the European Union launches the Aspides mission, to ensure the protection of maritime traffic

Yemen’s Houthi rebels are launching repeated attacks on ships, in solidarity, they say, with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The mandate of this European mission will be defensive.

The European Union has officially launched its mission to protect maritime traffic in the Red Sea, announced the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on Monday February 19. “Europe will ensure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, in coordination with our international partners,” she congratulated herself on the social network X. Several countries have expressed their intention to participate in this mission called Aspides (“shield” in ancient Greek), including Belgium, Italy, Germany and France. Spain, conversely, will not join.

This mission was officially launched by EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels. It is planned for a period of one year, possibly renewable. This does not mean that it will be immediately operational: it will be up to its command to determine when it will have sufficient resources to be fully operational, which should take “a few weeks”according to a European diplomat.

A defensive mission

The German frigate Hessen left on February 8 towards the Red Sea, with a crew of some 240 people. It will be in a state of permanent alert and will be able to respond to possible attacks with remotely controlled missiles, drones and “kamikaze boats”. Belgium has announced its intention to send its frigate Marie-Louise. France has said it is ready to make one of its frigates already present in the Red Sea available to the Aspides mission.

The mandate of this maritime surveillance and patrol mission is strictly defensive, while traffic in the Red Sea is disrupted by attacks by Houthi rebels. It will be able to fire to defend merchant ships or defend itself, but will not be able to target objectives on land against positions of the Houthi rebels in Yemen, AFP learned from diplomats.

Yemen’s Houthis, supported by Iran, announced yet another attack in the Gulf of Aden on Monday, directed against a British ship. The Houthis, who control large areas of Yemen, say they are carrying out these attacks in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. These attacks triggered retaliatory strikes by US and British forces in Yemen, the latest of which took place on Saturday.