American agency “Bloomberg” published a report indicating that the US has lost control over the world’s key maritime passages due to its failure to stop the military operations of the Sana’a government forces supporting Gaza.

The report considers that the escalating attacks from Yemen, with increasing effectiveness and lethality, reveal the limits of the US-led naval coalition and raise questions about its ability to protect the world’s most critical waterways.

Earlier, the US Central Command confirmed that the United States is unable to resolve the confrontation with the Sana’a government forces, or what it called the “Houthis,” noting that they are “the first to use ballistic missiles against ships in history,” and that they have gained extensive military experience.

In an interview conducted by American journalist Norah O’Donnell with Vice Commander of the US Central Command Admiral Brad Cooper and several US Navy leaders for the investigative TV program “60 Minutes” on CBS, Cooper said: “The Houthis are the first entity in the world’s history to use anti-ship ballistic missiles, launching them against ships,” adding that “their weapons and tactics are new and unconventional.”

In response to a question about the estimated time between the launch of a missile by the Sana’a government forces and its arrival at an American ship, Admiral Cooper said: “If it’s heading toward an American destroyer, you just have to put yourself in the destroyer’s captain’s seat. He has approximately nine to 15 seconds to decide to take it down. It’s intense.”

According to “60 Minutes,” Admiral Mark Megee, commander of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which withdrew from the Red Sea, confirmed that the Houthis, as he called them, are adversaries with extensive military and combat experience.

A few days ago, the American newspaper “The Washington Post” confirmed in a report that “the US military operation in the Red Sea is incapable of stopping Houthi attacks.”

Since late last year, the Sana’a government forces have begun targeting Israeli objectives in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israeli-linked ships in the Red and Arabian Seas. They then announced the extension of their operations to part of the Indian Ocean. Recently, they declared the start of the fourth phase of escalation against ships “even in the Mediterranean” to support the Palestinians in Gaza. They assert that their operations against “Israel” will continue, conditioned on ending the aggression and lifting the siege on Gaza to halt their military operations “in support of Gaza.”

In response, the US and Britain launched airstrikes on Yemen. The Sana’a government forces announced that their operations would include targeting American and British commercial and military ships in response to what they called “the American-British aggression.”

On February 19, 2024, the European Union announced the launch of a military operation named “Aspides,” led by Italy in the Red Sea, while the United States announced the launch of an operation named “Prosperity Guard” to counter the attacks by the Sana’a government forces against “Israel.”

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has been subjected to three attacks since the confrontations with the Sana’a government forces began, prompting the Pentagon to announce its withdrawal from the Red Sea yesterday.