The United States on Friday accused Iran of close involvement in attacks on commercial ships by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, stepping up the tone as Washington considers tougher measures including possible force.
The White House publicly released US intelligence as the Iranian-linked Yemeni insurgents persist with ship strikes they say are in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is battling Hamas militants.
The White House said that Tehran’s clerical state has provided drones and missiles to the Houthis as well as tactical intelligence.
“We know that Iran was deeply involved in planning the operations against commercial vessels in the Red Sea,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said.
“We have no reason to believe that Iran is trying to dissuade the Houthis from this reckless behavior,” she said.
The Houthis, who control vast parts of the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country including the capital Sanaa, have launched more than 100 drone and missile attacks, targeting 10 merchant vessels, according to the Pentagon.
With commercial traffic increasingly disrupted, the United States recently announced a multinational naval task force of more than 20 countries to protect vessels transiting the Red Sea.
In a show of force, the US aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has entered the Gulf of Aden, with a series of news reports saying President Joe Biden’s administration is weighing military strikes if the ship attacks persist.
Rebel leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi warned Wednesday that if they were attacked, the rebels would strike back against “American battleships, American interests and American navigation.”
