Red Sea, Gentiloni warns EU: “Consequences could materialize in coming weeks”

Brussels – The waters of the Red Sea are increasingly rough. Neither the raid coordinated by the United States at the turn of January 11-12, nor the tough condemnation of the United Nations in the January 10 Security Council resolution, have served as a deterrent against the attacks that the Houthis routinely conduct from Yemen on cargo ships crossing the Suez Canal. The world fears a further escalation of the Middle East crisis and a harsh economic backlash. From Brussels, the EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Paolo Gentiloni, warns, “The consequences could materialize in the coming weeks.”

The EU bloc for now has not yet identified a common strategy, pending the meeting of the diplomatic corps of the 27 in the Political and Security Committee (COPS) scheduled for tomorrow (Jan. 16). Indeed, while Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark have signed a joint statement supporting U.S.-led retaliation, Pedro Sanchez’s Spain has ruled out its possible involvement in military missions in the region. Italy and France, although already included in Operation Prosperity Guardian launched by Washington in mid-December to ensure the safety of commercial ships and oil tankers transiting the Red Sea, are waiting to evaluate the proposal of EU High Representative Josep Borrell for a European naval mission.

The plan, on which the European External Action Service (EEAS) is working, could see the light of day at the January 22 Foreign Affairs Council. But time is running out, because although Gentiloni said today that for the moment the crisis “is apparently not creating consequences on energy prices and inflation,” the Italian vice-premier, Antonio Tajani, drew a more dramatic picture. According to Tajani, “the economic damage has already begun for our ports, especially those in the South, but also that of Genoa.”

The data bear this out: about 250 ships are crossing the Suez Canal today, compared to more than 400 before the tensions with the Shiite Houthi militias. “The risks are mainly economic because a voyage circumnavigating Africa costs much more than one going through the Suez Canal, increasing insurance costs of ships and products that are exported or imported and we are an exporting country since exports are 40 per cent of our GDP,” the vice-premier explained. If ships continue to be forced to circumnavigate Africa, the medium-term risk is that of a loss of the Mediterranean’s centrality in international trade, and consequently of Italian ports.

Pending discussions on a possible European naval mission, which according to an EU diplomatic corps document should include sending “at least three anti-aircraft destroyers or frigates with multi-mission capabilities for at least one year,” EEAS spokesman Peter Stano clarified the Brussels line during the daily briefing with the international press. “The Houthi attacks are completely unjustifiable. They are missile and drone attacks against commercial ships, in no way can they be legal,” Stano said, expressing total support for the resolution by which the UN called on the Houthis to stop immediately.

The line drawn by the EU wants to keep the two crises, the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and the Red Sea crisis, unconnected, even though the Houthis claim to be acting in solidarity with the Palestinian people and are demanding a ceasefire in Gaza as a precondition for restoring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. “What the Houthis are doing—whether they think it is related to the conflict in Gaza or not—is illegal and must be stopped,” Peter Stano further pointed out.