TEHRAN (Iran News) Al-Mayadeen network announced that this ship, after the Yemeni army agreed to pass, moved on a safe route and reached its destination with full confidence.

The Yemeni army emphasized that the safe passage of the ship was made due to special circumstances and the recent ceasefire agreement in Gaza played a major role in this decision.

The post Yemeni army removes embargo on oil tankers passing via Red Sea appeared first on Iran News Daily.

The United States boasts the world’s most formidable aircraft carrier fleet, which, at times, can be found sailing in the South China Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and many other places far beyond American borders.

A major element of the American hegemony in West Asia is built on its global maritime presence and naval bases.

When its warships were targeted by Yemen’s Ansarullah in the Red Sea, this was viewed as an embarrassment for the U.S., perhaps more so than its humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan.

When Ansarullah began its military operations against Israeli and Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea in support of Gaza, which has now expanded to include U.S. ships in the waterway, the movement sent a message to America that you are not the masters of these seas.

On the morning of January 12, U.S. warships launched 150 bombing assaults on Yemen in addition to a follow-up attack on a radar facility 24 hours later.

Since then, Ansarullah has fired a missile at a U.S. navy destroyer, while targeting and damaging more Israeli and U.S. vessels with missiles and drones in the Red and Arabian seas.

Just like the Israeli army recklessly rushed into the war on Gaza and now finds itself stuck in the enclave, the U.S. (backed by Britain) also made a rash decision to attack Yemen and now finds itself bogged down in a battle with Ansarullah.

The initial bombardment of Yemen, despite Washington hinting that it was a one-off attack, has proven to be a failure.

To protect its image, the U.S. Central Command has, over the past four days, announced more strikes on Ansarullah positions as standing back, holding fire, and doing nothing would be a major embarrassment for President Joe Biden.

The question, that everybody has been asking, is whether the U.S. can afford to sustain its bombing campaigns on Yemen.

The evidence shows that it can attack Yemen but will fail to restrain Ansarullah from launching more military operations against Israeli and now U.S. vessels in the Red Sea or the Sea of Aden.

Washington had the easier choice of informing the Israeli regime to cease its indiscriminate airstrikes on Gaza but failed to do so.

It now finds itself in a battle with Ansarullah (again). Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder has been vague over the level of damage his department believes it has inflicted on the Sanaa government’s capacity to launch missiles and drones.

Ryder has also declined to answer questions about leaks to the New York Times suggesting little damage has been made to Ansarullah’s military capability.

It is important to point out that Ansarullah survived (and effectively triumphed) eight years of war led by the U.S. and a Saudi-led coalition, which began in March 2015.

It’s not like Ansarullah is new to this game. They have military expertise. They have a history with the U.S. also during the American-Saudi war with Yemen.

The vast majority of bombs dropped on Ansarullah during this period were U.S.-made munitions. Throughout this time, Ansarullah staged its own attacks against Saudi targets, bypassing U.S.-made defense systems.

The popular movement and government in Sana’a, which controls most of Yemen, has also upgraded its military technology, capacities, and tactics. It can launch missiles at Israeli and U.S. ships from the back of modified trucks.

These modified vehicles are very easy to move around and have left experts questioning if U.S. warships stationed in the Red Sea will start going after trucks in Yemen.

The U.S. can continue bombing Yemen and Ansarullah positions for a long time, but history suggests that Ansarullah can also retain its ability to close the Red and Arabian seas to Israeli and American shipping for a very long time as well.

Ansarullah didn’t become so popular if it had not been for the vast support its government receives back home in Yemen.

On Thursday the movement’s leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, called on the Yemeni people to go out on Friday in their millions to rally in support of Palestine, and participate in the funeral of the “martyrs of the American-British aggression”.

He also said it was “a great honor” to be in direct support of the Palestinians in Gaza and in confrontation with the Israelis, Americans and the British.

Answering the call, mass demonstrations took place across Yemen on Friday, including a million-strong march in Saada governorate, under the slogan “standing with Palestine… and America is the mother of terrorism,” in support of the Palestinians in Gaza and to condemn the American aggression against Yemen.

In other provinces, the statement of the rallies was the same, vowing that the American aggression would not prevent the Yemeni people from supporting the Palestinians.
Speakers blessed the military operations of the Yemeni armed forces that targeted Israeli and American ships and prevented navigation toward the ports in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Others pointed out, “The United States’ classification (relisting Ansarullah as a terrorist organization) targeting the Yemeni people and serving the interests of the Zionist entity will not affect Yemen’s position towards Palestine.”

Ansarullah spokesperson and chief negotiator, Muhammad Abdel Salam, stated that the continuation of the American-British moves in launching raids on Yemen highlights their “insistence on continued Israeli bombardment of Gaza and protecting the Israeli entity”.

The question for the U.S. and President Biden, in particular, is how far is he willing to go against a defiant Ansarullah. Is he enthusiastic to open a new front in the Israeli war on Gaza and escalate already high tensions in the region?

Analysts have also speculated whether Ansarullah will expand its operations against regional U.S. naval bases or if Biden will tell Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end Israel’s massacres against Palestinian women and children in Gaza, allowing the Red Sea to return to its normal business.

Experts believe that the longer the massacres against Palestinian civilians in the enclave continue, the ripple effect will be felt by the U.S. hegemony in the region, particularly in the Red Sea.

The post U.S. imperialism in Red Sea at risk appeared first on Iran News Daily.

In March of 2019, then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a thinly-veiled, unusual threat against Iran that confounded many Iran observers worldwide.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony of the Haifa naval cadets, Netanyahu accused Iran of circumventing U.S. unilateral oil sanctions through what he called covert oil smuggling over maritime routes. “To the extent that these attempts widen, the [Israeli] navy will have a more important role in blocking these Iranian actions,” Netanyahu said.

This was the first tacit acknowledgment that Israel had been implicated in the unlawful, brazen, yet previously unknown, attacks against Iranian commercial ships first in the Red Sea and then in the Mediterranean Sea.

An Iranian news website close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council published on Monday precise details about these attacks, which constitutes a gross violation of international law as Israel had – and continue to have- no legal rights to enforce the unilateral sanctions of one country -i.e., the United States – against another sovereign country that is Iran.

The Website, Nour News, unveiled that over the past two years Israel has launched a total of 14 attacks against Iran’s commercial ships, targeting 12 Iranian vessels in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The attacks began in the Red Sea and then spread to regions off the coast of Syria in the Mediterranean Sea. The first attack took place on August 26, 2019, at the mouth of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea, where Iranian container ship Sharekurd came under attack. About three weeks later, an Iranian oil tanker was targeted near the Saudi port city of Yanbu in the Red Sea.

Israel continued to attack Iranian commercial ships in the Red Sea, and by April 2020, it began striking in the Mediterranean Sea as well. On April 6 of that year, Iranian oil tanker Sahra came under attack off the Syrian coast.

“The Zionist regime’s officials, implicitly or explicitly, claimed responsibility for many of these attacks,” Nour News said.

According to the website, Israel conducted five attacks in the Mediterranean Sea and nine attacks in the Red Sea. Little is known about how Israel conducted these attacks and their damages. Some Western and regional media outlets claimed that in some cases Israel used commandos.

And in April this year, a source familiar with the matter had told the Tehran Times that Israel also used helicopters to attack the Iranian ships. The Israelis would often attack Iranian commercial ships deep into the night using helicopters equipped with machine guns from a distance of many kilometers, the source said.

Iranian officialdom kept all these attacks in the dark. This begs the question of why the Iranian government had refused to publicize Israel’s unlawful activities. Some may point to the previous Iranian government’s obsession with talks with the West. But announcing the Israeli aggression against commercial shipping could have signaled out Tel Aviv as a rogue regime threatening international navigation on the high seas.

Ironically, Israel is now playing the victim and accusing Iran of posing a threat to international shipping. It is unrightfully doing exactly what Iran should have done based on solid facts and information.

With the new Iranian president, Ayatollah Seyed Ebrahim Raisi, taking the reins in Tehran, things seem to have finally changed in terms of dealing with Israel’s malign activities. The first indication in this regard is the bombshell of Nour News itself. This website seems to have adopted a preemptory approach toward Israeli aggression.

In the midst of Iran-Israel maritime tensions, Nour News reported Monday that a Dolphin-class Israeli submarine secretly passed through the Suez Canal on August 4 heading to the Red Sea. Two Israeli destroyers, the website continued, simultaneously passed through the Egyptian waterway possibly escorting the submarine.

Nour News also cautioned that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet apparently intends to follow in Netanyahu’s footsteps in terms of pursuing malign behaviors.

“It seems that the novice prime minister of the Zionist regime [Israel], by intensifying his rash and absurd moves, is getting more and more caught in a trap, the exit of which will certainly have very heavy costs for him and the inhabitants of the occupied territories,” Nour News warned.

Iran has understood by experience that turning a blind eye to Israel’s aggression will only embolden it. Therefore, the best way to deter it is to respond. Over the last few days, many high-ranking Iranian officials starkly warned that Iran will decisively respond to any mistake by Israel or its Western allies who accused Iran of attacking the Israeli oil tanker Mercer Street off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in late July. Iran rejected the accusation and called on the West to look at the bigger picture which clearly shows who is the real victim.

The post Why didn’t Tehran publicize Israel’s unlawful targeting of Iranian ships? appeared first on Iran News Daily.

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DES

An official says Iran will not let attacks on its vessels go unanswered after an Iranian oil tanker was hit by two suspicious explosions in the Red Sea early Friday.

“Piracy and banditry in international waterways which is done with the aim of making shipping lanes for commercial vessels insecure will not go unanswered,” Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said on Saturday.

On Friday, the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) reported that the SABITI tanker had been hit by two separate explosions near the Saudi port city of Jeddah. The blasts caused an oil spill that was stopped shortly after.

Two separate explosions, possibly caused by missile attacks, have hit an Iranian oil tanker near the Saudi port city of Jeddah.

Shamkhani said a special committee has been set up to investigate the attack on the SABITI tanker that was targeted by two missiles off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea. The panel’s report, he said, will be submitted to responsible authorities in order to make a decision.

“By examining the available video images and information gathered [from the incident], the main clues to this dangerous adventurism have been obtained,” Shamkhani added.

The top security official recalled “destructive moves” against other Iranian oil tankers in the Red Sea in recent months, citing the Happiness-1 and the Helm.

Happiness-1 faced “engine failure” off Jeddah on April 30 and was later transferred to the Saudi port city for maintenance. The Saudis initially refused to let the vessel go, demanding some $10 million in maintenance fees before releasing it on July 20.

“Creating insecurity in international waterways will bring out worrying risks for the world economy, the consequences of which will be the responsibility of planners, executives and supporters of such provocative actions,” Shamkhani said.

Tensions have been high in the region after a series of suspicious explosions targeted oil tankers crossing the Strait of Hormuz earlier this year.

The post Attacks on Iran Vessels Will Not Go Unanswered appeared first on Iran News Daily.

Residents said six blasts near the 7 July eastern suburb broke the calm, but it was not clear who was responsible, Reuters reported.

The United Nations-brokered the truce deal as part of confidence-building measures at peace talks last week in Sweden to avert a full-scale assault on the port that is vital for urgent aid supplies for millions facing starvation.

A UN-chaired committee formed to oversee the truce and troop withdrawal from Hudaydah city and three ports held its first meeting on Wednesday using video link and phone with representatives from both sides.

Retired Dutch General Patrick Cammaert, chair of the Redeployment Coordination Committee, will travel to Jordan on Thursday, then on to Sana’a and Hudaydah, with a small initial advance team, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The ceasefire deal, which covers only Hudaydah, will see international monitors deployed in the city and port with all armed forces pulling out within 21 days of the truce.

The two sides had also agreed a prisoner swap. A Red Cross official said in Geneva on Wednesday they had exchanged lists of a total of 16,000 people believed to be detained.

Hudaydah, the main port used to feed Yemen’s 30 million people, has been the focus of fighting this year, raising fears abroad that a full-scale assault could cut off supplies to nearly 16 million people suffering from severe hunger.

The truce, the first significant breakthrough in peace efforts in five years, is meant to pave the way for a wider ceasefire in the impoverished country and a second round of talks in January on a framework for political negotiations.

The post Explosions Rock Yemen’s Main Port for 2nd Day after Truce appeared first on Iran News Daily.