US facilitates Houthi hijacking of the Galaxy Leader ship in Red sea: Source

An intelligence source confirmed the involvement of the United States in the expansion of the conflict in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and its repercussions on navigation in the Bab al-Mandab Strait to achieve strategic goals in the region.

A source told Khabar Agency that Washington facilitated the Houthis' hijacking of the Galaxy Leader to exacerbate the security situation in Bab al-Mandab and to give the Houthis a fake victory that pushes them to continue escalation and give an image that they are an arm that can be relied upon by some international powers that want to send messages to the United States.

The Houthis' hijacking of the Galaxy Leader was the starting whistle for the escalation marathon, which affected more than 12 percent of the world's trade in goods and services, and threatens to cut off the movement of trade between the world's largest producer (China) and the largest consumer (Europe), raising shipping, transportation and insurance costs and, consequently, prices.

Bab al-Mandab is an important point within the framework of China's Belt and Road project, which links ports in the region and focuses on navigation and transportation through the Straits of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab, which the United States is seeking to establish new and competing routes and shipping lines, the most important of which is the announced establishment of a railway linking Europe to India via Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The other goal behind Washington's facilitation of the Houthis' escalation in the Red Sea is to block any regional political understandings to resolve the conflict in Yemen, as Riyadh and Houthis were on the verge of finalizing an agreement under the name of the roadmap. The U.S. has explicitly opposed it in the words of its ambassador to Yemen. According to the source.

The United States has been keen over the past years to keep the war in Yemen burning to blackmail Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries with the Houthis, and to continue the flow of arms sales to the region. Washington has worked to keep the war going and keep the parties to it in a state of balance of power in order to prolong the Houthis as a security risk factor that threatens the region and creates a pretext for US intervention. The source said.

At a time when Saudi Arabia and the Houthis were on the verge of finalizing the roadmap, U.S. intelligence facilitated the Houthis' escalation in the Red Sea to achieve two dual goals.