WASHINGTON, August 7. /TASS/. The United States is unable to stop Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea, Commander of the US Fifth Fleet Vice Admiral George Wikoff said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) (recognized as undesirable in Russia).
"We have certainly degraded their capability. There's no doubt about that. We've degraded their ability, however, have we stopped them? No," he acknowledged, citing as an example attacks on merchant ships. In his words, this "reinforced the Houthis ambition to continue to terrorize the maritime."
"Our mission remains to disrupt their ability and try to preserve some semblance of maritime order," he stressed, adding that the instability in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden stems from the Houthis’ actions. "They can stop this any day they want, terrorizing the maritime," he said.
Following the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis warned that they would launch strikes on Israeli territory while barring ships associated with the Jewish state from passing through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until Tel Aviv ceased its military operation against Palestinian radical group Hamas in the embattled enclave. Since mid-November, dozens of civilian ships have been attacked by the Houthi in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
In response to Ansar Allah's actions, the US authorities announced the creation of an international coalition and preparations for an operation codenamed Prosperity Guardian, expected to ensure freedom of navigation and protection of ships in the Red Sea. Since then, the United States and the United Kingdom have been regularly delivering strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.