BRUSSELS, Jan 12, 2024 (AFP) – EU countries will next week discuss a plan to set up a naval mission to help protect Red Sea shipping following attacks from Yemen’s Huthi rebels, diplomats said Friday.
The proposal — in the pipeline in Brussels for several weeks — was mooted before US and British forces struck rebel-held Yemen.
Any EU effort would seek to complement a US-led coalition, which includes numerous countries from the bloc, already operating in the vital shipping route.
The exact details of the size and scope of any EU mission remain to be hammered out and European diplomats said a first discussion would take place in Brussels on Tuesday.
The EU last year initially mulled a plan to expand its Atalanta mission focused on protecting shipping off Somalia, but that move was blocked by Spain.
Diplomats said EU foreign ministers could strike an agreement on establishing the new mission at the upcoming meeting in Brussels.
The Iran-backed Huthis have carried out a growing number of attacks on what they deem to be Israeli-linked shipping in the key international trade route since October 7, when Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel sparked the war which is still raging in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The rebels have seized control of a major part of Yemen since a civil war erupted there in 2014 and are part of a regional Iran-backed “axis of resistance” against Israel and its allies.
The pre-dawn air strikes by the United States and Britain add to escalating fears of wider conflict in the region.
Friday’s strikes targeted an airbase, airports and a military camp, the Huthis’ Al-Masirah TV station said, with AFP correspondents and witnesses reporting they could hear heavy strikes in Hodeida and Sanaa.