United Nations – Russia is seriously concerned about the situation in the Red Sea and is confident that developments there are the direct projection of violence in the Gaza Strip, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said, as reported by Russian news agency TASS.
“I think that hardly anyone of our counterparts will deny the fact that developments in the Red Sea are the direct projection of violence in Gaza, where the cruel operation of Israel continues already for three months,” the Russian diplomat said at the meeting of the UN Security Council.
Russia has serious concerns regarding “the state of affairs in the Red Sea area,” Nebenzya stressed. “Trade routes passing through it are a critical artery for international commerce,” he noted.
Twelve nations led by the United States on Wednesday jointly warned Yemen’s Houthi rebels of unspecified consequences unless they immediately halt sea attacks that are increasingly disrupting global commerce.
President Joe Biden’s administration described the statement — joined notably by Britain, Germany and Japan — as a final warning as he weighs possible military strikes against the Houthis if attacks persist.
The Iranian-backed rebels, who control much of Yemen including the capital Sanaa and most of the Red Sea coast, have been firing on ships allegedly linked to Israel in avowed solidarity with Palestinians in the battered, Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
“Let our message now be clear: we call for the immediate end of these illegal attacks and release of unlawfully detained vessels and crews,” said the joint statement released by the White House.
“The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways.”
A senior Biden administration official, while not specifying the consequences, called the message “very clear.”
“I would not anticipate another warning. I think this statement speaks for itself,” the official told reporters.
Biden consulted with his national security team on the morning of New Year’s Day while on holiday in the US Virgin Islands to “discuss options” over the Houthi attacks, the official said.
Britain — a close US ally on security issues — has issued its own warning of “direct action,” with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying that the Houthis “must end their deadly and destabilizing attacks on vessels.”
“The UK will always take action to defend freedom of navigation,” Sunak wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The United States earlier sent an aircraft carrier to the area and announced a naval coalition to protect movement in the Red Sea, through which 15 percent of global trade passes, according to UN figures.
The UK has contributed a Royal Navy destroyer, HMS Diamond, to bolster the longstanding British presence in the Gulf area. (With AFP inputs)