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Yemen reiterates resolve to counter foreign military presence in regional waters

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Yemen’s parliament says the country is determined to counter the presence of the US and the UK in regional waters.

The Yemeni parliament has reiterated the country’s resolve to counter any military presence of the US and the UK in regional waters, a day after members of the Yemeni navy were killed in an attack by US forces in the Red Sea.

A statement issued by the Yemeni parliament on Monday said the United States is seeking an escalation of hostilities in the Arab world amid a conflict in Palestine where the Israeli regime’s aggression on Gaza has prompted attacks on Israeli and US interests in the Arab countries of the region.

“By attacking Yemen’s ships, the US is seeking to expand conflicts in the Arab world so that it can support savage killings committed against the Palestinian nation,” said the statement.

American and Yemeni officials have confirmed that three Yemeni ships sunk and 10 Yemeni officers were killed in the Red Sea as a result of clashes on Sunday between US and Yemeni naval forces.

Yemen’s ruling Houthi Ansarullah movement has organized attacks on ships linked to the Israeli regime since the aggression on Gaza began in early October.

The attacks are aimed at forcing the Israelis and their allies to stop the aggression that has left nearly 22,000 people dead in Gaza.

The Yemenis have vowed they would take revenge for the Sunday attacks on their ships while they have reiterated that such attacks would only cause an escalation in their anti-Israeli operations.

Regional countries have also warned that a failure to stop the war in Gaza would cause the conflict to spread to other parts of the region.

That comes as reports on Monday suggested that the attacks on Yemeni ships had emboldened US allies to enter the conflict in the Red Sea.

British officials said they were planning to join a US-led maritime coalition in the region to counter what it called threats from the Houthis.

Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said in an article published in the Daily Telegraph that the United Kingdom was “willing to take direct action” against the Houthis.

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Iran's 'Alborz' Warship Enters the Red Sea Amid Raging Tensions: Report

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Iran's 'Alborz' Warship Enters the Red Sea Amid Raging Tensions: Report

In 2021, the Alborz repulsed a pirate attack against 2 oil tankers in Gulf of Aden. (Representational)

Tehran, Iran:

Iran’s Alborz warship has entered the Red Sea through the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait, Tasnim news agency reported Monday, at a time of heightened tensions over the globally important waterway.

The agency did not give specific reasons for its deployment, but noted that Iranian military vessels had operated in the area since 2009.

“The Alborz destroyer entered the Red Sea… by passing through the Bab al-Mandeb,” waterway at the southern tip of the Red Sea, connecting with the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean, the agency said.

It added that Iran’s naval fleet has been operating in the area “to secure shipping lanes, repel pirates, among other purposes since 2009”.

The United States in early December set up a multinational naval task force for the Red Sea following a flurry of missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Huthi rebels on merchant vessels which led shipping companies to suspend passages through the area.

The Huthis say the attacks were in solidarity with Palestinians in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, where Israel is battling Hamas operatives.

According to the International Chamber of Shipping, 12 percent of global trade passes through the Red Sea, which provides a shortcut past Africa via the Suez Canal.

On Sunday, US Navy helicopters fired on Huthi rebels attempting to board a cargo ship off Yemen, with the rebels reporting 10 fighters dead or missing.

Regional tensions have spiked since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.

On Monday, Britain’s Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said Britain was “willing to take direct action” against the Huthis “to deter threats to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea”.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron had spoken on Sunday with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian about the Red Sea tensions.

“I made clear that Iran shares responsibility for preventing these attacks,” he said on social media, noting Tehran’s “long-standing support” for the Huthis.

Abdollahian criticised the “double-standards” of some Western countries, according to a statement from Iran’s foreign ministry, saying the “Israeli regime cannot be allowed… to set the region on fire” with the Gaza war.

The United States previously accused Iran of being “deeply involved” in the Huthi attacks.

Iran has denied such accusations saying the Huthi rebels were acting on their own.

In 2021, the Alborz repulsed a pirate attack against two oil tankers in the Gulf of Aden.

And in 2015, it was one of two Iranian warships sent to the strait “to ensure the safety of commercial ships” in what was seen at the time as a sign of tensions with Saudi Arabia.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)