TUNIS, September 10. /TASS/. International trade in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait area remains safe and stable, Yemeni rebel movement Ansar Allah (the Houthis) Spokesman Mohammed Abdel Salam has stated.

"As for freedom of navigation and international trade movement in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, they are safe and regular, and the international [community] has no need to worry about this," he emphasized in his statement. The Houthi spokesman clarified that the operations currently being conducted "have limited objectives and are defensive in nature." According to his claim, military actions in a number of coastal areas are "a national operation within the framework of establishing sovereignty."

The armed confrontation between the Saudi-backed government forces and Houthi rebels has been ongoing in Yemen since August 2014. The situation deteriorated dramatically in early September, when the rebel Yemeni movement launched an offensive in the country’s southwest. Simultaneously with their ground offensive, the Houthis started to deliver drone and missile strikes on coastal areas in the Red Sea and the outskirts of the southwestern Yemeni city of Taiz in an attempt to cut supply routes to the Red Sea coastal city of Mocha and advance toward areas near the strategically important Bab el-Mandeb Strait.