With the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the situation in the Red Sea-Suez region is becoming increasingly unstable. The Red Sea shipping lanes have been severely blocked due to continued Houthi attacks in Yemen, forcing three of the world's four major shipping companies to abandon them. In response to this incident, there are two international interpretations of the Houthi behavior. One view is that the Houthis were complicit with Iran and carried out indiscriminate attacks to blockade the Red Sea;Another view is that the Houthis have only targeted Israel and its associated vessels, and have not carried out indiscriminate attacks. In any case, however, the situation in the Red Sea shipping lanes has seriously affected international shipping. Most of the goods in the Asia-Pacific and eastern Africa regions do not have direct access to the Mediterranean, but can only detour through the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost point of Africa, increasing the voyage by tens of thousands of kilometers, resulting in a significant increase in shipping time and costs. This has not only seriously affected Israel's economic and trade activities, but also hindered the best exchanges between Europe and Asia.
Faced with the escalation of the situation in the Red Sea, the United States decided to launch the Red Sea escort program called "Prosperity Guardian" and called on allies to join. However, to the surprise of the United States, few allies responded to the appeal, and even some countries openly refused. The Pentagon said that while more than 20 countries have decided to join the escort operation, more than eight countries are reluctant to disclose their identities. Therefore, at the moment only the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles, Spain, and the United States itself are in the list of public escorts. As one of America's loyal allies, Australia has publicly refused to participate, citing its focus on the Asia-Pacific region. The Australian Navy currently has only 11 main ships, eight of which are aging and difficult to carry out escort missions in the Red Sea. This has made Australia's multibillion-dollar annual military spending a mockery because it has actually played only a full role in the US-led military exercises in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, France and Italy have openly stated that they will not follow the command of the United States, although they will send ** to participate in the Red Sea escort. Spain, on the other hand, directly announced its withdrawal, saying that it would only participate in NATO-led operations. Why would America's allies be disobedient and even opt out?
There is an argument that these allies are aware that there may be other intentions behind the so-called U.S. escort operations in the Red Sea. Judging from the two suspicious points, it can be seen that the actions of the United States are unilaterally dominant. First, the United States could have introduced a resolution in the UN Security Council seeking international authorization and calling on more countries to participate in escorting ships in the Red Sea. However, they did not do so, nor did they include Red Sea escorts in NATO's operations, which is surprising. Second, while the U.S. claims that more than 40 countries have held online conversations with them and expressed interest in joining the escort group, they have only announced 10 countries, including themselves, while the other eight remain anonymous. There are Western ** claims that these 8 anonymous countries include Saudi Arabia and Egypt. This is linked to the attitude of the Arab countries of the Middle East towards the situation in the Red Sea. There is an argument that the purpose of the U.S. Red Sea escort operation is to increase their own influence, get more countries to indirectly support Israel, and provoke civil wars between countries in the Middle East.
Interestingly, after the United States launched the Red Sea escort program, it has been constantly calling for China's participation and deliberately mentioning the presence of Chinese naval escort formations in the Red Sea. In response, Chinese spokesman Wang Wenbin said that China has always advocated safeguarding the security of international waters, opposing attacks and harassment of civilian vessels, and believes that influential powers should shoulder the responsibility of maintaining the security of the Red Sea shipping lanes. It can be seen from China's statement that China has seen through the true intentions of the United States and realized that the United States may have other intentions behind it.
Through the analysis of the launch of the Red Sea escort plan by the United States and the reaction of the allies, it can be seen that the escalation of the situation in the Red Sea has seriously affected international shipping and created obstacles for Israel and Eurasia**. The U.S. actions are aimed at increasing its influence and realizing its own interests by indirectly supporting Israel and instigating civil wars among Middle Eastern countries. However, the reluctance of the allies to cooperate shows suspicion of the true intentions of the United States. China, as a major country that advocates the maintenance of security in international waters, did not respond positively to the invitation of the United States, but saw the conspiracy of the United States. This shows that China has always maintained a sober mind and a cautious attitude in international affairs, and will not be deceived by the manipulation of other countries. This incident also reminds us that we should maintain objective analysis and independent thinking on international affairs, and not blindly follow the arguments of any country, but form our own judgments through multi-faceted information acquisition and analysis.