The U.S. has hit back against threats to now by Iranian terror proxy, the Houthis.
Earlier this week, the group declared a complete ban on Israeli-owned ships using the Red Sea, declaring them to be “legitimate targets”.
The Red Sea and the waterway through its narrow , has become the main route for oil to ship out of the Middle East to Asia since the Strait of Hormuz has effectively stopped functioning as the main route of navigation for shipping.
Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree posted on Monday, “We declare a complete and total ban on Israeli maritime navigation in the Red Sea, and we consider all enemy movements to be legitimate targets.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson struck back: “The escalatory actions of Iran and their Houthi proxies are unacceptable. These dangerous actions only serve to further enflame tensions and further disrupt global supply chains. We will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.”Â
Edmund Fitton-Brown, a senior fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital, “The to the challenge, at least verbally. In common with much Axis of Resistance rhetoric at present, the intention appears to be to leverage US political nervousness and market volatility, and to drive a wedge between the Americans and the Israelis.”
Fitton-Brown, a former U.K. ambassador to Yemen added, “Provided the allies keep talking to each other, the Israelis respond proportionately, as they have done, and the Iranians continue to provoke President Trump with actions like the downing of the helicopter, these tactics are unlikely to achieve significant success.”
“It will be interesting if the Houthis do go all in, and resume their with full intensity,” Fitton-Brown said, adding, “This will draw international anger and likely result in Israeli and U.S. strikes on Sanaa and Hodeida. There is potential for a general escalation if this happens, albeit one in which the allies have a clear military advantage.”
Such actions come as reports emerge that Ethiopia, the Red Sea regions most populous country, is stepping up as a major U.S. ally against Islamic .
While landlocked, Ethiopia has a population of some 130 million, making it the largest nation in the Horn of . Located near parts of the Red Sea corridor, the country is roughly 60% Christian, according to a recent report by the Association of Religion Data Archives.
And despite it being landlocked, Ethiopian researcher Blen M. Diriba told Fox News Digital that the country acts as a strategic roadblock or “a keystone state” on the Islamist expansionist highway that has formed all the way from  Iran to Sudan.
Diriba, executive director of the Horn Review â an Addis Ababa-based research and publication think tank â told Fox News Digital that “Ethiopia, long a frontline U.S. security partner, now sits at the center of an expanding pressure zone where maritime disruption, insurgent violence, , and proxy competition converge.”
Diriba added. “Irans Bab el-Mandeb threat transforms the Horn of Africa into a militarized frontline, placing Ethiopia at the center of a chokepoint crisis. With Iranian influence radiating through conflict ecosystems in Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia, the region is beginning to resemble a continuous arc of instability stretching from the into East Africa.”
“Ethiopia sits at the center of one of the world’s most combustible security corridors,” Diriba continued. “And in strategic terms, its relevance to the United States is amplified, not diminished, by that reality: From the Red Sea disruptions driven by the Houthis to the persistent in Somalia, Ethiopia functions as a massive inland security buffer whose stability directly shapes whether these threats expand or are contain
