In fact, as the Reuters agency reports, the Greek shipping companies have received repeated warnings from the Houthis, via mail, which they started receiving since last May.
“One warm spring night in Athens, shortly before midnight, a senior executive of a Greek shipping company noticed that an unusual email had arrived in his inbox,” reports Reuters.
The e-mail, which was sent to both his personal and business email, warned that one of the company’s ships traveling through the Red Sea was at risk of attack by the Iranian-backed Houthis.
According to the publication, the Greek-managed ship had violated the Houthi passage ban by docking in an Israeli port.
On a warm spring night in Athens, shortly before midnight, a senior executive of a Greek shipping company noticed that an unusual email had arrived in his personal inbox.
The message, which was also sent to the manager’s business email address, warned that one of the company’s ships traveling through the Red Sea was at risk of attack by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia.
The Greek-run ship had violated the Houthi-imposed passage ban by docking at an Israeli port and would be “immediately targeted by the Yemeni Armed Forces in any area they deem appropriate,” the message, written in English and reviewed by Reuters, said. .
“You bear the responsibility and consequences of including the vessel on the blacklist,” said the email, which was signed by the Yemen-based Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center (HOCC), a body established in February to link forces of the Houthis and commercial shipping companies. .
The Houthis have carried out nearly 100 attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea since November, acting in solidarity with the Palestinians in Israel’s year-long war on Gaza. They sank two ships, captured another and killed at least four sailors.
The email, received at the end of May, warned of “sanctions” for the company’s entire fleet if the ship continued “to violate the ban criteria and enter the ports of the usurping Israeli entity.”
The executive and the company declined to be named for security reasons.
The warning message was the first of a dozen increasingly threatening emails sent to at least six Greek shipping companies since May amid rising geopolitical tension in the Middle East, according to six industry sources with direct knowledge of the emails and two with indirect knowledge.
Since last year, the Houthis have fired missiles, sent armed drones and launched explosive-laden boats at merchant ships with ties to Israeli, US and UK entities.
The email campaign, which has not been previously reported, shows the Houthi rebels are casting their net wider and targeting Greek merchant ships with little or no connection to Israel.
The threats also, for the first time in months, were directed at entire fleets, increasing the risks for vessels still trying to cross the Red Sea.
“Your ships violated the decision of the Yemeni Armed Forces,” read a separate email sent in June from a Yemeni government web domain to the first company weeks later and to another Greek shipping company, which also declined to be named. “Accordingly, punishments will be imposed on all vessels of your company… Sincerely, Yemeni Navy.”
Yemen, which sits at the entrance to the Red Sea, has been embroiled in years of civil war. In 2014, the Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa, and overthrew the internationally recognized government. In January, the United States put the Houthis back on its list of terrorist groups.
Contacted by Reuters, Houthi officials declined to confirm they had sent the emails or provide any additional comment, saying they were classified military information.
Greek-owned ships, which represent one of the largest fleets in the world, accounted for nearly 30% of attacks carried out by Houthi forces through early September, according to data from Lloyd’s List Intelligence, which did not specify whether the ships were linked. with Israel as reported by Reuters. .
In August, the Houthi militia – which is part of Iran’s Axis of Resistance alliance of anti-Israeli irregular armed groups – attacked the Souni tanker, leaving it burning for weeks before it could be towed to a safer area.
The strikes pushed many cargoes to take a much longer route around Africa. Traffic through the Suez Canal has fallen from around 2,000 crossings per month before November 2023 to around 800 in August, Lloyd’s List Intelligence data showed.
Middle East tensions reached a new peak on Tuesday as Iran hit Israel with more than 180 missiles in retaliation for the killing of militant leaders in Lebanon, including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on Friday.
The European Union’s Aspides naval force, which has helped more than 200 ships sail safely in the Red Sea, confirmed the development of Houthi tactics in a closed-door meeting with shipping companies in early September, according to a document reviewed by the Reuters.
In the document, shared with shipping companies, Aspides said the Houthis’ decision to extend the warnings to entire fleets marked the start of the “fourth phase” of their military campaign in the Red Sea.
The operation also urged shipowners to switch off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders, which show a ship’s position and act as a navigational aid to nearby ships, saying they had to “turn it off or be shot”.
Aspides said Houthi missile strikes were 75 percent accurate when targeting ships operating with the AIS tracking system activated. But 96% of attacks missed when AIS was disabled, according to the same update.
The Houthi mailings began in February with messages sent to shipowners, insurance companies and the main shipping union by the HOCC.
Those initial emails, two of which were seen by Reuters, warned the industry that the Houthis had imposed a Red Sea travel ban on some ships, although they did not specifically warn the companies of an imminent attack.
The messages sent after May were more threatening.
At least two shipping companies that operate Greek ships that received email threats have decided to end those voyages through the Red Sea, two sources with direct knowledge told Reuters, declining to name the companies for security reasons.
An executive at a third shipping company, which also received a letter, said it had decided to end business with Israel so it could continue using the Red Sea route.
“If safe passage through the Red Sea cannot be ensured, companies have a duty to act – even if that means delaying delivery windows,” said Stephen Cotton, General Secretary of the Transport Workers’ Federation, the leading trade union for sailors. who received an email from HOCC in February. “Sailors’ lives depend on it.”
The email campaign has raised alarm among shipping companies. Insurance costs for Western shipowners have already soared due to the Houthi attacks, with some insurers suspending cover altogether, the sources told Reuters.
Greece-based Conbulk Shipmanagement Corporation halted Red Sea voyages after the MV Groton was attacked twice in August.
“No vessel (Conbulk) trades in the Red Sea. It is mainly about the safety of the crew. Once the crew is at risk, all discussion stops,” Conbulk Shipmanagement CEO Dimitris Dalakouras said at the Capital Link shipping conference in London on September 10.
Torben Kolln, chief executive of Germany-based shipping container group Leonhardt & Blumberg, said the Red Sea and the wider Gulf of Aden were a “no-go” area for their fleet.
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