0:01 as the world's attention is still
0:02 largely focused on the brutal War being
0:04 waged in Gaza that's already claimed the
0:06 lives of tens of thousands of people
0:08 something else is happening nearby to
0:09 the south in the Red Sea that has the
0:11 potential to escalate the war between
0:13 Israel and Hamas into a greater Middle
0:15 East wide conflict that's already
0:17 severely affecting the entire global
0:19 economy you see after Israel initiated
0:21 its fullscale invasion of Gaza the
0:23 houthis a Shia Muslim military
0:25 organization in Yemen that's funded and
0:27 armed by Iran declared their full
0:29 unwavering support for Hamas and the
0:31 Palestinian cause against Israel but
0:34 geographically located about 1,600 km
0:35 away from Israeli territory and more
0:38 than 1,800 km away from the main fight
0:40 going on in Gaza the houthis were
0:41 incapable of participating in the war
0:44 happening around Gaza directly and so
0:45 they decided to begin intervening on the
0:47 side of Hamas Moore indirectly in
0:49 November of 2023 the houthis declar that
0:51 they would begin attacking every single
0:53 ship they could find sailing nearby to
0:55 their territory in the Red Sea that was
0:57 linked in any way to Israel including
0:59 any ships traveling to or from Israeli
1:00 ports any ship ship with Israeli
1:02 ownership any ship flying an Israeli
1:04 flag or any ship with an Israeli crew
1:05 and then they further stated that these
1:07 attacks on Israeli shipping would
1:09 continue indefinitely until Israel fully
1:11 withdrew from Gaza and ended its war
1:13 against Hamas but there was a slight
1:16 problem with the houthi plan you see the
1:17 ownership structure of the globalized
1:19 21st century Merchant shipping Fleet is
1:21 a very complicated business Merchant
1:23 ships very often travel between origin
1:25 and destination in different countries
1:26 the ownership structure of the ship
1:27 itself is often divided between multiple
1:29 different nationalities that may have
1:30 nothing to do with where the ship's
1:32 origin or destination is the flag of
1:34 call that the ship flies may be
1:35 completely different altogether while
1:36 The Crew That's operating the ship may
1:38 be of completely different nationalities
1:40 from everything else as well determining
1:41 which Merchant ships operating on the
1:43 world's oceans are considered Israeli or
1:45 not is not as simple a task as it
1:47 appears at first but that didn't
1:49 dissuade the houthis from deciding to
1:50 intervene Anyway by attacking whatever
1:53 ships they determined were Israeli their
1:55 attacks began on the 19th of November
1:58 2023 with a Brazen hijacking of an empty
1:59 car carrier sailing through the Red Sea
2:01 that was traveling from Turkey to India
2:03 the hthis raided the ship with a
2:04 helicopter that transported a heavily
2:06 armed Special Forces Squad onto the
2:08 ship's deck who quickly managed to
2:10 subdue the ship's crew and rerouted it
2:12 back to the houthi controlled Port of
2:14 Heda in Western Yemen the ship was
2:15 called the Galaxy leader and its
2:16 registered owner was a company known as
2:18 Galaxy Maritime limited that's based in
2:21 the Isle of Man a UK dependency the ship
2:23 was being chartered by a Japanese
2:24 company its flag of call was based on
2:26 the Bahamas and its 25 crew members
2:27 hailed from the Philippines Romania
2:29 Bulgaria Ukraine and Mexico the only
2:31 connection that the ship had to Israel
2:32 was that the company that owned the ship
2:34 Galaxy Maritime limited was further
2:36 owned by another company known as Ray
2:38 car carriers which is a business that's
2:39 co-owned by a well-known Israeli
2:40 businessman and billionaire named
2:42 Abraham unar who has a current net worth
2:46 of approximately $3.25 billion US based
2:47 on that the houthis decided that the
2:50 ship was fair game to attack and hijack
2:52 and it would be far from the last in the
2:53 weeks and months that have followed
2:55 after that initial attack the houthis
2:57 have Unleashed a torrent of hundreds of
2:58 missiles and drones and launched further
3:00 hijacking attempts against against
3:01 dozens of merchant ships caught sailing
3:03 through the Red Sea Merchant ships that
3:05 have been linked to dozens of countries
3:06 from all around the world and the
3:08 missiles drones experience and
3:09 intelligence that they've received to
3:10 launch all of these attacks have largely
3:13 all come from a single Source their
3:15 biggest Patron the Islamic Republic of
3:17 Iran Iran has spent years carefully
3:19 cultivating the houthis from a ragtag
3:21 group of militia into a legitimately
3:23 dangerous state-like military force with
3:26 a massive arsenal of guided anti-ship
3:28 missiles and swarms of cheap explosive
3:30 kamakazi drones that they can use to
3:32 overwhelm Maritime anti-air defenses
3:34 with through sheer numbers backed by
3:36 Iran the houthis have arguably become
3:38 the most dangerous and heavily armed
3:40 piracy force in modern history and
3:41 unlike the Pirates before then they used
3:43 to launch out from Somalia and raided
3:45 commercial shipping in the Arabian Sea
3:47 the Hy Pirates control a significantly
3:49 more advantageous geography to wreck the
3:51 global economy from they currently
3:53 dominate the Northwestern third of
3:55 Yemen's territory including most of
3:56 Yemen's population and most of Yemen's
3:59 Coastline along the Red Sea which gives
4:00 them Direct access to launching
4:02 hijacking ships missiles and drones into
4:03 one of the world's most critical
4:06 arteries of globalized trade the Red Sea
4:07 itself can be thought of as the primary
4:09 Maritime passageway between Asia and
4:11 Europe and the passageway is bounded by
4:13 two narrow Gates on either side of it
4:15 that regulate access through it the
4:17 babal men Deb straight in the South
4:19 between Yemen and jibuti and the Suez
4:20 Canal in the north that runs across
4:22 Egypt the route between these Gates
4:24 across the Red Sea is a part of the
4:26 shortest possible Geographic route for
4:27 merchant ships to take traveling between
4:29 Asia and Europe and so it's the
4:30 preferred route of choice for container
4:32 ships carrying manufactured goods and
4:33 raw materials from places like China
4:35 Japan South Korea Taiwan and India to
4:37 take when transporting their goods to
4:40 the huge European consumer market and
4:41 from another perspective this trade
4:43 round is also a major artery for the
4:45 flow of global energy resources from
4:48 origin to Consumer like oil and gas from
4:49 places like Russia Kazakhstan and aeran
4:52 towards Asia in One Direction and oil
4:54 and gas around the Persian Gulf towards
4:56 Europe in another Direction as a result
4:59 roughly 12% of the entire World's Trade
5:00 volume used usually flows through the
5:02 Red Sea on an annual basis which
5:04 includes nearly a third of the entire
5:06 world's containership traffic roughly
5:08 10% of the world's Seaborn oil and
5:10 roughly 8% of all the world's LNG an
5:12 average of 50 Merchant vessels usually
5:14 Transit through the sez Canal on a daily
5:16 basis in this overall makes the sez
5:18 canal and the babelan Deb straight the
5:19 second most critical Maritime choke
5:21 point for globalized trade anywhere in
5:23 the world remaining only behind the
5:25 Singapore straight in Southeast Asia in
5:27 overall importance and all of this
5:29 massive volume of trade and energy that
5:31 usually flows through the Red Sea makes
5:33 its overall security and stability an
5:35 extremely important core interest for
5:37 dozens of countries and actors from all
5:39 around the world to Russia the Red Sea
5:41 is still its most vital artery for
5:43 exporting their own crude oil and LG
5:45 Resources by sea towards their new
5:48 primary consumers China and India well
5:50 Kazakhstan and aeran rely on the route
5:51 to a lesser extent for their own oil
5:54 exports as well from China's perspective
5:56 the Red Sea is its most vital artery to
5:58 receive energy resources from Russia
5:59 through and to transport their own
6:01 manufactured products to the European
6:03 consumer Market through which is a
6:05 similar concern to Japan and largely why
6:07 both China and Japan maintain overseas
6:10 military bases in Djibouti nearby to
6:12 help Safeguard their own trade routes to
6:14 Qatar the Red Sea is its primary trade
6:16 route to export their LNG supplies to
6:18 Europe while to Saudi Arabia the United
6:20 Arab Emirates Bahrain Kuwait and Iraq
6:22 the Red Sea is their primary trade route
6:23 to export their crude oil to Europe
6:25 through to the European Union the Red
6:27 Sea is their primary trade route for
6:29 receiving manufactured goods from Asia
6:31 and energy resources from the Persian
6:33 Gulf through while to the United States
6:34 Washington wants to ensure the
6:36 continuous flow of Maritime trade
6:38 through the Red Sea to keep the global
6:39 economy and globalized system that it
6:42 Champions and protects humming along and
6:44 Egypt as the controller of the sez Canal
6:46 that regulates all of this trade stands
6:48 to arguably benefit the most when the
6:50 trade is running smoothly and lose out
6:52 the most when the trade isn't running
6:54 smoothly Egypt Suz Canal Authority is
6:55 the guardian of the canal and they
6:57 charge various fees and tolls on every
6:59 ship that passes through it as ships
7:01 usually have no other alternative the
7:03 only other possible Geographic Choice
7:05 the ships can take to travel between
7:06 Asia and Europe is the much much much
7:09 longer way all the way around the entire
7:11 African continent around the Cape of
7:12 Good Hope a route that usually adds
7:14 anywhere between 7 and 10 days of travel
7:16 time and significantly higher cost for
7:19 ships to take under normal circumstances
7:20 the tolls and fees that Egypt charges on
7:22 ships passing through the SE Canal are
7:24 still much cheaper than the alternative
7:26 of sailing around the whole of Africa
7:27 and it's also usually one of the
7:29 Egyptian government's largest sources of
7:31 Revenue as the world began recovering
7:32 from the logistical supply chain
7:33 bottlenecks that were caused by the
7:36 covid-19 pandemic an all-time high
7:37 record number of ships passed through
7:39 the sez Canal during the fiscal year
7:42 between June of 2022 and June of 2023
7:46 25,8 187 ships took the journey which
7:48 also netted Egypt an all-time high
7:50 annual revenue from the Suez Canal about
7:54 $9.4 billion us about enough to help
7:56 fund 10% of the entire Egyptian
7:58 government's operating budget and this
8:00 is all in addition to to the fact that
8:01 many countries can only import their
8:04 goods from abroad through the Red Sea
8:05 the only Maritime ports that Jordan
8:08 Sudan and arrea have are all just
8:10 located on the Red Sea while djibouti's
8:12 Port nearby to the Red Sea on the Gulf
8:15 of Aiden currently supports roughly 95%
8:17 of landlocked Ethiopia's trade volume
8:19 and so the safe secure and reliable flow
8:21 of trade continuing through the Red Sea
8:24 is extremely extremely important to all
8:26 of these dozens of countries from all
8:28 around the world both near and far from
8:31 it but unfortunately the Red Sea has
8:32 always existed within one of the most
8:34 geopolitically turbulent regions in the
8:36 world and ships are also their most
8:38 vulnerable when transiting through
8:39 either side of the narrow Gates on
8:41 either end of it both the Suez Canal in
8:43 the North and the babelan Deb Strait in
8:45 the South can be blockaded intentionally
8:47 or even accidentally and when they are
8:49 the Red Sea passageway for global trade
8:51 comes to a complete halt this has
8:53 happened twice before in fairly recent
8:56 history once for a long period of 8
8:58 years when the entire suiz canal in the
9:00 north was shut down between 1967 and
9:03 1975 during the Arab Israeli Wars after
9:04 Israel secured control over the entire
9:07 Sinai Peninsula and in the process the
9:09 suis Canal itself became an active
9:11 Frontline war zone dividing Egyptian and
9:12 Israeli zones of control for those eight
9:14 years until Israel agreed to return the
9:17 Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt and
9:18 another much shorter time when the canal
9:20 be game closed once again much more
9:23 recently and much more MD about in 20121
9:25 when a container ship known as the everg
9:27 given got blinded during a sandstorm
9:29 when transiting through the Suz canal
9:31 and crashed blocking the Canal's entire
9:34 width for 6 days and 7 hours the ship
9:36 blocked all Passage through the Suez
9:38 Canal like a cork stuck in a bottle and
9:40 dramatically slowed down trade between
9:42 Europe Asia and the Middle East hundreds
9:44 of trade ships carrying nearly 10
9:46 billion dollar worth of goods became
9:48 bottlenecked many ships decided to give
9:50 up and rerouted the long way around
9:51 Africa and once it was freed the
9:53 Egyptian government initially demanded
9:55 more than $1 billion in compensation
9:58 from the ever given's owners and then on
9:59 the other side of the red see the
10:02 babelan Deb street is merely 23 km wide
10:04 at its narrowest point and so it
10:06 basically functions more like a two-lane
10:08 Highway for merchant ships with one
10:09 Highway running South and the other
10:12 running North a single ship can't really
10:13 get stuck and block the street in the
10:15 same kind of way that it can in the sus
10:17 Canal but the babelan Deb Strait is
10:19 located in a far more precarious
10:22 neighborhood right now in 2024 there are
10:24 still ongoing violent Civil Wars raging
10:27 all around the straight in Yemen Sudan
10:29 Somalia and Ethiopia the just over the
10:31 last few years have likely resulted in
10:34 the deaths of more than 1 million people
10:36 while arat tra is ruled by a ruthless
10:38 dictatorship that is often considered to
10:40 be on the same scale of totalitarianism
10:43 as North Korea jibuti alone exists as
10:45 arguably an island of stability within
10:48 this mstom of chaos and that's why
10:49 foreign countries from all around the
10:51 world maintain significant military
10:52 bases in the country to protect their
10:54 own national interests from China and
10:56 Japan to the United States France and
10:58 Italy and probably shortly Saudi Arabia
11:00 as well where the United Arab Emirates
11:01 maintains another base nearby in the
11:03 self- declared state of Somali land and
11:05 Russia is attempting to acquire a former
11:07 United Arab Emirates military base in
11:09 Eritrea here at aab directly adjacent to
11:11 the straight for years the biggest
11:13 threat that was facing shipping going
11:15 through the Babel M Deb straet where the
11:16 Somali pirates who raided Merchant
11:18 vessels mostly for money hostages and
11:20 ransoms in the Gulf of Aiden and in the
11:23 Arabian Sea a problem that lasted well
11:25 into the 2010s until it finally began
11:27 dying down after 2017 as Maritime
11:29 patrols from the American UK French
11:31 Russian Chinese and other International
11:33 navies began conducting better patrols
11:34 and better escort missions of merchant
11:36 shipping through the region that
11:37 dissuaded the pirates from launching any
11:39 further attacks that could disrupt the
11:41 global economy but now the houthis and
11:43 Yemen are the ones launching dozens of
11:45 attacks on this critical global trade
11:47 artery and it's already been severely
11:49 affecting the worldwide economy the
11:51 houthi movement which is officially
11:53 known as ansar la which translates to
11:55 Defenders Of God arose out of Yemen's
11:57 zidi Shia Muslim Community who make up
12:00 about 1/4 of Yen's overall population
12:01 and are native to the hills and
12:03 mountains of Yemen's Northwest
12:04 immediately opposite of Saudi Arabia's
12:06 own largely Shia Muslim Community
12:08 immediately across the border formed
12:10 with militant opposition to the United
12:12 States Israel and the Saudi monarchy's
12:14 influence in the Middle East in mind the
12:15 houthis sought closer relations with
12:18 Iran while their official motto and flag
12:19 have never left any doubt as to where
12:22 they stand politically and ideologically
12:23 it reads from Line to Line translated
12:26 into English as God is the greatest
12:29 death to America death to Israel a curse
12:32 upon the Jews Victory to Islam a decade
12:34 ago in 2014 during the midst of the Arab
12:35 Spring revolts that were sweeping all
12:37 across the Middle East the houthis
12:38 managed to organize themselves with
12:40 support and funding from Iran and
12:42 stormed out from their Hills to capture
12:44 the yeni capital from the yeni
12:46 government SAA from there the houthis
12:48 managed to expand their territorial
12:50 control even further across Northwestern
12:51 Yemen while the president of Yemen at
12:53 the time fled the country towards Saudi
12:56 Arabia at his own request for a foreign
12:57 intervention to restore his own
13:00 authority and Crush the houthi Rebellion
13:01 Saudi Arabia decided to militarily
13:03 intervene in Yemen Civil War beginning
13:06 in 2015 the Saudis along with many other
13:08 Arab states all supplied with arms and
13:10 finances from the United States then
13:13 launched operation decisive storm into
13:15 Yemen the Saudis were terrified that if
13:16 the Shia houthis were victorious in
13:18 Yemen they could exploit their
13:19 Geographic position to blockade the
13:21 babelan Deb Strait in unison with their
13:23 Shia supporter Iran's ability to
13:25 blockade the straight of hor moves a
13:27 situation that would immediately crash
13:29 Saudi Arabia's entire econom
13:31 that's overwhelmingly reliant on
13:33 exporting their crude oil to customers
13:35 in Asia if both choke points were shut
13:37 down the Saudis would be forced into a
13:39 situation where they could only continue
13:40 selling their oil to their biggest
13:42 customers by exporting their oil the
13:44 Long Way to the north through the sez
13:48 canal and then all the way around Africa
13:50 which would make their oil significantly
13:52 more expensive for Asian consumers to
13:54 buy and would make Saudi oil far less
13:56 competitive which would mean that they
13:58 would sell a lot less of their oil and
14:00 Saudi Arabia finances and government
14:02 would each become devastated so the
14:04 Saudis wanted to crush the houthis and
14:05 restore the authority of the friendly
14:07 yeni government before that could ever
14:09 happen as did the United States and all
14:11 the other Arab states opposed to Iran
14:13 over the next few years the Saudi Le a
14:15 campaign would drop around 25,000 air
14:17 strikes all across hthi control
14:18 territory in Yemen that's estimated to
14:21 have killed more than 19,000 civilians
14:23 while the Saudi Leed Coalition Navy
14:25 initiated a maritime blockade of the
14:27 houthi controlled Coastline that
14:29 intervention ultimately produced an
14:31 apocalypse in Yemen with the UN saying
14:33 as recently as 2023 that the situation
14:35 within Yemen remained the worst ongoing
14:37 humanitarian crisis in the world with
14:40 more than 380,000 total deaths in the
14:42 country happening since the Civil War
14:44 began in 2014 resulting from violence
14:46 famine and disease all attributable to
14:48 the war but the houthis continually
14:51 funded and armed by Iran continued
14:52 hanging on to power in the territory
14:54 they controlled they resisted the Saudis
14:56 and the Coalition and even began firing
14:59 missiles and drones into saudian UA AE
15:00 population centers and retaliation that
15:03 killed hundreds of Saudi citizens When
15:04 Donald Trump assumed the American
15:06 presidency in 2017 he chose to
15:08 dramatically expand Washington's support
15:10 for the Saudi war effort in Yemen as a
15:13 part of his overall policy of maximum
15:15 pressure applied on Iran and its proxy
15:17 forces across the Middle East adding the
15:19 houthis to America's list of designated
15:21 terrorist organizations and authorizing
15:23 a deal for more than 27 billion dollars
15:25 worth of additional us arm sales to
15:27 Saudi Arabia including fighter jets and
15:29 precision guided bombs all meant to be
15:31 used in Yemen against the houthis but as
15:32 the intervention in Yemen became
15:35 increasingly bloody America's continued
15:37 support of the Saudi war effort there
15:38 became increasingly politically
15:40 controversial in Washington and
15:42 increasingly linked to Donald Trump
15:45 personally Joe Biden vowed that after
15:47 assuming the presidency in 2021 he would
15:49 completely reverse Trump's course in
15:51 Yemen and end all of America's
15:52 involvement in the country which
15:54 culminated quickly with Biden's
15:57 declaration in February of 2021 that the
15:59 United States would be halted in all of
16:01 its support for Saudi Arabia and Yemen
16:02 and that the houthis would be removed
16:05 from America's list of designated Terror
16:07 organizations this abrupt end of
16:08 America's support for the war in Yemen
16:11 under Biden and the fact that the Saudis
16:13 had blown through an estimated
16:16 265 billion dollars before then just on
16:19 arms trying and failing to destroy the
16:21 houthis kind of forced the Saudis hand
16:23 into beginning to search for an exit
16:24 strategy from their war in Yemen a
16:26 ceasefire agreement between the houthis
16:28 and the Saudi B yeni government was
16:30 agreed upon in April of 2022 that's
16:32 generally held ever since with only
16:34 minor flare-ups of violence as the
16:36 Saudis and houthis have continued on
16:38 negotiations trying to find a final
16:41 peace settlement this relative calmon
16:43 Yemen ever since the April 2022
16:45 ceasefire has given the hoies time to
16:47 consolidate their control over the area
16:49 they rule in Northwestern Yemen an area
16:51 that represents only about a quarter of
16:52 Yemen's total territory but more than
16:55 2/3 of Yemen's total population or about
16:58 24 million people and Yemen's capital
17:00 city City the houthis therefore control
17:02 more of what makes Yemen Yemen than the
17:04 internationally recognized yemeni
17:06 government that's backed by Saudi Arabia
17:08 does and the relative peace for the past
17:10 2 years during the ceasefire has likely
17:13 enabled them to covertly import huge
17:14 volumes of additional missiles and
17:17 drones from Iran and so now with a
17:19 massive ongoing war between Israel and
17:22 Hamas having exploded in Gaza Iran has
17:24 been seeking ways to assist Hamas by
17:26 steadily increasing the pressure being
17:28 applied on Israel without directly
17:30 attacking them and starting an allout
17:32 war and perhaps the best way that Iran
17:34 has been able to do this has been by
17:36 nudging the houthis to begin launching
17:37 their attacks on Merchant shipping
17:40 across the Red Sea you see as the houthi
17:41 missile and drone attacks on dozens of
17:43 merchant ships in the Red Sea began
17:46 really accelerating in December of 2023
17:48 and became increasingly indiscriminate
17:49 after the Galaxy leader hijacking
17:52 incident the wartime Risk insurance
17:53 premiums that Maritime insurance
17:55 companies charge for all ships sailing
17:58 through the Red Sea began to Skyrocket
18:00 major shipping companies from all around
18:02 the world then faced with these rapidly
18:04 increasing insurance premiums to cover
18:06 their ships and cargos operating in the
18:08 redc and the accompanying legitimate
18:10 risks of seeing their expensive ships
18:12 and their caros getting damaged or sunk
18:14 or their crew members getting killed
18:16 quickly began making announcements one
18:18 after the other that they would begin
18:19 suspending all of their maritime
18:21 operations through the Red Sea and the
18:24 Suez Canal until further notice these
18:25 announcements have by now come from most
18:27 of the world's most significant
18:29 container shipping companies like MK MSC
18:32 Evergreen CMA CGM Haag Lloyd and Costco
18:35 which together represent more than 95%
18:36 of all the container volume that usually
18:38 travels through the Suez Canal in
18:40 addition many major oil and gas
18:42 companies have also announced their
18:43 indefinite suspensions of sending oil
18:45 and gas tiners through the Red Sea or
18:47 the Suz Canal including BP and the
18:49 Norwegian state-owned Oil Company
18:51 Ecuador as a result the world is now
18:54 facing a third Suez Crisis after the
18:58 1967 and 19751 and after the 20211 just
19:01 by the end of December in 2023 more than
19:03 300 container ships and many more
19:05 tankers car carriers and other Merchant
19:07 vessels had already decided to divert
19:08 away from the Red Sea and the Suez Canal
19:11 and travel the much longer way around
19:14 Africa a r that ads on average 7 to 10
19:16 days more travel time for ships plying
19:18 the trade route between Asia and Europe
19:20 and in many cases significantly longer
19:21 because this route is a much longer
19:23 distance the ships that travel it have
19:25 to consume more fuel while the crews
19:27 that operate them must be rotated out
19:28 more frequently and have to be paid
19:30 longer hours which contributes to the
19:32 Cape of Good Hope route usually being
19:35 about 15% more expensive to take when
19:36 compared with the shorter Red Sea and
19:39 sez Canal route even after considering
19:41 the tolls and fees that Egypt charges
19:43 that means that with more and more ships
19:46 diverting around the Red Sea those 15%
19:48 higher average shipping costs are going
19:49 to be gradually getting passed on to
19:52 Consumers which if it continues getting
19:54 worse and persists will steadily begin
19:56 piling on inflationary pressures on just
19:58 about every product all around the world
20:01 world and even worse the extended length
20:02 of time that these ships are going to
20:04 have to spend Out on the Ocean traveling
20:06 the longer routes between Europe and
20:08 Asia is expected to absorb around 20% of
20:10 the entire Global Merchant fleet's
20:13 capacity which of course is just going
20:15 to lead to even more shipping delays and
20:17 even higher costs in a worldwide
20:19 cascading Avalanche of inflation for
20:21 pretty much every single product you can
20:23 think of the longer the Red Sea route
20:25 remains closed for and there are many
20:27 secondary less thought of issues that
20:29 can eventually spiral out of control the
20:30 longer the Red Sea has shut down
20:33 international shipping for like this in
20:35 a sense the houthi attacks shutting down
20:37 the Red Sea have hurt Israel as they've
20:39 effectively managed to completely shut
20:41 down the southern Israeli Port of aot
20:43 which is Israel's only non-mediterranean
20:46 Port that's on the Red Sea but aot is
20:48 Tiny from Israel's perspective it
20:50 usually only handles a mere 5% of
20:52 Israel's total Maritime trade well
20:54 Israel's much larger Mediterranean ports
20:56 of ashdod and hia handle the
20:58 overwhelming majority and remain open
21:00 for business the cost of Israeli Imports
21:03 are rising as a result but the situation
21:05 is hardly putting Israel under a
21:07 blockade the situation is very different
21:10 for other third-party countries however
21:12 as I mentioned previously the only
21:14 Maritime ports that Jordan Sudan and
21:17 arrea each have are all only located on
21:20 the Red Sea and so for however long the
21:22 Red Sea remains largely shut down for
21:24 all three of these countries will remain
21:26 virtually landlocked and all three of
21:28 them are already in pretty un stable
21:30 conditions that are already either
21:32 actively imploding as I speak or on the
21:34 precipice of it Sudan is already locked
21:36 in the middle of a devastating Civil War
21:38 that has likely killed tens of thousands
21:40 of people and displaced Millions more
21:43 just since 2023 Jordan is facing the
21:45 danger of increased instability in the
21:47 neighboring Israeli occupied West Bank
21:49 while arria is facing two ongoing Civil
21:51 Wars happening immediately across their
21:54 borders in both Sudan and in Ethiopia if
21:56 these countries and especially if Sudan
21:58 remained blocked off from most of their
22:00 Maritime Imports of resources for long
22:02 their own instability levels could also
22:04 increase overall by attacking whatever
22:06 Merchant shipping they can find within
22:08 the Red Sea the houthis are generating a
22:10 worldwide level of pain that can maybe
22:13 be tolerated for a few weeks to a few
22:15 months but it's a situation that likely
22:17 cannot be tolerated for very much longer
22:19 as the houthi attacks continue worldwide
22:20 shipping will continue diverting the
22:22 long way away from the Red Sea and
22:24 around Africa products raw materials and
22:26 energy resources will continue to get
22:28 more expensive as a result and glob
22:30 inflation will begin ratcheting up again
22:32 which means that Iran and the houthis
22:33 are probably both hoping that their
22:35 attacks and the economic consequences
22:37 they cause here will eventually begin
22:39 increasing Western pressures on Israel
22:41 to end its war in Gaza and to keep Hamas
22:43 still intact without them having to
22:46 escalate all the way to full-blown War
22:48 the houthis have claimed that if Israel
22:50 withdraws from Gaza and makes peace with
22:52 Hamas then their attacks in the Red Sea
22:55 will also stop immediately afterwards
22:56 but the Israeli government of Benjamin
22:58 Netanyahu here has has repeatedly
23:00 stressed that regardless of any
23:02 International pressure their War aims
23:04 against Hamas remain unchanged they will
23:06 continue fighting until Hamas as an
23:08 organization and government in Gaza is
23:10 completely dismantled and destroyed with
23:12 Netanyahu himself saying in early
23:15 January of 2024 that Israelis and the
23:17 world should expect the war to be a long
23:19 one that will continue on for at least
23:21 several more months to come and
23:23 consequently the world should expect the
23:25 houthis to continue launching their own
23:26 attacks and raids on Merchant shipping
23:29 in the Red Sea for just as long in an
23:31 attempt to try and restore worldwide
23:33 faith in merchant shipping through the
23:34 Red Sea the United States announced the
23:36 creation of a brand new international
23:38 military Coalition called operation
23:41 Prosperity Guardian on December the 18th
23:43 that aims to defend all Merchant ships
23:45 in the Red Sea and Israeli ports from
23:47 houthi missile and drone attacks the
23:49 operation at least so far has been
23:51 strictly limited to only intercepting
23:53 houthi missiles and drones flying over
23:55 the Red Sea and safely escorting
23:57 Merchant ships through the Red Sea with
23:59 warship ships without directly attacking
24:01 the houthis themselves in Yemen the
24:02 United States committed one of its own
24:04 aircraft carriers to the Red Sea for
24:06 this operation along with four of their
24:08 own destroyers while the British also
24:09 committed one of their destroyers and
24:11 both Denmark and Greece have agreed to
24:13 each send a frigate while the French and
24:14 Italian navies have remained separate
24:16 from the operation but have deployed
24:17 their own frigs to the Red Sea to
24:19 operate independently other countries
24:20 have technically signed on to the
24:22 operation but with extremely minimal
24:24 commitments compared to the Americans
24:26 British Danes and Greeks 10 other
24:27 countries have signed on to the
24:29 operation anonymously and two of them
24:31 are almost certainly Egypt and Saudi
24:33 Arabia two countries whose National
24:35 Security both utterly depends on the Red
24:37 Sea remaining open and accessible Egypt
24:39 so they can keep earning revenue on
24:40 ships passing through the SE canal and
24:42 Saudi Arabia so they can continue
24:44 exporting oil quickly to Europe but
24:46 there are also two Muslim majority
24:47 countries who don't exactly want to be
24:49 publicly viewed by their own people
24:51 right now as assisting the United States
24:52 fighting against an organization that
24:54 proclaims it is fighting for the
24:56 Palestinians against Israel they don't
24:58 want to be viewed in any way as
24:59 assisting Israel even if it's in the
25:01 name of their own national interests
25:03 since going into operation the warships
25:05 of prosperity Guardian operating within
25:07 the red SE have already shot down dozens
25:09 of houy drones and missiles fired in
25:11 merchant vessels and encouraged by the
25:13 progress both meis and hapag Lloyd
25:15 cautiously announced on the 24th of
25:17 December that they would begin resuming
25:18 their shipping operations through the
25:21 Red Sea and the sez Canal again but then
25:24 just 9 days later disaster struck again
25:27 on the 2nd of January 2024 AER container
25:28 ship traveling through the Red Sea was
25:30 struck by a houy missile before four
25:32 small houthi ships sailed towards them
25:34 and attempted another hijacking the MK
25:36 ship radio to distress call and the US
25:38 aircraft carrier in the region responded
25:40 by dispatching helicopter gunships to
25:42 intercept the houthi Pirates once they
25:44 arrived the American helicopters opened
25:46 fire on the houthi boats and sank three
25:48 of them killing 10 of the houthi Pirates
25:50 Who were on board and marking the first
25:52 time that the Americans and the houthis
25:55 engag directly in combat the same day
25:57 both marisk and hapag Lloyd announced
25:58 that they were once again suspending all
26:00 of their travels through the Red Sea and
26:02 the Suez Canal and they would begin only
26:04 taking the longer and more expensive
26:07 route around Africa Furious on the
26:09 following day on the 3rd of January the
26:11 White House released an ominous joint
26:12 statement with many other governments
26:14 from all around the world that at the
26:17 end reads quote let our message now be
26:19 clear we call for the immediate end of
26:21 these illegal attacks and release of
26:23 unlawfully detained vessels and Crews
26:25 the houthis will bear the responsibility
26:27 of the consequences should they continue
26:29 to threaten lives the global economy and
26:31 free flow of Commerce in the Region's
26:33 critical waterways we remain committed
26:35 to the international rules-based order
26:37 and are determined to hold malign actors
26:39 accountable for unlawful seizures and
26:42 attacks end quote as it stands now
26:44 America and the Biden Administration
26:46 arguably have only four possible options
26:48 for how to proceed with this dangerous
26:51 situation one America could choose to
26:53 Simply do nothing let the houthi attacks
26:55 on Merchant shipping in the Red Sea
26:57 continue as long as Israel's war in Gaza
26:59 continues news and suffer the worldwide
27:00 negative Economic Consequences and
27:02 pressures that will follow during a
27:04 critical presidential election year two
27:06 the United States can begin applying
27:08 tougher pressures on Israel to begin
27:10 winding down its war in Gaza and hope
27:12 that that ends the houthi attacks on
27:14 Merchant shipping diplomatically Israel
27:16 however will probably not accept this
27:18 piece unless the pressures from
27:20 Washington begin growing significantly
27:23 tougher which could strain Israel us
27:25 relations three America can increase the
27:27 number of Warships that has deployed to
27:29 the Red Sea as a part of operation
27:31 Prosperity Guardian in order to cover a
27:33 larger area and escort more Merchant
27:35 vessels unfortunately this option has a
27:37 lot of cons from Washington's
27:39 perspective many countries for a variety
27:41 of reasons have refused to send warships
27:43 to the Red Sea even after being
27:45 requested to do so by Washington like
27:48 Australia America itself has few Surplus
27:50 warships to spare right now here to the
27:52 Red Sea while it's trying to maintain a
27:53 permanently large Naval presence in the
27:55 Western Pacific around Taiwan to
27:57 dissuade a potential Chinese amphibious
27:59 in Invasion from ever happening and the
28:00 warships that America already has
28:02 deployed to the Red Sea Fire Advanced
28:04 guided missiles that cost millions of
28:06 dollars each to intercept the clouds of
28:09 cheap Iranian manufactured drones that
28:11 only cost a few thousand to build if the
28:13 Iranians and the houthis continue
28:15 maintaining their heavy pace of Cheaper
28:16 drone and missile attacks on the
28:18 merchant ships and the American Navy
28:19 continues shooting them down with their
28:22 much more expensive missiles the costs
28:23 that will be borne on the US defense
28:25 department will likely rise into the
28:28 tens of billions of dollars with only a
28:31 matter of months a tough pill to swallow
28:32 while Washington is simultaneously
28:34 struggling to provide more funding and
28:36 arms directly to both Israel's war
28:39 against Hamas and Ukraine's war against
28:42 Russia and then there's option four the
28:43 most dangerous option of all but the one
28:45 that's appearing increasingly likely to
28:48 happen by the day ordering a direct US
28:50 Air campaign to bomb the houthi bases in
28:52 Yemen to try and Destroy or
28:54 deter their ability to continue
28:55 launching attacks on Merchant shipping
28:57 in the future but this option carries
29:00 with it a series of extremely high risks
29:02 that need to be considered beforehand
29:04 first of all American bombing campaign
29:06 against the houth greatly risks
29:08 shattering The Fragile ceasefire across
29:10 Yemen that's been in place ever since
29:12 April of 2022 would the houthi political
29:14 enemies that are still on the ground in
29:16 Yemen like the Saudi backed government
29:17 or the United Arab Emirates backed
29:19 separatist Southern government really
29:21 all be expected to just sit back and do
29:23 nothing while the houthis get blasted
29:25 from the air by the United States there
29:27 would become an enormous incentive for
29:29 them to renage on the ceasefire and
29:30 begin launching renewed ground
29:33 offensives against the houthis again and
29:34 if the situation got worse for the
29:36 houthis from there and they seemed like
29:38 they were imminently about to collapse
29:40 would their primary backer Iran then be
29:43 expected to also just sit back and watch
29:45 them collapse without doing anything
29:47 Iran could and likely would then choose
29:49 to escalate the pressure on the United
29:51 States and Israel even further by
29:52 ordering their militias in Syria to
29:55 attack Israel in the Golan Heights or
29:58 even order healon Lebanon to open up a
29:59 massive second front line for the
30:01 Israelis in the north of their country
30:03 that the United States would be forced
30:04 to divert attention away from Yemen and
30:07 the houthis to deal with and then of
30:09 course bombing the houthis without
30:10 attacking the source of where they're
30:12 actually getting their weapons from does
30:14 nothing to prevent them from Simply
30:16 acquiring even more weapons over and
30:18 over again that will keep having to be
30:20 destroyed over and over again Iran can
30:22 and likely will just choose to continue
30:24 sending weapons to the houthis even if
30:27 the United States is bombing them but if
30:29 America decides to attack Iran supply
30:31 lines that are running to the houthis
30:33 then it risks escalating the US bombing
30:36 campaign on the houthis into a direct us
30:38 Iran War that both sides almost
30:41 assuredly truly want to avoid and
30:43 partially for those reasons the United
30:45 States might choose to carry on with the
30:46 same cautious approach towards the
30:48 houthis that they've so far been
30:50 maintaining a cautious approach that is
30:52 no doubt being championed by Saudi
30:54 Arabia ever since the Biden
30:56 Administration ended America's support
30:57 for the Saudi intervention in and Yemen
31:00 back in 2021 the Saudis have been
31:02 desperately trying to find a way to pull
31:04 themselves out of their costly War peace
31:06 negotiations between the Saudis and the
31:08 houthis have been ongoing ever since
31:09 with the Saudis reportedly offering
31:12 concessions such as allowing more direct
31:13 flights to open up to the houthi
31:15 controlled Capital an easing or even
31:17 ending of the still ongoing Saudi Naval
31:19 blockade and perhaps most critically an
31:21 offer by the Saudis to help facilitate
31:23 payments and salaries of yeni public
31:25 sector employees working within the
31:27 houthi controlled territory but as
31:29 American officials in the US Congress
31:31 openly demand that the houthis be
31:33 readded back to the list of designated
31:36 terrorist organizations and as the US
31:37 and British militaries are each
31:39 apparently considering launching air
31:41 strikes the Saudis are worried that
31:44 their peace negotiations will fall apart
31:46 how after all could the Saudis help to
31:48 facilitate payments to the houthis if
31:50 they become a US recognized terrorist
31:52 organization once again and become
31:54 suffocated underneath American economic
31:56 sanctions and if the United States does
31:58 end up to deciding to militarily
31:59 intervene more forcefully against the
32:01 houthis there is fairly recent
32:03 historical precedent for such an
32:05 operation throughout the 1980s during
32:07 the Iran Iraq war both the Iraqi and
32:09 Iranian militaries began opening fire on
32:11 Merchant vessels operating across the
32:13 Persian Gulf with missiles Iran and
32:14 particular began firing missiles at
32:16 Kuwaiti oil tankers and retaliation for
32:18 Kuwait support and financing of Saddam
32:21 Hussein's Iraq in 1986 the US Navy
32:23 decided to intervene in the conflict and
32:25 begin sending their warships to safely
32:27 escort Kuwaiti oil Tinkers through the
32:29 gulf and out past the straight of Hormuz
32:32 in 1988 one of these American warships
32:34 impacted an Iranian Naval mine within
32:36 international waters that severely
32:38 damaged and nearly sank it in
32:40 retaliation the US Navy decided to
32:42 launch operation praying mantis within
32:44 Iran's own territorial Waters the
32:46 American Navy attacked and sank five
32:49 Iranian ships including a frigate
32:51 severely damaged another frigate and
32:53 blew up two Iranian offshore oil
32:55 platforms killing dozens in the process
32:57 an action that today State represents
33:00 the US Navy's largest surface engagement
33:02 since the second world war that American
33:04 attack put pressure on Iran to se peace
33:07 with Iraq just a few months later but
33:09 unlike then an American attack on the
33:12 houthis now in 2024 is fairly
33:14 unpalatable for the Biden Administration
33:18 to consider for two very big reasons one
33:20 the Biden Administration doesn't want to
33:22 be viewed as expanding the war between
33:24 Israel and Hamas and Gaza into a
33:26 Regional Middle East Wide War and an
33:28 American bombing campaign against the
33:30 houthis in Yemen would inevitably become
33:33 widely viewed as an American declaration
33:35 of war against the houthis in support of
33:37 Israel which would carry further risks
33:39 of the war escalating even further to
33:41 potentially include Hezbollah in Lebanon
33:45 or Iran itself and second Biden's entire
33:47 foreign policy stance ever since taking
33:50 over as president in 2021 has revolved
33:52 around ending America's presence and
33:54 forever wars in the Middle East in order
33:56 to Pivot towards facing the perceived
33:58 greater threat threats of China in the
34:00 Indo Pacific and Russia in Europe almost
34:02 immediately after Biden took office he
34:04 ended America's support for the Saudi
34:06 war in Yemen he removed the houthis from
34:08 the list of designated terrorist
34:10 organizations he finally withdrew All
34:12 American forces from Afghanistan after
34:15 20 years and he's been continually
34:16 attempting to mediate a normalization
34:18 agreement between Israel and Saudi
34:20 Arabia to make them begin cooperating
34:22 together in the Middle East in America's
34:24 absence deciding to open up another
34:25 American war in the Middle East by
34:27 bombing and attacking the houthis and
34:29 Yemen after all that previous effort
34:31 would be a serious reversal of policy
34:34 for the Biden Administration to consider
34:35 and it has the risk of dragging the
34:37 United States back into yet another war
34:39 in the Middle East again with an
34:41 uncertain time frame and with major
34:43 risks of even further escalation and
34:46 unexpected consequences in the future
34:48 and for those reasons the situation in
34:50 the Red Sea is an incredibly dangerous
34:52 one and there's no telling where it will
34:54 all end up going from
34:56 here now over the past 3 months since
34:58 the crisis in the Red Sea began the
34:59 houthi attacks have been covered
35:01 extensively by hundreds of different
35:03 news sources and articles the story of
35:05 the US Navy helicopters opening fire on
35:07 and sinking the houthi boats has been
35:09 covered by more than 208 different
35:10 sources and the reporting on it has been
35:13 fairly split along partisan lines with
35:14 28% of the reporting coming from the
35:17 left and 30% coming from the right and
35:18 if you compare the headlines you start
35:20 seeing something pretty interesting in
35:21 some of the framing from this far left
35:23 Source you have an article referring to
35:25 the houthis as the deao government of
35:27 Yemen and from this far right Source you
35:28 have an article referring to the houthis
35:30 as an iran-backed militant group and
35:32 this is why I've been using this video
35:33 sponsor ground news to research
35:35 important issues like this in a way that
35:37 lets me see past these kinds of partisan
35:39 spins it's a website and app designed by
35:41 a former NASA engineer on a mission to
35:43 give readers an easy data driven
35:45 objective way to read and parse through
35:48 the news every story comes with a quick
35:49 visual breakdown of the political bias
35:51 factuality and ownership of the sources
35:53 that are reporting all backed by ratings
35:55 from three Independent News monitoring
35:57 organizations and you can directly
35:59 compare related articles from different
36:00 sources to see what details are being
36:03 emphasized exaggerated or left out I
36:06 also really really like the blind spot
36:07 feed which highlights stories that are
36:09 being disproportionately covered by one
36:11 side of the political Spectrum this
36:12 feature showed me that if you lean left
36:13 you likely would have missed out on this
36:15 story about Maris culting all of their
36:16 shipping through the Red Seas since only
36:18 6% of the sources that were covering it
36:20 have come from the left and if you
36:22 leaned right you likely would have
36:23 missed out on this story about house
36:25 Democrat Jamie Rasin demanding Trump
36:27 return the 7.8 million dollar that
36:29 foreign governments paid his companies
36:31 while he was President I personally
36:33 believe that it's very important we
36:34 understand how our current partisan
36:36 media environment operates and the
36:38 impact that it might have on our
36:39 politics so that we can engage in
36:41 constructive dialogue break out from
36:44 unproductive Echo Chambers and maybe
36:45 even challenge some of our own
36:47 assumptions in the process you can go to
36:50 ground. newsreal lifel right now to get
36:52 30% off of the ground news Vantage plan
36:54 which includes another great feature
36:56 called my news bias which is basically
36:59 dashboard for your entire news diet
37:00 showing you what your top news sources
37:02 are whether you engage with different
37:04 perspectives what topics you're most
37:07 interested in and a whole lot more so go
37:09 ahead and go to ground. newreel or click
37:11 the button that's here on your screen or
37:12 follow the link that's down below in the
37:14 description to see how your reading
37:16 habits change over the next month and
37:18 support an independent news platform
37:20 working to make the media landscape more
37:21 transparent it'll also help out
37:23 supporting my Channel's reporting at the
37:26 same time and as always thank you so
