White House: We don’t want to get into a war with the Houthis.
The coordinator of strategic affairs at the National Security Council said on Monday in a speech that America does not want to get into a war with Yemen.
“John Kirby,” the coordinator of strategic affairs at the National Security Council of the White House, said on Monday that the United States does not want to go to war with the Houthis and their attacks should stop.
He continued, “We have significant security interests in the Middle East and will work to establish military support for them and act accordingly in the future.”
It was this afternoon that the Central Command of the US Army in West Asia, known as Centcom, reacted to the incident near the port of Al Hudaydah in Yemen by issuing a statement, stating that boats belonging to the “Houthis of Yemen” attacked a container ship and US Navy warships in the southern Red Sea.
Centcom said in the statement that a container ship belonging to the shipping company “Maersk” made two distress calls indicating that it was under attack by 4 boats belonging to the Houthis of Yemen.
The statement mentioned that the boat crew fired light weapons at the Maersk ship, advanced to within 20 meters of the ship, and intended to board the ship’s deck.
After these distress calls, US warships responded and engaged the boats. Centcom claimed that the US Navy warships fired back in self-defense, sank three of the four small boats, and killed the boat crew.
Centcom also claimed that no damage was done to US equipment and crew.
In recent weeks, alongside the intensification of Israeli attacks in Gaza, the Yemeni army has narrowed the field on Israeli ships or ships destined for occupied territories and intending to pass through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea.
The Yemeni army’s attacks in the Red Sea started on November 19th, and the Ansar Allah movement has announced that they will continue until the cessation of Israeli attacks in Gaza. The US, UK, and France have all claimed to have shot down drones or missiles fired from Yemen.