On the night of January 12, the United States and the United Kingdom
launched a massive offensive on Yemeni territory as a response againstHouthi attacks on Israeli merchant ships - or those headed towards thatState - transiting between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea . U.S. AirForce Commander Alex Grinkiewicz said more than 60 military targets in16 locations were hit. ---- Several Houthi military bases and airfieldshave come under British-US fire - including a military base near theairport in Sanaa, Yemen's capital. As CNN reported, (1) a senior USmilitary official said the strikes destroyed a significant portion ofthe Houthis' military facilities.The offensive was conducted by aircraft, ships and submarines; in totalmore than 100 precision munitions were used, including Tomahawk cruisemissiles.After the missile attacks against the Houthis, the price of Brent crudeoil increased by 4.1%, reaching $78 per barrel. According to SaulKavonich, (2) analyst at MST Marquee, a possible interruption of oilsupplies near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait could " be three times greaterthan that of the oil crisis of the 1970s and more than double that ofthe war in Ukraine on gas markets, with consequences for already fragilesupply chains and stock levels."The International Maritime Organization (IMO) estimates (3) that upto a quarter of global maritime traffic passes along this route -equivalent to several billion tonnes of goods every year -, whileaccording to the US Energy Information Administration, in that part ofAbout 4.5 million barrels of oil pass through the sea every day (comingfrom the countries of the Persian Gulf and Asia).The Houthi attacks, which have intensified in recent months, have pushedthe largest transporters of containerized goods by sea, including theworld leader "Maersk", to abandon this route and move to thecircumnavigation of Africa - spending ten days longer than Before.According to Jonathan Panikoff, a former US intelligence officer andanalyst at the Atlantic Council Center, it is unlikely (4) that theoffensive on Houthi military facilities will lead to an immediatecessation of attacks on merchant ships.Wars between capitalistsSince the massacre in Palestine began, the United States and its NATOallies have regained strength in the Middle East and parts of the Red Sea.US President Joe Biden said (5) that the missile strikes were "defensive " and " a direct response to the unprecedented Houthiattacks," while White House spokesman Kirby said the US was notinterested " in a conflict with Yemen ".The thirty-year war being fought in Yemen has seen the USA, Saudi Arabiaand the United Kingdom take to the field against these rebels and, moregenerally, against the Yemeni population - carrying out countlessmassacres and destruction.On a global level, however, the attacks in Yemen, together with thedeath of Abu Taqwa al Said in Baghdad and the repeated clashes in Syriaand Iraq between US troops and armed groups supplied by Iran, are partof an ever-increasing clash between the allies of USA-EU-NATO and thoseof the Russia-China duo.The US strategy is to eliminate Iran's military allies throughout theMiddle East and, de facto, isolate it from this geographical context andpush it to depend solely on China and Russia. The agreements reached inApril between Iran and Saudi Arabia last year (6) will probablyfall through.The Chinese leadership, for its part, invited the USA and the UnitedKingdom to respect the territorial sovereignty of the states borderingthe Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, while Russia, however, accused Londonand Washington of having violated the UN charter following these attacksin Yemen.The fear of the governments of Moscow and Beijing is the loss ofpolitical-economic-military influence in that part of the world - infavor of the USA-NATO-EU. This translates into the following: Russia,after almost two years of war in Ukraine, finds itself having to tradeunder embargo with China and its allies (including Iran); China,however, fears that a possible escalation between the Red Sea and theGulf of Aden could endanger its trade and economic-financial agreementswith al-Sisi's Egypt.It appears clear how war and the fake opposition to it by governmentsand their bourgeois allies are measures aimed at reproducing andrenewing capitalist material conditions - through the destruction(through massacres and genocides) and the exploitation of territoriesconsidered geographically strategic (such as the Red Sea-Gulf of Aden inour case).In the world of commodities there is no room for feelings of globalpeace and prosperity. On the contrary. Only a part of this populationwill be able to benefit from this. And when this is threatened, ashappens in our case, then the intervention will be ruthless and radical.Those who will pay the price for this entire state of affairs will bethat human population that will put up with the media propaganda and/or,in the worst case scenario, the bullets and missiles of this systemicstate-capitalist aberration.Note1)https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/11/politics/us-strikes-houthis-yemen/index.html2)https://www.oedigital.com/news/510735-oil-prices-rise-over-2-5-after-us-uk-strikes-in-yemen3)https://www.nationalgeographic.it/perche-lo-stretto-di-bab-elmandeb-e-cosi-important-per-l-economia-mondiale4)https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/content-series/fastthinking/will-us-uk-strikes-against-the-houthis-halt-their-red-sea-aggression/5)https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/12/us-uk-air-strikes-yemen-houthi-rebels-red-sea-crisis6) See the paragraph "Changing Saudi foreign policy strategy" in"Normalizing the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Syria, the Arab League andthe counter-revolutionary process", 15 June 2023. Normalizingthe regime of Bashar al-Assad. Syria, the Arab League and thecounter-revolutionary process | Galatea Anarchist Group (noblogs.org)http://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten