Iran-backed Houthi terrorism reaching Egypt (report)

The Houthi terrorist operations expanded to reach the Egyptian people this time, after the Houthi terrorist operations were limited to the Yemeni soil, and then the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to reveal the American administration's misunderstanding of this group, and the importance of reclassifying it on the lists of terrorism.

Experts specializing in the psychology of terrorist groups said that the Houthis' hacking of an Egyptian fishing boat and the kidnapping of 20 Egyptian fishermen, despite their failure to reach Yemeni territorial waters, raises alarm and the scale of the disaster awaiting international navigation from the Houthi militia.

The experts confirmed that there has been a remarkable development in terrorist operations and maritime piracy that the Houthi group is working on, under Iranian directives, which indicates that the countries bordering the Red Sea and international trade movement, in addition to international security and peace, are threatened by this group.

International law considers those threats to international peace and security to be unjustified terrorist and criminal acts, obligating states, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other obligations under international law, to combat this by all possible means, including military action.

Terrorism Reaches Egypt

Extremist groups have resumed their terrorist activity against the Egyptian interests and its people, while terrorism is active in the Sinai in conjunction with the activity of the Houthi group in the Red Sea against Egyptian fishermen, in an indication that appears to be an attempt to put pressure on Egypt to pass political goals drawn by regional countries in the region.

Political experts assert that the Houthi militia cannot move in Yemeni territorial waters, except with information they derive from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, pointing out that the Egyptian fishermen were kidnapped from international territorial waters and dragged to Hodeidah Governorate, western Yemen, on a direct order from the Iranians.

Experts did not rule out that this process was carefully prepared with the aim of targeting the Egyptian side, to pass positions before public opinion. However, the Egyptian side was harsh in the face of Houthi attempts and forced them to free the Egyptians without conditions.

Constant Hacking

The Houthi militia, especially since the outbreak of the war in late March 2015, have continued to target international shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab El-Mandeb Strait by launching military attacks against commercial ships and oil tankers using missiles or booby-trapped boats, or detaining commercial ships and arresting their crews.

During the past years, the operations of confiscating Egyptian fishing boats and detaining Egyptian fishermen were repeated off the coast of Hodeidah Governorate (western Yemen), as they usually ended with the release of the fishermen, without the Houthis achieving their goal.

This piracy operation is not the first of its kind, if it is a dangerous expansion after the group was carrying out piracy operations on limited ships, and under the direction of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the last of which was on January 2, 2022 the UAE ship (Rawabi).

The Emirati ship was detained in the territorial waters of the Red Sea, but the Houthis claimed that the ship "carrying military equipment, and it entered Yemeni waters without permission".

But the Arab Coalition and the United Arab Emirates have proven that this ship is "commercial, carrying on board equipment and field equipment for operating the Saudi field hospital on Socotra Island after the end of its humanitarian mission, which contributed to providing health care and medical services to thousands of Yemenis on the island".

In a statement, the members of the Security Council condemned the increasing number of incidents off the coast of Yemen, "including attacks on civilian and commercial ships, which pose a significant threat to the maritime security of ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea".