{"id":465549,"date":"2026-09-21T11:55:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T09:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/09\/21\/mar-rosso-kallas-ai-ministri-ue-dobbiamo-agire-per-contrastare-la-minaccia-degli-houthi\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T12:49:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T10:49:30","slug":"red-sea-kallas-tells-eu-ministers-the-bloc-must-act-to-counter-the-houthi-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/09\/21\/red-sea-kallas-tells-eu-ministers-the-bloc-must-act-to-counter-the-houthi-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sea: Kallas tells EU ministers the bloc must act to counter the Houthi threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Greater efforts are needed to counter the Houthi threat in the Red Sea, the European Union\u2019s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas<\/strong>, said in a letter sent to the 27 foreign and defence ministers on Saturday (19 September), outlining the need for greater deployment of ships and aircraft in the region. The request comes after the Houthis<\/strong> \u2013 a predominantly Shia armed group that has controlled part of Yemen for several years now \u2013 seized control of the port of Mocha, the island of Perim, and the Hanish Islands in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait<\/strong>, a strategic chokepoint situated \u201calong a key international transit route.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her letter, Kallas emphasised that, as well as posing \u201ca serious threat to maritime security,\u201d the armed group\u2019s control of the route \u201cis already affecting European interests, with repercussions for our supply chains<\/strong> and could have implications for our ability to sustain our economies, which are already being hit by rising fuel prices.\u201d At present, \u201calthough the Houthis claim they intend to target only interests linked to Saudi Arabia, uncertainties remain regarding their actions towards ships transiting through the Strait,\u201d Kallas said in the letter. Therefore, \u201cthe situation may evolve rapidly and unpredictably\u201d and \u201cwe must take action to address this new threat,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the forthcoming meetings of the Defence and Foreign Affairs Councils \u2013 due to take place in September and October, respectively \u2013 the former Estonian Prime Minister, now at the helm of the EU\u2019s foreign policy, urged ministers to reflect \u201cto suggest possible actions the EU could take to address this major challenge.\u201d That is to say, \u201ccurrent and future actions that our two naval operations in the region, ASPIDES and ATALANTA, might envisage.” The aim is to equip the EU \u201cwith more numerous and well-equipped naval and air assets to cope with the increased threat level, including greater capabilities to ensure close protection.<\/strong>\u201d While noting that the EUNAVFOR ASPIDES mission \u201ccontinues to support freedom of navigation through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait based on resources provided by Member States,\u201d in the current context marked by heightened tensions \u201cin the field of security, we must be able to substantially increase our presence<\/strong> to ensure that the operation can fully fulfil its mandate\u201d. What is at stake? \u201cProtecting our interests in terms of security and prosperity, as well as our credibility as a guarantor of security,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n

The European Union established ASPIDES \u2013 which in Greek means “shields” \u2013 to ensure freedom of navigation and protect merchant ships from attacks originating from the mainland while transiting off the coast of Yemen. Similarly, in 2008 the EU launched the ATALANTA military operation, designed to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a letter, the High Representative asks EU ministers to consider increasing the bloc\u2019s naval presence in the region via ASPIDES and ATALANTA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":465521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[25815,27336,32789,26282,27569,33830,26285,35780,34333,33312,26326,26286],"class_list":["post-465549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-fac","tag-houthi-en","tag-iran-in-2","tag-kaja-kallas","tag-mar-rosso-en","tag-ministri-esteri","tag-somalia","tag-stretto-hormuz","tag-states-united-en","tag-yemen-and"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465550,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465549\/revisions\/465550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}