The United States is expected to return Yemen’s Houthi militia — an Iranian proxy group — to its list of designated terrorist organizations after attacks on commercial and military ships in the Red Sea.
The U.S. State Department removed the Houthis from the list in February 2021, arguing that “the designations could have a devastating impact on Yemenis’ access to basic commodities like food and fuel.”
Iranian proxies have conducted a large number of attacks against the U.S. and its allies over the past few months. The most recent development in the region saw the Houthis launch their first successful strike against an American-affiliated vessel since the group began targeting ships in the Red Sea in November. Eagle Bulk Shipping’s Gibraltar Eagle was the victim of the anti-ship ballistic missile.
The Houthis have conducted at least 30 attacks against commercial ships in the Red Sea during that span, and the latest came soon after the U.S. and United Kingdom launched retaliatory strikes against Iran’s proxy group in Yemen, striking 28 sites. A day later, the U.S. bombed a Houthi-associated radar facility.
The attacks have had serious economic consequences, with the cost of shipping a container from Asia to northern Europe rising by 173 percent and oil company Shell planning to suspend tanker shipments through the Red Sea as a result of the violence.
While Iran recently allowed its proxies to carry out attacks on its behalf, the Islamic Republic has, in recent days, taken some matters into its own hands. Iran attacked two locations in Pakistan on Tuesday that it claimed were bases for the militant group Jaish al-Adl, escalating its aggression in the Middle East and Central Asia. According to the Pakistani government, the strikes — carried out using missiles and drones — killed two children and wounded three others.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry released a statement condemning Iran’s actions shortly after the strikes occurred, saying the country “strongly condemns the unprovoked violation of its airspace by Iran which resulted in the death of two innocent children while injuring three girls. This violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty is completely unacceptable and can have serious consequences.”
The statement continued, reading, “Pakistan has always said terrorism is a common threat to all countries in the region that requires coordinated action. Such unilateral acts are not in conformity with good neighborly relations and can seriously undermine bilateral trust and confidence.”
Tehran’s state-run media organization attributed the attacks to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which took responsibility for Monday’s strike near the United States consulate in Erbil, a city in northern Iraq and the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
“In response to the recent terrorist crimes of the enemies of Islamic Republic of Iran,” the IRGC said in a statement, “the spy headquarters and the gathering of anti-Iranian terrorist groups in parts of the region were targeted by the IRGC’s ballistic missiles in the middle of the night.”
Though Pakistan has not yet announced any official response to the Iranian strike, the Iraqi government recalled its ambassador to Tehran from the Islamic Republic’s capital after Monday’s attacks.