The United States condemns the latest reckless and indiscriminate attacks on civilian ships by the Houthis. This includes the deliberate attacks on the M/V TUTOR, which sunk earlier this week, and the M/V VERBENA, which is abandoned and adrift in the Red Sea, posing a navigational hazard to other maritime traffic. The Houthis previously killed three seafarers aboard the MV True Confidence on March 6 and sank the MV Rubymar on March 2, posing a critical threat to Red Sea ecosystems. Houthi attacks continue to hinder vital humanitarian assistance from reaching Yemenis and pose dire risks to economic and humanitarian conditions in countries across the Red Sea region and to the broader global economy. These actions are a clear failure to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 2722’s demand that the Houthis “immediately cease all such attacks.”
The United States has been clear that we and our partners will continue to take necessary action to protect freedom of navigation and commercial shipping from Houthi attacks in this critical international waterway and to safeguard vital economic and humanitarian assistance to countries in the region. We once again call on the Houthis to release all detainees, including the United Nations, diplomatic, and non-governmental organization staff they detained earlier this month. The Houthis have employed disinformation to shift blame for these abhorrent detentions to outside actors to distract from their own recklessness. We will not rest until all detainees are released.
Official news published at https://www.state.gov/houthi-sinking-of-merchant-ships-in-the-red-sea/
