As America and Britain are seeking to deter the Iranian-backed Houthis from launching further attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea, one of Tehran’s reconnaissance ships, the Behshad, is being allowed to ply the waters untouched. Why would the Yemeni proxy army end its Red Sea siege if its masters at Tehran are immune from attacks?

The question is pertinent. America and its allies are seeking to protect freedom of navigation in the Red Sea even while Iran draws a red line on any attack on its spy ship, which is widely believed to be orchestrating the persistent Houthi assaults. 

Anyone “engaging in terrorist activities against the MV Behshad or similar vessels” will be responsible for “future international risks,” the Iranian army warned on Sunday in a slickly produced, threatening video posted on its Telegram channel.

Describing the Behshad as a “floating armory,” the video states that the vessel is in the area to “counteract piracy in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.” Originally built as a cargo ship, it is now loaded with sophisticated electronic intelligence equipment and is one of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ top spy vessels.

The Behshad has been hovering in the Red Sea since 2021. On January 3, it shut off its Automatic Identification System, to avoid outside surveillance, and started moving south, toward the Bab el Mandeb strait. It ended up in a Chinese-owned port off the coast of Djibouti, across from Aden.  

“Any IRGC spy vessel helping the Houthis collect intelligence and better target international shipping should be made to understand they do so at great risk,” an Iran watcher at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Behnam Ben Taleblu, tells the Sun. 

The Behshad “is currently off the coast of #Aden & is coordinating the #IRGC’s provision of intel & targeting data for #Houthi attacks in the #RedSea,” a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, Charles Lister, writes on X. “Want to cripple #Houthi attacks? Sink it.” 

Yet, even as the Pentagon is “well aware” of the Iranian spy ship activities, “I am not aware of the U.S. targeting the Behshad,” the Department of Defense spokesman, Major General Patrick Ryder, told NBC News.

As it strikes Houthi launching sites and warehouses, the Biden administration keeps saying it is not seeking a “wider” Mideast war, strongly indicating that it would avoid striking targets on Iranian soil and IRGC assets in the Red Sea.

Unsurprisingly, the Houthis seem unimpressed by the weekend American strikes on its Yemeni camps, which were meant to “further disrupt and degrade the capabilities” of the Iranian-backed group, according to Secretary Austin. 

“In a triumph for the oppressed people of Palestine, and within the response to the American-British aggression,” the Houthis damaged two American and British vessels on Tuesday, their spokesman, Yahya Saree, said. The targeted vessels were the Marshall Island-flagged Star Nasia, owned by a Greek company, and the British-owned Barbados-flagged Morning tide. Both vessels reported damage, but no casualties.

The attack, nevertheless, demonstrates the Yemeni group’s determination to maintain the Red Sea siege that started immediately after the October 7 Hamas-launched war against Israel. 

“The Yemeni Armed Forces will carry out more military operations against all hostile American-British targets in the Arab and Red seas,” Mr. Saree said Tuesday. He also vowed further attacks on “Israeli shipping or those heading to the ports of occupied Palestine until the siege is lifted and the aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is stopped.”

As the Houthis escalate attacks on vessels with even the most tenuous link to Israel, nearly all commerce in the Red Sea has been halted. According to the Pentagon, nearly 20 percent of the world’s commerce sails via Egypt’s Suez Canal to Europe from Asia and the Mideast, as well as to and from Israel. 

“The effects of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have been devastating for countries in the Middle East,” the American special envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking, said in a video produced by the Department of State. “The Houthis claim to act in the interest of the Palestinians in Gaza, but their actions impact the delivery of critical humanitarian aid into Gaza and are harming Palestinians.”

Commercial ships have chosen to bypass the Red Sea and sail a much longer route around Africa, boosting costs for produce, pharmaceuticals, and energy products, and adding to global inflationary pressures. In another alternative route, ships unload in the United Arab Emirates and their cargo is trucked through Saudi Arabia and Jordan to the Haifa, Israel, port, where it is shipped to Europe. 

Yet, even as alternative routes arise, the Red Sea remains the ideal shipping lane, raising the urgency for America to “cripple any attempt by Iran to serve as the eyes and ears of Houthi targeting,” Mr. Ben Taleblu says. “It makes no sense to permit Tehran free use of the seas as its proxies deny that right to commercial vessels.”