The EU Red Sea mission has been launched. Naval inspector Jan Christian Kaack stated on Thursday on the occasion of the Hessen frigate’s departure towards the Mediterranean Sea that it was “the most serious operation by a German naval unit in decades,” according to junge Welt.
The warship, worth over 700 million euros, has departed from Wilhelmshaven and is expected to arrive in the southern Red Sea by the end of the month. It will protect merchant ships in the Bab Al-Mandab Strait from attacks by the Ansarollahs, also known as the Houthis. State Secretary Siemtje Möller declared:
With the rapid departure of the ‘Hessen’, the Navy is once again showing that it is an agile and absolutely reliable instrument of German security policy.
Representatives of EU member states in Brussels agreed a decision on the Aspides mission on Thursday, with the final decision to be taken at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on 19 February. The bloc plans to send warships from several member states to the Red Sea, with the operation to be conducted from the Greek garrison town of Larissa under the command of a Greek admiral and a French officer as his deputy.
In contrast to the US-led Operation Prosperity Guardian, the EU mission was designed to be limited to purely defensive measures, the military said.
The Houthis began attacking Israeli-affiliated ships with drones and anti-ship missiles after massive Israeli military strikes on the Gaza Strip. Following the US and British attacks on targets in Yemen, Ansarollah also declared the two countries’ ships its “legitimate targets.”
