European Mission Aspis Launches in the Red Sea: Italian Ships Will Guard Merchant Vessels

The European joint military mission Aspis, in which Italy is also participating, is starting in the Red Sea. The war in the Red Sea, which resulted from the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, is expanding and now involves not only the United States and the United Kingdom, which have been repeatedly attacked by pro-Iranian Houthi militias, La Stampa writes.

Very soon, perhaps as early as next 22 January, Italy will also be there. The mission will be called Aspis, which means "shield" in ancient Greek. On the same day, European Union foreign ministers will meet in Brussels to give their approval to the proposal of the EEAS, or the EU External Action Service, as proposed by Josep Borrell, Brussels' High Representative for Foreign Affairs. 

The European mission will cooperate with the Anglo-American organisation Prosperity Guardian.

This European mission in the Red Sea is being launched to protect merchant ships from Yemeni Iranian-backed rebels, who have attacked ships and commercial cargoes from various countries delivering goods to Europe dozens of times. 

Houthi terrorists also recently fired a missile at an American ship. 

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said that the Italian mission in the Red Sea would require parliamentary approval.

"We are ready to go to the parliament and illustrate all the activities we are carrying out to guarantee the safety of navigation," Tayani said.

For Tayani, this operation could represent a position "to create a common European defence". 

"This is a crucial case: in a crisis that affects our security and economy, even the most confused citizens understand that our ships and our goods must have freedom of movement. We have to do with defence what we did twenty years ago with the euro," Tayyani said.

As The Gaze wrote earlier today, the US has re-designated the Yemeni Houthis as a global terrorist organisation.

"The Department of State today announces the designation of Ansar al-Ahrar, commonly referred to as the Houthis, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Group, effective 30 days from today," reads an official US government statement.

Last week, US and UK warplanes, ships and submarines launched airstrikes in response to Houthi terrorist attacks.

US officials said that the re-designation of the Houthis as a terrorist organisation is aimed at cutting off their funding and arming.