[HodhodYemenNews] The commander of the EU’s Red Sea naval defence operation has distanced his mission from daily US strikes on Yemen, as tension between the Americans and the Sana’a government led by Ansarullah grows.
“We are not fighting the Houthis,” Admiral Vasileios Gryparis said in an interview with The National at the headquarters of the EU Naval Force Operation Aspides in the Greek city of Larisa. “We are dealing with their actions against the shipping industry, and we are protecting global common goods like the freedom of navigation, and the sea farers’ lives. We have never injured any Yemenis during all these actions that we have taken in that area.”
He added, ” We don’t believe that this problem can be solved only with military actions. In the long run, we need to have the Yemenis on our side.”
“We are not supporting attacks on Yemeni soil,” he added. “So that’s a huge difference in how we do things.”
Aspides is “totally different” from Washington-led efforts, according to Admiral Gryparis, although his forces co-ordinate with a separate US-led military operation in the area, Operation Prosperity Guardian, to avoid friendly fire incidents and to preserve ammunition by not doubling up on responses to an incoming threat.
“We are not part of the Gaza conflict. We are not supporting either the Israelis nor the Palestinians,” he said. “We are trying to stay focused on this exact mission and also to describe our mission to the neighbouring countries, and also to pass significant and relative messages to the Houthis on what exactly we are doing.”
He affirmed that Europe still needs the trade routes through the Red Sea, and thus is in need “to build something more sustainable.” 
|
