America is yet to put forward a credible non-diplomatic challenge to a major threat to global shipping, as Yemen’s Iranian proxies, the Houthis, claim an attack on a Norwegian tanker, which its apparent faulty intelligence indicated was carrying oil to Israel. 

As the Houthi threats grow to freedom of navigation through one the world’s busiest shipping passages, America is gathering a “maritime coalition to provide reassurance and security for commercial sea lanes,” the deputy national security adviser, Jon Finer, said last week. 

Yet, such defensive moves may not suffice. “We’ve had similar task forces before. What we need is kinetic attacks against Houthi targets in Yemen and IRGC targets in Iran,” the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, Jason Brodsky, tells the Sun. 

The Houthis hit the Norwegian-owned Strinda near the Red Sea’s Bab al-Mandeb strait because it was delivering oil to Israel, the group’s spokesman, Yehia Sarea, said in a statement Tuesday.

The Yemeni rebel group controls a port near the strategic, narrow strait. The Houthis have declared they would end their siege on Israel-related shipping only when Israel lifts its “siege” on Gaza. Until then, the Iran-backed proxy would strike any vessel sailing to or from Israel.   

After first concealing that the Strinda was heading to Israel, its owner, Norway’s Mowinckel Chemical Tankers, acknowledged that the tanker had a “tentative” plan for a short port call at Ashdod. Yet, the cargo on the ship — biofuel feedstock, not oil — was loaded in Malaysia and was intended for Italy.

During the Houthi attack late Monday, a French frigate nearby managed to intercept a drone, part of the complex aerial attack on the Strinda, which was later hit by “an Anti-Ship Cruise Missile launched from a Houthi controlled area of Yemen while passing through the Bab-el-Mandeb,” the U.S. Central Command said in an X posting. 

The Norwegian tanker reported damage causing a fire on-board, but no casualties, according to the U.S. Central Command. “There were no U.S. ships in the vicinity at the time of the attack,” it stressed. Answering a mayday call, the United State Ship Mason came to assist the damaged vessel and its crew. 

The Monday attack targeted one of the largest vessels sailing the Red Sea since the Houthis, one of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’s most trusted fighting forces, entered the Gaza war. Shortly after October 7, the Yemeni group, headquartered at Sanaa, some 1000 miles from Israel, started targeting Eilat, Israel’s Red Sea port, with missiles and drones.

These strikes were intercepted by Israel, America, and even Saudi Arabia. The Houthis’ ever-escalating Red Sea attacks on the Red Sea, however, forced Israel to divert ships, damaging imports and exports. They also carry global implications, threatening freedom of navigation on the high seas.

Thirteen percent of the world’s shipping goes through Bab al-Mandeb, which at its narrowest point is but 18 miles wide. Most of the Mideast energy supply to Europe traverses the Red Sea. The handful of ships the Houthis have attacked so far may have tenuous ties to Israel, but like the Norwegian Strinda’s cargo the damage to commerce is world wide.

Until recently no one would imagine the Houthis, a Shiite-like Zaidi sect, could turn into a world-menacing power. A decade ago the group rebelled against the recognized Yemeni government, capturing Sanaa and other strategic spots. As Saudi Arabia got involved in Yemen’s internal strife, Iran turned the Houthis into one of its cat’s-paws, financing, training and arming its fighters. 

The ubiquitous Houthi slogan — “Allah is great, death to America, death to Israel, cursed be the Jews, victory to Islam” — indicates it has ambitions beyond Yemen. In President Trump’s final days in office he listed the Houthis as a terrorist organization, and soon after President Biden delisted the group.  

Two Sa’ar 6-class corvette Israeli Navy vessels were deployed to the Red Sea Tuesday. Yet, as the Israel Defense Force spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said, the Iran-backed Houthi menace is part of a host of “regional threats over which we are consulting over with our ally, the United States.” 

Israel has reportedly warned Washington that it would act alone against the Houthis if no one else does. Meanwhile, after eight years of war against the Houthis, the Saudis are eager to appease them with large financial aid. Riyadh is also urging America to refrain from acting militarily to end interruptions in Red Sea shipping. 

“The Saudis want to focus on a peace process with the Houthis, but America can’t have them veto our response,” Mr. Brodsky says. As global freedom of navigation is under threat, “we need to escalate in order to de-escalate.”