French military escorting its commercial ships through Red Sea

The chief naval commander of France said on Thursday that his country’s forces are escorting ships with French interests through the Red Sea region, and that Paris’s current mandate does not include taking direct aim at the Houthi rebels.

Targeting Red Sea shipping routes, the Iran-aligned Houthis, who rule most of Yemen, are demonstrating their support for the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas, which is engaged in conflict with Israel in Gaza.

Rear-Admiral Emmanuel Slaars, the joint commander of French forces in the area, told reporters that although France was providing information and conducting patrols in close coordination with the US-led Prosperity Guardian mission, command of French forces remained fully under Paris’ jurisdiction.

“The French operation consists of on the one hand patrolling the maritime zones where the Houthis operate to stop them,” Slaars said. “These patrols are in coordination with the Prosperity Guardian operation,” he said.

“On the other hand, we regularly escort French-flagged ships or with French interests in the Red Sea. We accompany them all along their crossing.”

Slaars, who also heads the EU’s mission of nine countries operating in the Strait of Hormuz, said there was always a need for more military assets in the region, although France did not intend to deploy more for now.

He said international military operations were producing results and that 80% of container traffic was still going through the Bab Al-Mandab straits between Yemen and Djibouti.

(with inputs from Reuters)