Iran says Houthi ally to pause ship attacks for oil tanker to be rescued

Iran has announced that its Yemeni ally has agreed to a temporary pause in an ongoing campaign against vessels accused of supporting Israel in order to allow ships to reach a damaged oil tanker in the Red Sea.

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

U.S. officials later warned that the vessel may be leaking oil, warning of the potential for up to a million barrels of oil to be spilled into the Red Sea as a result of Ansar Allah’s maritime offensive. On Wednesday, Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Major General Pat Ryder said that an unspecified third-party nation had attempted to send two tugboats to bring the damaged ship to port only to face threats of attacks from Ansar Allah.

In response, the Iranian Mission to the United Nations said later that same day that, while “Yemen’s Ansarullah Movement has already announced that it will—as long as the war on Gaza persists—continue to target oil tankers bound for the Israeli regime in the Red Sea,” the group would pause operations to allow for the MV Sounion to be rescued.

“Following the outbreak of a fire on the targeted oil tanker, which was carrying oil for the regime, and the subsequent environmental hazards, several countries have reached out to ask Ansarullah, requesting a temporary truce for the entry of tugboats and rescue ships into the incident area,” the Iranian Mission to the United Nations said in a statement shared with Newsweek.

“In consideration of humanitarian and environmental concerns, Ansarullah has consented to this request,” the statement added. “The failure to provide aid and prevent an oil spill in the Red Sea stems from the negligence of certain countries, rather than concerns over the possibility of being targeted.”

The group’s decision was later confirmed by Ansar Allah spokesperson Mohammed Abdul Salam.

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

Abdul Salam also reiterated Ansar Allah’s commitment to continue mounting attacks at sea in a bid to bring an end to the war in Gaza that began last October.

“We confirm that the burning of the aforementioned oil tanker is an example of Yemen’s seriousness in targeting any ship that violates the Yemeni decision to prevent any ship from crossing to the ports of occupied Palestine with the aim of exerting pressure on the Zionist enemy entity to stop its aggression on Gaza,” Abdul Salam said.

“All shipping companies linked to the Zionist enemy entity must realize that their ships will remain vulnerable to Yemeni strikes wherever the Yemeni armed forces can reach them until the aggression stops and the siege on Gaza is lifted,” he added.

Newsweek has reached out to Ansar Allah and U.S. Central Command for comment.

Ansar Allah, a member of the Iran-aligned Axis of Resistance, launched its first strike at sea just over a month after Hamas conducted an unprecedented surprise attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the longest and deadliest war in Gaza to date. Since then, dozens of ships have come under attack in the Red Sea and neighboring waters, with at least two vessels being sunk and another two seized 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 shook the heart of Tel Aviv last month. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded with a series of airstrikes against Yemen’s critical Ansar Allah-held port of Hodeidah.

The United States has along conducted a number of strikes against Ansar Allah equipment at sea and positions in Yemeni territory. However, the group has repeatedly vowed to continue missile and drone attacks against Israel and commercial vessels accused of violating the unilateral blockade until Israel ceased operations in Gaza.

U.S. officials have long argued such operations pose more of a threat to international shipping and local industries than to Israel.

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

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

Miller warned that the alleged potential for up to a million barrels of oil to leak into the Red Sea would amount to a spill “four times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster,” which occurred when the eponymous U.S. supertanker hit a reef off of Alaska in March 1989, resulting in the second largest oil spill in U.S. waters.

After the attack on the MV Sounion, Ansar Allah announced that the ship’s owner had “violated the decision to ban entry to the ports of occupied Palestine” and later shared images purporting to show the burning vessel via official media channels.

The U.S., Israel and a number of regional countries have long accused Iran of directly supplying Ansar Allah with an advanced arsenal of missile and drones, something Tehran has repeatedly denied. The group continues to maintain control over large parts of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, since the outbreak of civil war in late 2014.

The fight between Ansar Allah and the Saudi-backed internationally recognized government of Yemen has largely been on hold since an April 2022 truce negotiated by the United Nations. But the country remains in the throes of a severe humanitarian crisis that has been exacerbated by soaring regional tensions over the war in Gaza, now also beset by a deepening humanitarian disaster, and its spillover across the Middle East.

As Iran continues to vow revenge against Israel over the killing of late Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month, other Axis of Resistance members such as Ansar Allah, the Lebanese Hezbollah movement and factions of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have also warned of upcoming escalations in their ongoing campaigns against Israel.

Earlier this month, a senior Ansar Allah official hinted to Newsweek that the group had plans to take part in significant future action against Israel.

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