Yet Another Reason to Stop Appeasing and Emboldening Iran

2023-11-20

The Iranian mullahs doing business through yet another terrorist front – the so-called Houthi rebels in Yemen – are dangerously expanding their violent aggression. Jihadists used a helicopter-borne assault yesterday to seize a large cargo ship in the Red Sea and take its crew hostage on the pretext that, while it is Bahamas-flagged, owned by a UK company, operated by a Japanese one and manned by an international crew, a wealthy Israeli is “associated with” its owners. In other words, Iran’s pr...

The Iranian mullahs doing business through yet another terrorist front – the so-called Houthi rebels in Yemen – are dangerously expanding their violent aggression.

Jihadists used a helicopter-borne assault yesterday to seize a large cargo ship in the Red Sea and take its crew hostage on the pretext that, while it is Bahamas-flagged, owned by a UK company, operated by a Japanese one and manned by an international crew, a wealthy Israeli is “associated with” its owners.

In other words, Iran’s proxy attack in a strategic waterway is a menace to international shipping more generally. It underscores the vulnerability of the vital, but fragile, lifeline of commerce that relies on safe-passage throughout the world’s waterways. If insurers respond by declining to provide coverage, the economic knock-on effects could be devastating.

The Biden administration must stop appeasing, enriching and emboldening Iran, now.

This is Frank Gaffney.

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