Double whammy
Experts said the Houthis have spent the past decade building up their military capabilities as a rebel group fighting Saudi Arabia.
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Daily TribuneExperts said the Houthis have spent the past decade building up their military capabilities as a rebel group fighting Saudi Arabia.
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The terror attacks on global shipping lanes by the well-armed Houthis of Yemen, who are adjuncts of the Hamas terrorists, will have a backlash on global trade, aside from putting in jeopardy nearly half a million Filipinos who constitute the biggest workforce on international liners.
The assaults are well-calculated to affect world trade and, in turn, put pressure on Israel and its allies to let up on the campaign to end the anarchist regime in the Gaza Strip.
The troublemakers are now defeated, with Israel undertaking a sweep of Gaza to find stragglers and the remaining hostages who have languished in the hell that Hamas has inflicted on them.
The Houthis, a known proxy of Iran, have attacked several huge commercial vessels forcing global liners to suspend their Red Sea route.
This is expected to result in shipment delays that experts fear may replicate the supply chain problems during the pandemic.
Thus far, four major cargo liners — Mediterranean Shipping Co., CMA CGM, Danish shipping giant Maersk, and German company Hapag-Lloyd — had indicated their ships will cease passage through the Red Sea and Egypt's Suez Canal.
Aside from boarding the cargo vessels, the Houthis have launched drone and missile attacks on ships passing through the Red Sea, near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The terror assaults are meant to shut down a key trade route of Israeli imports and exports from the Far East on their way to Europe.
Experts said container ships will now need to take a 40-percent longer route around Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, increasing the shipping time of goods by two to four weeks and raising shipment costs by up to $1 million.
The additional costs will make goods more expensive for importers and trickle down in higher prices for consumers.
The Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line announced on Saturday that it "will stop cargo acceptance to and from Israel with immediate effect until further notice," due to the threats from the Houthis.
The Red Sea links Europe and Asia and is connected to the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal.
Thus, any disruptions will also affect European trade and may interrupt the global oil supply.
According to the International Chamber of Shipping, 12 percent of global trade passes through the Red Sea.
Experts said the Houthis have spent the past decade building up their military capabilities as a rebel group fighting Saudi Arabia. With the Saudi-Houthi war winding down over the past two years, the terror group has directed its attacks elsewhere, catching the world unprepared.
Geopolitical experts are now calling for an international coalition to protect the vital trade route and safeguard the international principle of freedom of navigation.
Such an approach had been tried before against the armed pirates from Somalia who were neutralized by a naval coalition led by the United States.
The more sophisticated Houthis have taken over as the villains of the seas.
Experts said the Houthis employ means that used to be available only to state actors, such as missiles, drones, sea mines, and limpet mines.
"This is significant as all these used to be available only to navies and powerful states, but they are now available to non-state actors as well, threatening freedom of navigation and shipping through these critical maritime choke points," according to a geopolitical expert keeping track of the Red Sea developments.
For the Philippines, the effect of the maritime terrorism is double-barreled with Filipino merchant marines in the direct line of fire as they dominate the crews of the major shipping lines.
A more serious effect will be on the prices of commodities, particularly fuel, which are already at levels that punish households.
The Philippines must lead the call for a multinational force to guard the vital trade routes.
