🔶 Italy’s unilateral move to secure the Red Sea

🔶 Italy’s unilateral move to secure the Red Sea

With the situation worsening in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Italy announced that it will guarantee the security of passage of the ships of this country with the help of its naval forces and will not wait for a decision from the European Union for this purpose.

Guido Crosetto, Italy’s defense minister, said in announcing this: “We have the necessary capability to protect the transit and movement of the ships.”

According to him, if this maritime route becomes unusable, it will have significant economic consequences: “We should not allow delays resulting from the decision-making bureaucratic processes—something that is already complex right now—to make things worse.”

Since 2024, the European Union has been present in the Red Sea with the mission “Operation Eunavfor Aspides.”

This mission is a defensive and military naval operation by the EU to ensure freedom of navigation, launched in response to the ongoing attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militias on commercial and transport ships in the Red Sea.

Guido Crosetto, Italy’s defense minister, said that the country has now decided that it should no longer wait for the coordination and decisions of the EU mission.

At present, an Italian frigate is deployed in the region, officially under the EU mission.

The Italian government is now examining whether Parliament should review and re-approve regulations and operational authorities for this new mission.

Legal and political obstacles to a possible unilateral action are likely to be very high. However, this position statement is, in any case, a form of diplomatic disregard for Brussels.

Italy may be seeking, through this, to push the European Union to respond more quickly. Because if shipping companies, in the long term, decide to avoid transiting through the Red Sea and choose a longer route around the African continent, Italy’s economy will be severely harmed.

The Houthi militias, allied with Iran and receiving military and financial support from Tehran, succeeded in a lightning operation last week in taking control of all the western coasts of Yemen and also capturing several important strategic islands.

In this way, they have effectively gained near-complete control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The Bab el-Mandeb connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean and, like the Strait of Hormuz, has very great importance for global trade.

Yemen’s Houthis have been attacking ships in this area for years. In November 2023, shortly after the Hamas terrorist group attacked Israel and the Gaza war began, the Houthis started their attacks on commercial ships allegedly linked to Israel in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

In response to these attacks, the United States and its allies began striking Houthi positions in Yemen starting in 2024.

After the joint U.S. and Israel attack on Iran in February 2026, these clashes intensified further.

Although in May, the Houthis and the United States signed a ceasefire agreement with Oman’s mediation, the Houthis announced that they would continue attacking Israeli ships.

This group, alongside Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Hamas group in the Gaza Strip, is part of what is known as the “Axis of Resistance” led by Iran; an alliance that defines itself in opposition to Israel and the United States and has declared that its goal is the destruction of Israel.

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