The Pirates of the Red Sea Houthi Rebels hijack critical waterway This World

our cover story this week is about stretch of water one that has been caught in the crossfire of the Gaza War this is the Red Sea one of the most critical waterways in the world it links the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean on two sides Egypt and Sudan Saudi Arabia erria jouti and Yemen and it's Yemen's fuy Rebels who've turned the Red Sea into the world's most dangerous Waters right now mean know the Pacific is also causing lot of problems but this is catching ATT tension right now look at this video it's not from video game this is the video of howy rebels hijacking commercial vessel in the Red Sea it happened on the 19th of November and it happened in the Red Sea the hijack ship is called the Galaxy leader it was on its way to India from Turkey it had no Israeli Nationals on board and the ship did not have an Israeli flag it was sailing under the flag of the Bahamas The Vessel was British owned and Japanese operated but the British company was linked to an Israeli businessman whose name was Abraham Ramy unar he's one of Israel's richest men how do the hois even know of his connection to that Bahamas Flagship well Who provided them with the Intel frankly they no CL answers the hois said the seizure of the ship was response to quote heinous acts against our Palestinian Brothers in Gaza and the West Bank unquote and that was just the start hois have gone on to attack several ships one of them was the USS car most of these attacks have been in this area the Babel mandev street now let me just zoom out little bit and tell you who are the hoies now there are an armed Group which was formerly called the ansar Allah in 200 14 the hois rebelled against the internationally recognized government they seize Yemen's Capital Sana and currently they control Yemen's Red Sea Coast how are backed by Iran and they have declared war on Israel they've even launched drones and missiles Meant to hit Israeli targets some 2,000 kilometers away from Yemen now what do they have in terms of military Arsenal well they have some drones they have anti-ip missiles and that's really what they're using in the Red Sea the hoi say we will continue to attack ships until Israel holds its War now that has implications and you need to pay attention to this because caught in this entire Crossfire is global trade and your household budget yes your household budget allow me to explain the Red Sea as was telling you is one of the world's most critical Waters 12% of global trade passes through the Red Sea some 177,000 ships pass through it every single year this is the SE Canal this canal accounts for 12% of the total saor traded oil you have any idea how much that is well that's 8.8 give or take million barrels of oil per day 8% also of the global LG trade now these ships are starting to be re rooted 95% of the shipping and container companies that crossed the US Canal have now stopped their vessels and are considering re-rooting them taking longer route the historic Route that used to be used thousands of years ago ships from Europe and now have to go all the way across Africa they'll have to cross the Cape of Good Hope South Africa and then reach the Indian Ocean it will take more time burn more energy and add to costs that explains why container rates for ship from Asia to the UK have hit record high levels on Thursday oil prices also Rose they Rose by 1% if that climb continues the domino effect will hit all of our pockets and could hit the economy hey you know what it means oil prices petrol prices diesel prices inflation in the market all prices going up disruption it's basically not very good news so the question is what happens now well the United States wants to be part of solution earlier this week the US Secretary of Defense was in bahin he said that 10 countries are coming together to conduct joint Patrols in the southern Red Sea which countries are these well the United States of course United Kingdom Canada France Italy the Netherlands Norway sells and Spain this grouping is being called operation Prosperity Guardian member countries also plan to conduct Patrols in the Gulf of Aiden on Tuesday Lloyd Austin also held virtual meeting with ministers from more than 40 countries the United States said it would welcome China in this initiative is this Alliance something that will provide enough Assurance for the shipping industry to keep going through the seers canal well we don't know that it be able to keep ships safe from the hoes again we don't know the danger to global Shipping however spills beyond the Red Sea and this is where India also step in as you as you can see India is not necessarily part of that but it has to be noted by the way that the danger to global Shipping in that entire region spills beyond the Red Sea and this is where it starts to affect India in an even greater manner recently Malta Flagship was hijacked of the coast of Somalia in the Arabian Sea yes the Somalian pirates while the hois are creating massive amount of ruckus the Somalian pirates have not gone away so Pirates reportedly fired at the ship there were 18 crew members on board at least one of them was reportedly injured in the firing the hijack ship sent distress call the Indian Navy responded it deployed an aircraft and warship coochi began kiling the hijacked ship the injured sailor was then transferred to the Indian Stealth Destroyer where medical team treated him this is the state of the seas in that part of the World there are attacks and there are pirates and there's increasing military preparedness and none of this sounds like particularly good news certainly when it comes to global trade but let's now try and get deeper handle on what exactly is happening in the Red Sea and what can be done it's great to be joined by Dr stavas perides who's maritime Economist and the head of the maritime transport research group at the University of Plymouth thank you thank you so much Dr KES for for being with us your what's your own assessment of whatever is happening in the Red Seas you know with the how and this Naval Alliance of the US seems to be trying to put together that's very interesting question because at the moment we don't know how the overall situation is going to escalate we're hoping that with the naval force that the US is leading and hopefully other other countries is going to join the overall situation is going to ease bit what is happening at the moment we've seen some vessels trying to avoid Red Sea and they're going through the of Good Hope but also during the night we've seen some of the componist like mys for example that they said they're going to use the the the navigation through the Cape of Good Hope still going again through the Red Sea so at the moment also the shipping Community is trying to find out what is happening out there you know it's only week that we had that kind of escalation the they're trying to see how the overall military escort is going to help them and support so I'm hoping that you know soon the military escort is going to clear up the overall situation because if we continue with vessels diversifying then as you can imagine we're talking about extra mileage and that cost extra cost and also cost you know we need more time to move the goods from point to point all right so let's turn our attention then to the point of view of cost what is going to be the impact of the global economy if the SE Canal does get blocked so as you can imagine if you know vessels are going to stop using the Su Canal that's going to be huge impact to the overall global economy especially Europe to Asia as said thankfully so far from all the reports we're reading from Maritime sector Maritime sector is paying attention is keeping an eye on what is happening in the situation but they're still using the passage it's only small portion of companies that are taking that kind of action to bypass the Red Sea of of course if that's going to be escalating as said earlier on then of course that's going to create lot of problems and you know on very basic terms it's going to cost an additional 10 to 12 days for the navigation of vessels from Asia to Europe and another 10 to 12 Days on the way back so we're talking about another 20 extra days we we were going to need additional capacity to carry those goods all right let's now try to understand where India fits into all of this and what India could actually possibly do or not do we now been joined by adir Dr Rakesh Chopra mtime operations expert adir Chopra thank you so much for being with us you know we are hearing about what the Hales are doing in the Red Sea and the Indian Navy is obviously trying to figure out what to do in the Arabian Sea with the Somalian pirates where do you see India positioned in this entire mess that seems to be unfolding in the Seas there well of course I'm no longer in the Navy but feel that since we are taking an active role in the Indian Ocean as we should especially in the in the Arabian Sea perhaps we should take more active role with the US Navy in the Red Sea to overcome the challenge of the hooes but must tell you I've been to been to Aiden and those parts about four four or five times in my Naval career and it's very interesting area Yemen is very interesting area India has long connection Yemen existed on the charity of the nisam of Hyderabad most of the Arabs who came into his army were from Yemen Yemen and there's large Indian population as matter of fact who are live in Yemen even now are known as Indies so it's think we should take very very strong wanted to ask you about the operations against the Pirates which you have you know kept close eye on for period of Time how is that going with the Somalian Pirates don't seem to be going away and that clearly is one of the areas where India has been taking an active role yes the Somalian but the activities come quite has has decreased quite lot as you as you probably know about five or six years ago the Somalian pirates had reached the luxure Deep Islands mean they' come that close but now with the with the patrols going on in in the in the in the Gulf of Aiden think that will it's little bit of pin trick it's little bit of headache but it's under control in my opinion if you had to look at so the entire position with Red Sea getting blocked some activity by the Pirates people may be having to reroot is there any clear solution you can see on how we can move forward no really until we the Pirates like mentioned are under control don't think there's much of problem there shipping is normal the hoties of course are are are are bit of nonsense if you recall that the the helicopter action which came which took place about month ago it was very remarkable kind of you know HTI helicopter operation where they boarded ship that ship was actually headed for India but it had some Israeli interests in it so how they they're getting this intelligence is it who who's putting this intelligence into them don't know yeah one of the questions we were asking as well all right ad choa thank you so much for joining us thank you for joining us for that perspective