November 11, 2025: Last July the Yemeni National Resistance Forces/NRF, led by Yemeni General Tareq Saleh, was responsible for the seizure of more than 750 tons of munitions and military equipment meant for the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The captured items included several hundred modern cruise, anti-ship, and anti-aircraft missiles, along with warheads, seekers, and other items. There were also hundreds of drone engines, air defense radar systems, and communications equipment. Accompanying them were assembly and operating documents and instruction manuals written in Farsi, the Iranian language. These revealed that weapons and equipment were accompanying the weapons, were manufactured by a firm that supplied the Iranian Ministry of Defense. This firm, and Iran in general, are currently sanctioned by the United States.

Last year the Houthi Shia rebels in Yemen, armed by decades of smuggled Iranian weapons shipments, sought to block commercial shipping from entering the Red Sea by firing rockets and missiles at ships, as well as sending out speed boats carrying explosives or armed men who tried to attack or board commercial ships and force the crew, at gunpoint, to move the ship to a pirate-friendly port in nearby Somalia. The threats begin at the entrance to the Red Sea, which passes through the 26 kilometer wide and 50 kilometer long Bab-el-Mandeb strait. The rebels do not control any territory near these narrow straits. Rebel controlled territory is over a hundred kilometers north of the straits. The Houthi rebels were launching rockets and guided missiles at commercial ships that got close enough to the shore to hit. Most ships remained out of range and the rebels sometimes sent out speed boats carrying armed men to board and take control of cargo ships. Some boats carried explosives, and the operator left the boat as

The Americans imposed economic sanctions on the Shia rebels, who consider themselves the true government of Yemen. These sanctions make it more difficult and sometimes impossible for the Yemen rebels to use any money they have in foreign banks. Holding a lot of cash inside Yemen is dangerous and prevents the rebels from moving that money around to buy things they need.

The United States also sent ships equipped with electronic warfare equipment to disable the communications of Iranian ships that were supplying the Yemen Shia rebels with target information.

The United States, Britain, Canada, Bahrain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles, and Spain offered to send warships to protect commercial shipping using the Red Sea to reach the Suez Canal and ports in the Mediterranean Sea and beyond. Most of these nations decided not to send warships and left it to the Americans and a few other nations to deal with the situation. These nations believed it was easier to let commercial shipping use the longer and more time consuming route around the southern tip of Africa.

Egypt, which operates the Suez Canal and earns $10 billion a year in transit fees, is offering to provide repairs for any commercial ship damaged by the Yemen Shia rebel attacks. This is to encourage shipping firms to use the Canal, and pay its fees to Egypt, rather than taking the more expensive long way around southern Africa. Egypt and Iran are enemies and reducing Suez Canal income is a win for Iran, which supported the Yemen rebels for more than a decade to make that success possible.

The foreign warships operating against the Houthis include an American aircraft carrier, whose aircraft joined land based aircraft from Persian Gulf bases to attack Yemen Shia rebel forces and munitions, especially missiles used against commercial shipping. Many of the foreign warships in the Red Sea have defensive weapons that can intercept Shia rebel missiles. All these efforts have been sufficient to greatly reduce but not eliminate the attacks by the Yemen rebels on Red Sea shipping.

The current security efforts in the Red Sea are a continuation of anti-piracy efforts that began in 2008 and have continued since then, mainly near the African or Somali coast but close enough to deal with threats on the Arabian Peninsula or Yemen side of the Red Sea route to the Suez Canal. Somali pirates were the main threat twenty years ago, but they were eventually eliminated with help from Western and other countries, such as China, that send a lot of their seaborne trade through the Red Sea.