Iran's Alborz warship enters Red Sea amid Houthis’ attacks on commercial vessels; tensions flare up

An Iranian warship, Alborz, has entered the contentious Red Sea on Tuesday and is sailing through the strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait where Iran backed Yemini forces of Ansar Allah, better known as the Houthis have been unleashing attacks on the commercial vessels bound for Israel.

The Tehran-based war vessel has arrived in the global strategic waterways as Houthis have vowed to target merchant ships linked with Tel Aviv with missiles and drones in a show of solidarity with the Palestinian Hamas fought by the Israeli Defense forces in the besieged Gaza Strip following the Oct.7 raid.

The Iranian warship is sailing towards Red Sea just days after an Israeli airstrike killed one of the top Iranian commanders Sayyed Razi Mousavi of the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] in Syria's capital Damascus. More and more war vessels from West, and Middle Eastern countries are concentrating in the Red Sea sparking concerns about a regional war. 

Iran’s Alvand class destroyer belongs to Iranian navy's 34th fleet and patrolled the Gulf of Aden, north of the Indian Ocean and the Bab Al-Mandab Strait in 2015, according to Iran's Press TV. In 2021, Alborz repulsed a pirate attack against two oil tankers in the Gulf of Aden.

It sailed towards the Red Sea shortly after USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group, which was deployed in the Mediterranean Sea after Hamas’ attack on Israel in October, sailed back to Norfolk, Va.

“The Alborz destroyer entered the Red Sea … by passing through the Bab al-Mandeb waterway [at the southern tip of the Red Sea, that connects Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean]," Iran's Tasnim said. 

Earlier on Sunday, US Navy helicopters from the USS Eisenhower carrier strike group sunk at least 3 Houthi boats in Red Sea while the fourth escaped as the Yemen's Houthi forces attempted to board a Maersk cargo ship off Yemen coast. At least 10 were left dead or missing in the sea, according to Iranian state affiliated agency Tasnim.

Iran did not specially unveil the details of deployment of Alborz warship to the Red Sea, but notably, the Iranian military vessels have been operating in the area since 2009. Tensions escalated in Red Sea after UK warned that it would join the US in resorting to taking the ‘direct measures’ to foil any attack on commercial shipping in the stretch.

On Sunday, UK’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron held a telephonic conversation with his Iranian counterpart, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. The two discussed the Red Sea tensions. “I made clear that Iran shares responsibility for preventing these attacks,” Cameron said in a post on social media, pointing to Iran’s “long-standing support” for the Yemen’s Houthi. Iranian minister Abdollahian slammed the ‘double standards’ of the West, stating that the “Israeli regime cannot be allowed to set the region on fire” in reference to Gaza war.

Busiest global shipping lane witnessing ‘flare ups’

Tensions have ratcheted in the 20-mile wide Bab al-Mandab Strait (“Gate of Tears” in Arabic) located between the Horn of Africa and the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula since the onset of Israel Hamas war in Middle East. The narrow strait is the busiest global shipping lane witnessing the flare ups as Hezbollah, the Iran backed Shia militia in Lebanon has opened a second front to the Israel Hamas war.

Pentagon announced a naval coalition force for enhanced maritime protection in the southern Red Sea to ward off the incessant assaults on ships. The new effort, announced the US Defense Seretary Lloyd Austin, was called the Operation Prosperity Guardian and it would tackle the “recent escalation in reckless Houthi attacks originating from Yemen.” 

The participant countries include Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain. Arab nations Egypt and Saudi Arabia are absentees. UK announced that it is deploying HMS Diamond, a destroyer, to assist the three US destroyers in Operation Prosperity Guardian. Last week, USS Carney, a destroyer started patrolling in the Red Sea after the Houthi attacked Swan Atlantic tanker with an anti ship ballistic missile from the Houthi controlled area. US military shot down more than 14 one way Houthi drones in Red Sea.

“The government is working with the US, France and other international allies to provide significant deterrence to prevent attacks on free shipping that would affect free trade,” UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson stated. “I think it is right the government is acting early alongside our allies to significantly step up the deterrents to curb these attacks," he added.

As Houthi intensified the assaults, the Danish company Møller–Maersk announced Tuesday that it is rerouting the ships around Africa and the Cape of Good Hope.

“We have faith that a solution enabling a return to using the Suez Canal and transiting through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden will be introduced in the near future, but at this time it remains difficult to determine exactly when this will be,” Maersk said in a statement.

Other shipping companies British oil firm BP, Hong Kong’s OOCL, Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd and the Italian-Swiss-owned Mediterranean Shipping Co. have all rerouted their vessels to avert being hit by Houthi’s long range missiles in the 18-mile-wide Bab el-Mandeb strait.