The Red Sea – Part 2

The plot has thickened and the Iranians have continued to attack both US and British ships traveling in the Red Sea.

You have heard the importance of the Red Sea which leads into the Mediterranean Sea and part of the same trade route as the Red Sea, connected through the Suez Canal.

Location, Location, Location—This little country and its rebels are dictating to North America and Europe the right to passage.

According to Semafor,

Oil giant BP has announced it will halt its shipments through the Red Sea as Iran-backed Houthi rebels have increased attacks on vessels passing through the crucial shipping route, targeting those that they believe are Israel-bound. Other shipping companies have also suspended journeys through the Red Sea, including Evergreen Line, Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk.

The U.S. announced a new Red Sea security initiative Monday, partnering with countries including the UK, Bahrain, France, Norway, and Spain. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin said that the escalation in Houthi attacks “threatens the free flow of commerce, endangers innocent mariners, and violates international law.

If you think the Houthis are a pushover, then listen to what analysts believe the type of military they possess.

100,000 plus followers and fighters.

Semafor said the Houthis maintain what some consider “the most sophisticated arsenal of ballistic missiles and drones among Iran’s regional allies and proxies.” Some of their missiles have a range of over 1,000 miles.

And what is the Arab States position on what they should do about the Yemen situation?

According to Semafor,

Simmering differences between the Biden administration and key Arab states over Yemen — ironically, tied to successful ceasefire talks over the past three years — are complicating U.S. efforts to neutralize Houthi rebel attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea.

On Thursday, a U.S.-led coalition struck Houthi targets inside Yemen that the White House said were involved in a string of attacks on commercial shipping. “These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea—including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history,” the administration said in a statement.

But U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken failed during a Mideast swing this week to sign regional heavyweights like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Egypt onto the coalition of a dozen nations — called Operation Prosperity Guardian — that began policing the Red Sea last month. U.S. officials said its chief mission is to guard against Houthi attacks emanating from Yemen that are imperiling 20% of the world’s shipping that transits through the Suez Canal. On Tuesday, the Houthi militia launched its largest ever drone and missile strike on Red Sea shipping, which the U.S. and British navies shot down.

Arab officials said neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE is interested in supporting renewed military operations against the Houthis in any major way. Other key Arab states, such as Qatar and Egypt, are also reluctant to join any operation, in part because they could be seen as siding with the West in Israel’s war against the militant Palestinian group Hamas. The Houthis have publicly described their attacks as aimed at undermining Israel’s ability to conduct international trade and restock its military.

“We never see a military action as a resolution,” Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said Sunday in Doha during a press conference with Blinken. “So, we hope that we see a stop to what’s happening to the civilian ships as soon as possible through our diplomatic means. That would be the best way possible.”

According to Al-Jazzera,

Yemen’s Houthi militia has stated it plans more attacks on United States and British warships.

The Iran-aligned group’s statement, released on Wednesday, said all US and British warships participating in “aggression” against Yemen are targets. The statement stoked concern over the simmering tensions in the region as well as increased disruption to world trade.

The US and Britain have struck back at Houthi targets in Yemen as they patrol the Red Sea in a naval coalition that has swapped numerous attacks with the Yemeni group.

On Tuesday, the Houthis fired missiles at the US warship USS Gravely. US Central Command said its forces had shot down an antiship cruise missile.

On Wednesday, the US said its forces destroyed a surface-to-air missile which was prepared to launch.

“U.S. forces identified the missile in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined that it presented an imminent threat to U.S. aircraft,” Central Command said.

On Tuesday, Mohamed al-Atifi, commander of the Houthi forces, said: “We are prepared for a long-term confrontation with the forces of tyranny. The Americans, the British and those who coordinated with them must realize the power of the sovereign Yemeni decision and that there is no debate or dispute over it.”

According to AP News,

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Wednesday attributed the drone attack that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias, as President Joe Biden weighs his options to respond to the strike.

Iran threatened to “decisively respond” to any U.S. attack on the Islamic Republic after the U.S. said it held Tehran responsible. The U.S. has signaled it is preparing for retaliatory strikes in the Mideast in the wake of the Sunday drone attack that also wounded more than 40 troops at Tower 22, a secretive base in northeastern Jordan that’s been crucial to the American presence in neighboring Syria.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday the U.S. believes the attack was planned, resourced and facilitated by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group that includes the militant group Kataib Hezbollah. He said Biden “believes that it is important to respond in an appropriate way.”

But Iran’s government has taken note of the U.S. threats of retaliation for the attack on the base in Jordan.

“Sometime, our enemies raise the threat, and nowadays we hear some threats in between words by American officials,” Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Hossein Salami, who answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said at an event Wednesday. “We tell them that you have experienced us, and we know each other. We do not leave any threat without an answer.”

“We are not after war, but we have no fear of war,” he added, according to IRNA.

Kirby, for his part, said the U.S. doesn’t “seek a war with Iran. We’re not looking for a broader conflict.”

This sure sounds like a middle eastern war to me when we have the EU, USA and Great Britain being attacked. This is not a broader conflict, but an all-out war.

One can play the “blame game”, but America has lost 3 soldiers.

Just look back a few days ago where we lost 3 wonderful soldiers based in Jordan. According to CNN on 1/29/24, the three US soldiers killed in the drone attack on a US military outpost in Jordan were identified Monday as Sgt. William Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia; Specialist Kennedy Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia; and Specialist Breonna Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia, according to the Defense Department.

They were all assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, a US Army Reserve unit based out of Fort Moore, Georgia, Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said at a briefing.

More than 40 were injured in the attack, according to Singh, a number that could possibly increase. The drone hit a housing facility on the base where many service members were asleep in the early morning hours, leading to the high number of casualties, she said.

Singh said Monday that eight personnel who were medically evacuated were taken to Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center. Three of those service members will be transported to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center for follow-on care and the other five are expected to return to duty after being assessed for mild traumatic brain injuries. A US official previously told CNN that all eight had been evacuated to Landstuhl.

According to Fox News

Iran manufactured the drone that killed 3 US soldiers in Jordan, US official says. Shocked, we shouldn’t be.

A U.S. official confirmed to Fox News Digital that the drone that killed three American soldiers and injured more than 40 others at Tower 22 in Northeast Jordan on Sunday was manufactured by Iran.

While the attack was launched by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq, President Biden’s administration had previously said that it ultimately holds Iran responsible for the incident. Reuters first reported that the U.S. found Iran made the drone itself, citing multiple officials.

The officials did not offer any details regarding the model of the drone beyond stating that it was Iranian-made. They said the U.S. was able to confirm the origin thanks to shrapnel recovered at the site of the attack.

The Iraqi group, Kata’ib Hezbollah, said on Tuesday that it is halting military operations under pressure from the Iraqi government and the group’s backers in Iran.

Isn’t it interesting that Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense has come out about his illness and that President Biden has done nothing nor Austin on the current attack of the Houthis that killed three US soldiers. Will Austin be the scapegoat?

When reading the USA Today, dated 2/1/24, Austin also addressed the crisis in the Middle East where three soldiers were killed Sunday by militia groups that he said are supported by Iran. President Joe Biden has said he has decided on a U.S. response to the attack, and a military operation is expected in coming days.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is poised to retaliate for the drone attack Sunday that killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded more than 40 National Guardsmen at the Tower 22 logistics base in Jordan near its border with Syria. The attack was among more than 160 rocket, missile and drone strikes on U.S. bases in the Middle East by what the Pentagon and White House say are Iranian-backed militia groups.

The Pentagon is considering a comprehensive range of targets that will exact proportional damage and casualties, according to a Defense Department official.

Austin said containing the conflict between Israel and Hamas to Gaza has been “artfully done” so far. But he noted that the Houthi militants, backed by Iran, continue to menace commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

“This is a dangerous moment in the Middle East,” Austin said.

He vowed that the Pentagon’s response to Sunday’s attack would be “multitiered,” suggesting a military operation that would hit multiple sites over a period of days.

• The latest in the attacks, The U.S. military conducted airstrikes on Iranian-backed groups in Syria and Iraq in retaliation for a deadly attack on a base in Jordan that killed three American troops.
• The airstrikes targeted command and control operations, intelligence centers, rockets, missiles, drone storages, and munition supply chain facilities used by militia groups and the IRGC.
• The U.S. response is part of a multi-tiered operation and is expected to continue at times and places of their choosing.

In closing, Matthew 24: 6-8 (KJV) ⁶ And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

⁷ For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

⁸ All these are the beginning of sorrows.

No, the end is not yet for Jesus has not come back to earth to claim his kingdom. So, as a Christian, we must be prepared and like the parable of the Ten Virgins await our king.

The beginnings of sorrows for the USA whether it be political, social or economic for we are the cause and have no one to blame but ourselves.

America, Great Britain and fellow Israelite nations were blessed from God because they were defenders and not aggressors as shown in the past 75 years.

When looking back at the wars our nations have been involved in the last 75 years, the results are always the same—loss of thousands of lives and more and more debt to us.

But the good news is the sorrows will end and the disciple’s prayer will bring us all to the conclusion that Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Be prepared and anoint yourself in the blood of Christ for He will return and the beginning of sorrows will be in the rear-view mirror.

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

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