US Announces 10 Nation Force To Counter Houthi Attacks Israel Vs Hamas Reaches Red Sea N 18 V

attacks by the yeni houthi militant group on ships in the Red Sea are forcing Freight firms to rroo in order to avoid the Su Canal this video was released by The houthis on November 20th showing armed men dropping from helicopter and seizing cargo ship in the southern Red Sea the latest attacks came Monday when the houthi said drones were launched against two cargo vessels in the area the Iran Alliance houthi said the attacks are response to Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip which Israel launched after the October 7 Rampage by Hamas militants the situation has prompted the United States and its allies to create multinational operation to conduct joint Patrols in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aiden in Israel on Monday us defense secretary Lloyd Austin said no group or state should test America's resolve in the Red Sea we're leading multinational Maritime task force to uphold the the Bedrock principle of freedom of navigation Iran support for hoodie attacks on Commercial vessels must stop the attacks have showed the ability of Middle Eastern paramilitary forces backed by Iran to upset global trade several major freight companies have begun sailing around Africa due to the danger and there are signs the crisis is broadening to include energy shipments the re-rooting adds cost and delays which industry anal expect to be compounded over the coming weeks while Freight rates will likely increase on the longer voyages the head of Global Freight platform Fredo said it is unlikely that rates will Spike to the level seen during the pandemic about 15% of world traffic transits via the Suz Canal the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia the secretary has engaged with wangi number of times about the situation in the Middle East Might Recall he had phone call with him on our first trip in just the initial week after October 7th where he made very clear that if China could use its relationships in the region to urge countries to maintain calm and maintain stability we would thought that would be productive step and yes in his most recent conversation with him he made the point that was just making moment ago which is that attacks on international shipping by the houthis don't just harm those country those those ships and those individual ual they harm the United States they harm China they harm the interests of every country and so yes we would welcome China pling constructive role in trying to prevent those attacks from taking place in addition the United States High representative Joseph Burell on behalf of the European Union NATO secretary United Nations not no said in addition to the United States addition yeah in addition to the United States NATO Secretary General Jan stoltenberg on behalf of NATO and group representing 44 partner Nations will soon release joint statement condemning the houthi ongoing and numerous attacks on Merchant vessels the growing list of attacks includes the houthi Le seizure of the Galaxy leader whose crew hailing from the Philippines Bulgaria Ukraine Mexico and Romania remain unjustly detained bottom line is these attacks have to stop they need to stop they're unacceptable the United States our allies and our partners will do what we have to do to counter these threats and to protect these ships yeah we're actually conducting review right now on whether that's the the right course forward we've talked about that no decisions made right now and when you decision on that don't have timeline for you but we are reviewing that that designation as we speak we haven't seen any specific targeting or intention to Target Naval vessels but you can't you know when commanding officer is looking at something coming in drone or missile mean he or she has to make some often times split-second decisions about perceiving what the threat is and and taking them down so it can't you can't roll out specifically but when you're talking about these 14 drones mean it's not unlike it's not unlike them to launch multiple at time and it's difficult to know when you're knocking them out of the air it's difficult to know exactly what their intended target was in general and this is why we set up this task force it is clear that the houthis are at the very least conducting concerted effort to go after Merchant shipping in the Red Sea well now it just started didn't it and and there's going to be whole lot of Hardware in the Red Sea now Naval Hardware not just from the United States but other ships other ships from other nations to counter these threats so let's see where it goes mean it's up up and running now we hope it gets stronger and and is is we're able to add additional countries and additional capabilities to it I'm certainly not going to Telegraph any punches one way or the other I'll say this though as said in my opening statement the attacks are unacceptable we have National security interests that play in the region there are International Security interests at play in the region including to the threat to shipping we take those responsibility seriously we're going to continue to to do what we can to protect them it is it's coalition of the Willing and each nation has to decide for itself whether it's going to participate and under what circumstances we respect that the whole idea here is protecting Sovereign Sovereign assets and and Sovereign rights and that's what we're doing here and think where China could be helpful quite frankly is more with the influence that we know they have in ton the conversations that they can have with the supreme leader and we have in the past we continue to encourage the Chinese to use that influence use those conversations to lean on the supreme leader and Iran to stop their support for the houis all can tell you is what I've said before mean they are certainly providing the means that the tools the capabilities the weapons through which the houthis are conducting these attacks the houthis may be pulling the trigger but as I've said Iran's giving them the guns it's hard to say right now these companies obviously have to make their own decisions based on the Safety and Security of their vessels and their crws and we respect that but think it's just too soon to know what kind of impact it's actually going to have on the global economy that's why quite frankly because we're trying to get ahead of the problem set here that's why we're standing up this Coalition and trying to flesh it out and be able to counter these threats so that Transit through the Red Sea can be safer and more secure than it is right now as far as we can tell and I'll caveat this caveat this as have many times our knowledge is not perfect but we think there's still about eight Americans that are still being held hostage with some 140 total that we believe Hamas and other groups hold don't have an update for you on the progress of talks to try to get another humanitarian pause in place so that we can get hostages out we continue to work this literally by the hour SL sh sh SL