Why the Houthis allow certain ships to pass through the Red Sea

Jun 04, 2024

Peter Zeihan Geopolitical Strategist

By Straight Arrow News

On Saturday, June 1, Yemen’s Houthis said they recently conducted numerous operations in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, targeting, among other ships, a U.S. aircraft carrier and a U.S. destroyer. However, the Greek minister of shipping claimed that overall, the Red Sea saw fewer Houthi attacks over the past week.

Watch the above video as Straight Arrow News contributor Peter Zeihan explains that while ships are still being attacked, many are avoiding the area altogether and taking the long route around Africa. However, Zeihan contends that there are some categories of vessels that the Houthis are allowing to pass through the Red Sea.

Be the first to know when Peter Zeihan publishes a new commentary! Download the Straight Arrow News app and enable push notifications today!

Excerpted from Peter’s June 4 “Zeihan on Geopolitics” newsletter:

It’s time for an update on the situation in the Red Sea and what the Houthis have been up to as of late. Spoiler alert: Most of the ships are taking the longer route around Africa, but there’s a handful still navigating this region.

When people start attacking ships and demanding extortion money, the smart thing to do is avoid that area. However, there are a few exceptions. Oil tankers, mostly originating from Arab countries, have been largely left alone by the Houthis to avoid global backlash. Russian cargo ships coming from the Black Sea have also been given the green light by the Houthis thanks to relations with end destination countries like Iran.

Finally, we have the Chinese container ships. The Chinese have opted to pay the protection money (after being targeted the first few times) and are granted passage as part of a protection racket. So, if you don’t fall into one of these boats, you’ll likely be heading around Africa for the foreseeable future.

Everybody, Peter Zion here coming to you from just outside of St. France. I am going to do a quick update on what’s going on to the Red Sea with the Houthis. Right now, as you guys all remember, the Houthis were the group in Yemen who decided to show solidarity with the Palestinians, they decided to start shooting at everyone who happened to sail by and demanding extortion money, because that’s what it means to be supportive, I guess. Anyway, it’s kind of fallen off the radar in the last month, I’m gonna give you an update of what’s going on. It’s still in play, ships are still being attacked. The reason that you’re not hearing as much about it is most ships are simply avoiding the area now and doing the very, very long sail around Africa. Now of the vessels that are getting through, they fall into three general categories. Number one, oil tankers, for the most part are not being affected. Why? Well, most of the oil tankers are sailing from Arab countries, and the Houthis ultimately have to get their support from somewhere and yes, yes, yes, Iran is their primary backer. But they know that if they start going after oil shipments, the whole world brings a bag of hammers down on them. And so they’re just avoiding that overall completely. The second category are green chips, and Bofors in general, coming from the Black Sea. Now, the vast majority of those are going to be Russian ships. And the vast majority of those are going to either Iran or India. So the Houthis, who take many of their marching orders from the Iranians are not going after the cargo with their patrons. And then the third category is container ships that are specifically Chinese flagged. All other container ships, which are the more valuable ships on the seas are avoiding the area completely. And if you think back the world’s container ships are typically either operated by the United Arab Emirates by the Danes or by the Chinese. Well, the Danes in the United Arab Emirates have basically pulled their ships out of the area that leaves the Chinese. And of several weeks ago, the Houthis very specifically target a series of Chinese vessels all in one day, and the Chinese agreed to pay them protection money. So this has definitely evolved away from anything strategic or anything political into a pure protection racket, and that is where we stand right now. All right, everyone, take care