Greece condemns Houthi attacks and calls for protection of Red Sea shipping

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ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s foreign ministry condemned Houthi attacks in Yemen and on Saudi Arabia on Friday, declaring solidarity with Riyadh and demanding protection for Red Sea shipping.

The ministry said hostile actions against civilians and non-military infrastructure were unacceptable and had to end immediately.

Attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden could not be tolerated, it said.

Athens said freedom and security of navigation had to be respected in full, in line with international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The ministry described the escalation as a threat to peace and stability in the region, and to the safety of civilians.

It restated Greece’s commitment to regional and maritime security, and pointed to the country’s part in the European Union naval mission EUNAVFOR Aspides.

Aspides was created to help protect commercial shipping in the Red Sea and nearby waters. Greek naval forces take part in escorting merchant vessels.

The account of the ministry’s position rests on the statement itself, as carried by the Greek daily To Vima and by Yemen’s state news agency, Saba. Yemen Herald could not independently verify its full text, and no confirmation of its contents has been published beyond the ministry’s own announcement.

The statement followed a week of Houthi gains along Yemen’s west coast.

Fighting broke out on Sept. 3, when Houthi forces opened an offensive in Taiz governorate. The internationally recognised government mounted counter-attacks in al-Jawf and al-Bayda.

Houthi fighters took the port city of Mocha on Sept. 10. They then seized Dhubab, the last sizeable town on the western coast overlooking the Bab al-Mandab strait.

On Sept. 11 they reached Mayyun island, also called Perim, after government forces pulled back. CNN, NPR and Al Jazeera each reported the withdrawal.

The island lies close to the narrowest point of the strait, which carries traffic between Asia and Europe by way of the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, said the advance had pushed Saudi-backed forces out of six districts covering 5,400 square kilometres. The government disputes such accounts, and Yemen Herald found no second origin for the figure.

The Houthi movement has also announced a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia, To Vima reported.

The United States Maritime Administration has issued an advisory to commercial vessels covering the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea and the Somali Basin.

Greece was not alone. Several members of the U.N. Security Council condemned the escalating Houthi attacks at an emergency briefing this week, according to the Council’s own record of the session.

The Council met after Houthi fighters captured Mocha. Hans Grundberg, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, told members the country had entered a new and more dangerous phase of war as its four-year truce collapsed.

Grundberg said fighting had spread across the provinces of Taiz, Hodeidah, Marib, al-Jawf and al-Bayda, killing civilians and displacing more than 11,400 households. He said Houthi forces had also struck civilian and energy infrastructure inside Saudi Arabia.

He urged the Houthis to halt attacks and threats against commercial vessels, and called for civilian protection and for a political settlement to be preserved. The consequences of the conflict would not remain within Yemen’s borders, he said.

Earlier in the week, Houthi forces struck energy sites inside Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said 73 civilians were injured, among them women and children. The strikes hit Abha, Jazan, Najran and Khamis Mushait, and set fires at Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery and a distribution centre in Abha, CNN reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sept. 8 that the Houthis were “in many ways agents and proxies of the Iranians,” and that “behind some of this is clearly the Iranian hand.”

Iran rejected that. Esmaeil Baghaei, a foreign ministry spokesman, called the remarks lies and said the group “takes orders from no one and acts as nobody’s proxy.”

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has pressed President Donald Trump to take military action against the Houthis, NBC News reported. The U.S. military is helping Saudi counterparts develop and coordinate targets inside Yemen, the network said.

For Greece, the commercial stakes are direct. To Vima said the country’s shipping sector carries extensive exposure to international trade routes.

Disruption on the Red Sea route can send vessels sailing between Asia and Europe around the Cape of Good Hope. That lengthens voyages and raises costs.

To Vima, citing The Wall Street Journal, reported that Brent crude had passed $100 a barrel as the conflict deepened.

Conditions inside Yemen have deteriorated alongside the fighting.

The International Organization for Migration said on Thursday that at least 46,000 people had been displaced by the fighting in the south-west.

Doctors Without Borders said on Friday that many residents had left Mocha, that health workers had abandoned most hospitals, and that several medical facilities had stopped working.

The United Nations humanitarian plan for Yemen, issued in March, counted more than 22 million people in need of assistance and 18.3 million who were acutely food insecure.

It recorded more than 2.2 million children under five as acutely malnourished, 516,157 of them severely, and 5.2 million people displaced inside the country.

The plan sought $2.16 billion to reach 12 million people.