The United States formed an escort alliance in the Red Sea, but was snubbed by its allies. Recently, in order to resist Israel's aggression against Gaza, Yemen's Houthi rebels not only fired missiles and drones into Israel, but also attacked merchant ships in the Red Sea. The Red Sea is an important global energy transportation corridor, and the actions of the Houthis have caused serious disruptions to shipping, which has had a huge impact on global energy** and economic development.
In order to address security issues in the Red Sea, the United States has called on its international allies and partners to establish an escort alliance in the Red Sea to ensure the safety of merchant ships. However, the call of the United States has not been echoed by its allies. According to the Global Times, the United States plans to form a multinational fleet to escort ships in the Red Sea, but this plan has not received support from allies.
The United States is overconfident and thinks that its influence is still very large, but in fact, the United States has already offended many people on the issue of supporting Israel, and only Bahrain has officially joined the escort alliance in the Middle East, and other allies, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, have not participated in this escort alliance. For the United States, without the participation of Middle Eastern countries, the significance of escorting ships in the Red Sea is greatly reduced.
None of America's allies in the Middle East are willing to help, and neither are America's Western allies. Australia, which is a "model ally" of the United States, has received an invitation, but the country's defense minister Marles recently said that they will not send ** or aircraft to participate in the US Red Sea escort operation. In order to save some face for the United States, Australia decided to send six naval personnel to participate.
In addition, the United States' allies in Europe, such as Norway, the Netherlands, and Sweden, have also announced that they will not send ** or aircraft to participate in the US escort operations. They are also like Australia, with only a small number of personnel participating in this escort alliance. Obviously, the United States did not expect that not only Arab countries, but also Asian and European friends would not buy their account.
In fact, even those European allies who have already deployed ** in the Red Sea, although they have decided to carry out escort missions, are eager to draw a line with the US escort alliance. The French side recently stated that its navy is carrying out escort missions in the Red Sea, but these are still under the command of France and have nothing to do with the escort alliance.
Similarly, Italy, which currently has a presence in the Red Sea, also said that the escort operation of the ship in the Red Sea was only part of the original plan and had nothing to do with the US-led escort alliance. In addition, Spain** also said that their** will only participate in military operations under the framework of the European Union, and will not participate in US-led escort operations alone.
Obviously, it is understandable that the countries of the Middle East are dissatisfied with the United States' partiality with Israel in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and refuse to participate in the US escort alliance in the Red Sea. But it is surprising that European allies such as France, Italy, and Spain are also reluctant to cooperate with the United States. They do not give face to the United States, in addition to being dissatisfied with the United States for supporting Israel, and more importantly, they are also worried about their merchant ships and ** being attacked.
The Houthis are not afraid of this US-sponsored escort coalition. On the contrary, they not only continued to carry out attacks on merchant ships associated with Israel, but also warned the United States and its followers that the ** and merchant ships of any country participating in the escort coalition would be the target of their attacks. Moreover, they are not empty words, recently, the United States, Great Britain and France have all been attacked by their drones.
The United States established this escort alliance in order to let its allies bear the risks and costs of escort operations for them. After all, Houthi drones cost only about $2,000, and who can afford to shoot them down with missiles worth tens or millions of dollars? However, the U.S. is clever and mistaken by its cleverness, and its allies either do not participate or cut off from the U.S. escort operations to reduce the risk of being attacked. It is no wonder that the Red Sea was pierced by the United States, so why should its allies bear it for them?