A Year Later, Houthis Show No Sign of Curbing Red Sea Attacks

Any forthcoming return of container shipping to the Suez Canal seems even more unlikely.

After orchestrating a year’s worth of missile and drone attacks on ships sailing through the Red Sea, the Houthis have vowed to maintain the onslaught until Israel ends its military offensive against Hamas and Hezbollah.

Referring to the attacks as part of a wider naval blockade, Houthi armed forces spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised address that the Yemen-based militant group will “target all ships belonging to, or linked to, or heading to [Israel], and that this blockade will continue until the aggression stops and the siege on the Gaza Strip is lifted and the aggression on Lebanon stops.”

The lack of a timetable tied to the conflict has given the container shipping industry plenty of incentive to stay away from the region entirely for as long as possible. Maritime research consultancy Drewry isn’t expecting full-scale Suez Canal transits to resume until 2026.

As part of their upcoming vessel-sharing alliance, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd are already putting off any return to the Red Sea for their Asia-to-Europe network. The ocean carriers will opt to continue rerouting ships around southern Africa’s Cape of Good Hope for their primary voyage when their cooperation officially kicks into gear in February. Maersk said it sees no return to the Suez until “well into 2025.”

According to “intelligence information” gathered by the Houthis, Saree claimed that many Israeli-affiliated shipping companies are trying to sell assets, transfer their properties to other companies or register them in the names of new parties to avoid getting attacked.

In response, Saree said the Iran-backed rebel group will not recognize any ownership or flag changes, warning that all vessels affiliated with Israel will be subject to more attacks.

While the Yemeni faction has long claimed that the attacks are in protest of the Israel-Hamas war, the assault has been largely indiscriminate—reaching vessels unaffiliated with Israel. This has led some members with ties to the U.S. Department of Defense to believe that the attacks are unrelated to the Middle Eastern conflict, bringing into question whether the Houthis would stop their assault if Israel called for a ceasefire.

The Houthi spokesperson’s message came shortly after a Wall Street Journal report said the group had been supplied with targeting data—and later satellite data—from the Russians. According to that report, U.S. officials have raised concerns that Russia could provide the Houthis with anti-ship or anti-aircraft missiles.

As of Nov. 4, there have been 129 reported maritime incidents in the waters surrounding the Arabian Peninsula since the first Houthi attack last November, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO)

The ongoing attacks have harmed the economy of Egypt, with foreign minister Badr Abdel Aati telling International Maritime Organization secretary-general Arsenio Dominguez that the Red Sea crisis has cost the country $6 billion in revenue.

In July, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) had revealed that it saw revenue dip more than $2 billion in the 2023-2024 fiscal year.

As of late October, container shipping consultancy Clarksons said there was a 70 percent drop in Suez traffic in gross tonnage compared to 2023 average levels. This drop is even further exacerbated in container shipping, which saw a 90 percent decline.

Air travel, for now, could see impacts from the ongoing chaos in the Red Sea. Air France suspended flights over the waterway after one of its flight crews from Paris to Madagascar reported a “luminous object at high altitude” while flying near Sudan.

On Sunday, a bipartisan group of six U.S. senators led by Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging him to immediately re-designate the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).

The group has been listed as a specially designated global terrorist (SDGT) since January in the wake of the attacks, three years after the militant group’s FTO status was first revoked in 2021.

The senators argue that designating the Houthis as an FTO would impose meaningful costs on them and degrade their ability to commit acts of terrorism.

“Relisting the Houthis as an FTO would make individuals or entities providing material support to the group liable for criminal prosecution and considered Tier III terrorists subject to sanctions and a travel ban, open up economic tools to target the Houthis’ weapons procurement networks and manufacturing capabilities, provide a legal right of action to U.S. victims of Houthi terrorism, and ban Houthi members from obtaining a visa or entering the United States,” said the letter. “Moreover, relisting the Houthis as an FTO would not inherently disrupt the delivery of international aid to Yemeni civilians.”

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