The Egyptian army is preparing to launch a military strike against the Houthis after threatening to close Bab al-Mandab

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCNfUV56iY8

Updates on the Al-Aqsa Flood operation presented in this episode of Samri Channel.

Starting with the American newspaper The Washington Post, which quoted a White House official as saying that President Biden’s administration is seeking to expand Joint Task Force 153, led by Egypt, to confront Houthi threats to close Bab al-Mandab to navigation heading to and from Israel.

The newspaper indicated that the White House believes that this American step is a natural response after the Yemeni Houthi group launched missiles and drones towards many ships, and hijacked a ship in recent weeks. She added that it is still unclear whether the United States and its partners will be able to deter the Houthis or curb Israel's demands to take strong action against them, explaining that taking measures such as launching military strikes or classifying the Houthis as a "terrorist group" could complicate its efforts. The United Nations, the United States and others to end the Yemen war.
The Washington Post believes that the recent Houthi attacks highlighted the widespread anger throughout the Middle East regarding the Israeli attack on Gaza, pointing to statements by the head of the Israeli National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, in which he said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about the Houthi threat with the US President. Joe Biden and the leaders of Germany, France, and Britain recently, and explained to them that “Israel will give the world time to organize itself in order to prevent this threat.”

Hanegbi added in an interview with Israeli Channel 12: “If no international organization intervenes in the matter, because what is happening represents a global problem, we will move to end this maritime closure,” but he did not respond to a question about whether he was referring to launching Military action. The newspaper quoted a senior official in the US administration, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying that “the Biden administration’s plan is to expand the operations of (Joint Task Force 153),” which is a military unit whose work is focused on the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and is part of Of the joint naval forces, which includes 39 member states, and is headquartered in Bahrain.

The Joint Task Force is led by a US Navy officer, but the leadership changes. It was previously supervised by an Egyptian commander, and the unit usually reports to the Commander of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper. An unidentified US defense official with knowledge of the matter said, “Many countries have an interest in preventing disruption to commercial shipping operations through this part of the world,” a point that administration officials emphasized to other countries during the talks.

The defense official described the efforts being made to expand the joint task force's operations as mostly "ambitious", but there is no clear timeline yet for it to begin its work on solving the problem, as allies and partners are working to evaluate how they will participate, but the senior American official doubted whether The order, saying that "talks are taking place actively."

The US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) announced that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Khalid bin Salman, to “discuss Houthi threats to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.” General Charles Brown Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also held a similar conversation with His French counterpart, and then, on Saturday, a French ship shot down two drones allegedly launched from Yemen.

In another context, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged Israel to make more efforts to protect Palestinian civilians in its war with the Palestinian Hamas movement, while Israeli tanks made their way into the main city in the southern Gaza Strip. Two days after the United States used its veto against a draft resolution in the UN Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire on humanitarian grounds, Blinken said that Israel must attach “importance” to protecting civilians in Gaza and ensuring that humanitarian aid reaches those in need. Blinken added in statements to CNN's "State of the Union" program, "The important thing is to ensure that military operations are developed in a way that ensures the protection of civilians."

He continued, "I believe that the intention is there. But the results do not always appear on their own." Among the steps that Blinken said the United States "does not see enough of" are "times, places and ways of deconfliction" that would allow humanitarian operations to deliver aid and help keep civilians out of harm's way.

#Egypt
#Palestine
#Gaza