Using BEKs/drone boats instead of flying dones is likely a cheaper/more efficient long term solution to continue enforcing the blockade, perhaps even if ships have guns on board specially if the drones approach from the front to reduce the time where they can be hit, though they don’t seem as good against actual military vessels so I wonder if Yemen will develop their tactics and weapons to deal with them as well…
The fact that Houthis would rather launch missiles and attacks against any ships in the area (including friendly Russian and Iranian shipments) instead of sending aid to Gaza is almost as embarrassing that the United Nations has done practically nothing to reopen the strait to international shipping. It has been a completely US-led coalition.
This is going to be about as effective at influencing Israel’s behaviour as the McDonalds boycott. The Houthis previously tried this by sinking a ship full of fertiliser, and everybody else found them trying to turn damaging their own marine environment into blackmail laughable.
The Houthis haven’t left themselves a good off ramp when the war in Gaza ends and its obvious their blockade had no impact on the conflict, or the number of Palestinians starved or bombed to death. Will they just quietly stop the attacks? Reduce the frequency to the point where everyone ignores them? Claim they’re only going to target Israeli ships going forward and pretend they don’t see the Israeli ships magically changing flag?
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Using BEKs/drone boats instead of flying dones is likely a cheaper/more efficient long term solution to continue enforcing the blockade, perhaps even if ships have guns on board specially if the drones approach from the front to reduce the time where they can be hit, though they don’t seem as good against actual military vessels so I wonder if Yemen will develop their tactics and weapons to deal with them as well…
The fact that Houthis would rather launch missiles and attacks against any ships in the area (including friendly Russian and Iranian shipments) instead of sending aid to Gaza is almost as embarrassing that the United Nations has done practically nothing to reopen the strait to international shipping. It has been a completely US-led coalition.
This is going to be about as effective at influencing Israel’s behaviour as the McDonalds boycott. The Houthis previously tried this by sinking a ship full of fertiliser, and everybody else found them trying to turn damaging their own marine environment into blackmail laughable.
The Houthis haven’t left themselves a good off ramp when the war in Gaza ends and its obvious their blockade had no impact on the conflict, or the number of Palestinians starved or bombed to death. Will they just quietly stop the attacks? Reduce the frequency to the point where everyone ignores them? Claim they’re only going to target Israeli ships going forward and pretend they don’t see the Israeli ships magically changing flag?