Iran: Houthi ally halts ship attacks so oil tanker can be rescued

Iran has announced that its Yemeni ally has agreed to a temporary suspension of the ongoing campaign against ships accused of supporting Israel, aimed at allowing ships to reach a damaged oil tanker in the Red Sea.

The Yemeni Ansar Allah, also spelled Ansarullah and widely known as the Houthi movement, announced last week that it had taken control of the Greek-owned MV Sounion as part of a nine-month campaign to put pressure on international shipping in the face of the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip.

U.S. officials later warned that the ship may be leaking oil and warned that up to a million barrels of oil could spill into the Red Sea as a result of Ansar Allah's naval offensive. On Wednesday, Pentagon press secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said an unnamed third country had attempted to send two tugboats to bring the damaged ship into port, after which it was met with threats of attack from Ansar Allah.

In response, the Iranian mission to the United Nations stated later the same day that “the Ansarullah movement in Yemen has already announced that as long as the war on Gaza continues, it will continue to attack oil tankers in the Red Sea destined for the Israeli regime,” but that the group would pause its operations to MV Sounion be saved.

“Following the outbreak of fire on the attacked oil tanker carrying oil for the regime and the resulting environmental damage, several countries have asked Ansarullah for a temporary ceasefire for the entry of smugglers and rescue ships into the accident area,” said a statement by the Iranian mission to the United Nations, which was accompanied by Newsweek.

“For humanitarian and environmental reasons, Ansarullah has agreed to this request,” the statement continued. “The failure to provide assistance and prevent an oil spill in the Red Sea is more due to the negligence of certain countries than to any concern about becoming a target of attacks.”

The group's decision was later confirmed by Ansar Allah spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam.

“After several international parties, especially European ones, contacted us, they were allowed to tow the burning oil tanker Sounion,” Abdul Salam said in a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Abdul Salam also reiterated Ansar Allah's commitment to continue its attacks from the sea to end the war in the Gaza Strip that began last October.

“We confirm that the burning of the above-mentioned oil tanker is an example of the seriousness with which Yemen attacks any ship that violates the Yemeni decision to prevent any ship from passing through the ports of occupied Palestine, with the aim of putting pressure on the Zionist enemy to stop its aggression against Gaza,” Abdul Salam said.

“All shipping companies associated with the Zionist enemy must be aware that their ships will remain vulnerable to Yemeni attacks wherever Yemeni forces can reach them until the aggression ends and the siege on Gaza is lifted,” he added.

Newsweek has reached out to Ansar Allah and the US Central Command for comment.

Ansar Allah, a member of the Iran-aligned Axis of Resistance, launched its first naval attack just over a month after Hamas carried out an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the longest and deadliest war in Gaza to date. Since then, dozens of vessels have been attacked in the Red Sea and adjacent waters, with at least two vessels sunk and two others hijacked by the group, one of which was later released.

Ansar Allah has also launched dozens of direct attacks on Israel, including a deadly drone strike that rocked Tel Aviv last month. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded with a series of airstrikes on the Ansar Allah-held port of Hodeidah, a key port for Yemen.

The United States has already carried out several attacks on Ansar Allah equipment at sea and on Yemeni territory, but the group has repeatedly said it will continue its rocket and drone attacks on Israel and commercial vessels accused of violating the unilateral blockade until Israel ceases its operations in Gaza.

US officials have long argued that such operations pose a greater threat to international shipping and local industry than to Israel.

“Through these attacks, the Houthis have made clear that they are willing to destroy the fishing industry and regional ecosystems on which Yemenis and other communities in the region depend for their livelihoods. Likewise, through their reckless attacks, they have undermined the delivery of vital humanitarian aid to the region,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement on Saturday.

“We call on the Houthis to immediately stop these actions and urge other nations to step in to help avert this environmental disaster,” he added.

Miller warned that the alleged risk of up to a million barrels of oil leaking into the Red Sea would amount to an oil spill “four times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster.” The US supertanker of the same name ran aground on a reef off Alaska in March 1989, causing the second largest oil spill in American waters.

After the attack on the MV SounionAnsar Allah announced that the ship's owner had “violated the decision to ban entry into the ports of occupied Palestine” and later released images through official media channels purporting to show the burning ship.

The United States, Israel and a number of countries in the region have long accused Iran of directly supplying Ansar Allah with a modern arsenal of missiles and drones, which Tehran has repeatedly denied. Since the outbreak of the civil war in late 2014, the group has continued to control large parts of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.

The fighting between Ansar Allah and Yemen's Saudi-backed, internationally recognized government has been largely on hold since a UN-brokered ceasefire in April 2022. But the country remains in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis, exacerbated by rising regional tensions over the war in Gaza, which is now also hit by a deepening humanitarian catastrophe, and its expansion into the Middle East.

As Iran continues to vow revenge on Israel for the assassination of the late Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month, other members of the Axis of Resistance such as Ansar Allah, the Lebanese Hezbollah movement and factions of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have also warned of an impending escalation of their ongoing campaigns against Israel.

Earlier this month, a senior Ansar Allah official suggested Newsweek that the group has plans to engage in major actions against Israel in the future.

This is a breaking news story. More information will be added as it becomes available.