Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 10 January 2024, www.thecommunists.net
1. On 9 January, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) shamefully passed a resolution denouncing the anti-Israeli actions of Yemen’s Ansar Allah (Houthis) which they have conducted in solidarity with the Palestinian people facing genocide in Gaza. The resolution calls the Houthis to “immediately cease all attacks, which impede global commerce and navigational rights and freedoms as well as regional peace”. The key provision of the resolution noted the “right” of UN member states, in accordance with international law, “to defend their vessels from attack, including those that undermine navigational rights and freedoms”.
2. The resolution was sponsored by the U.S. and its ally Japan. Eleven members of the council voted for the resolution while four members – China, Russia, Algeria and Mozambique – abstained. Notably, the two Eastern Great Powers which are permanent members of the council – China and Russia – did not use their veto.
3. Soon after the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza Ansar Allah has launched a number of attacks – both against the territory of Israel as well as against Israel-linked cargo ships. These actions have been highly effective. According to Calcalist, an Israeli economic magazine, Israel’s port of Eilat reports a sharp decrease in the scope of activity and a drop of more than 80% in revenue. These actions forced the large transport companies to suspend sailing in the Red Sea and the Suez Canal and to reroute their ships. According to the German Kiel Institute for the World Economy, about 200,000 containers are currently being transported via the Red Sea daily, down from some 500,000 per day in November. This has major repercussions to world trade which declined by 1.3% from November to December 2023.
4. The actually purpose of the UNSC resolution is to legitimize the so-called Operation Prosperity Guardian, a US-led multinational naval task force, which operates in the Red Sea. The U.S. and its allies unconditionally support Israel’s genocidal war and have sent large amounts of weapons to the Zionist state. It is only consequential that they also send war ships to the Red Sea to protect the commercial interests of Israel and its Western allies which depend on shipping commodities via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.
5. Furthermore, the U.S. and Britain have repeatedly threatened not only to “protect” Israeli-linked cargo ships but also to attack the Houthis in Yemen. Hence, there is a great danger that Washington will exploit the UNSC resolution for waging war against Ansar Allah and, thereby, to weaken the forces of resistance against the Zionist state and its genocidal war.
6. It is telling that China and Russia, despite expressing criticism on the U.S. motives behind their resolution, did only abstain and thereby refused to use their veto. This reveals the doublespeak of the Putin and Xi regime. On one hand, both have criticized Israel’s terrorist war in Gaza. The Kremlin even invited a Hamas delegation and refused to denounce this organization as “terrorist”. On the other hand, they don’t vote against a UN resolution which legitimizes a US-led naval task force operating in the Red Sea and threatening the Houthis. Obviously, these imperialist powers are much more interested in unhindered commercial shipping than in the defence of the Palestinian people. This demonstrates once more that Putin and Xi are no friends of the oppressed people but warlords who serve, first and foremost, money and power.
7. The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) has supported the solidarity actions of the Houthis from the very beginning. While we do not support the political program of Ansar Allah – a petty-bourgeois nationalist-Islamist movement – we strongly welcome their actions which aim to harm the Terror and Apartheid state Israel and to support the Palestinian people. In any confrontation between the Houthis and Western powers resp. Israel, we stand for the military victory of the Yemeni forces and the defeat of the imperialists without lending political support to the former.
8. Likewise, the RCIT reiterates its unconditional support for the Palestinian people and its resistance forces which are heroically defending Gaza against the Zionist invaders. Like in all past wars, we side with the Palestinian liberation struggle and therefore advocate the military victory of the resistance led by Hamas without lending political support to the program or all tactics of its leadership. The only way forward is the revolutionary destruction of the Zionist state and the creation of a single, democratic and secular Palestinian state from the River to the Sea which should be a workers and poor peasant republic as part of a socialist federation of the Middle East.
Victory to the Palestinian resistance! Defeat Israel!
Expel the U.S.-led naval force from the Red Sea!
In any confrontation: Support the Houthis against the Western imperialists!
For a global boycott movement against the Terror and Apartheid state Israel!
International Bureau of the RCIT
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We refer readers to a special page on our website where all RCIT documents on the 2023 Gaza War are compiled, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/compilation-of-articles-on-the-gaza-uprising-2023/.
For our latest statement on the solidarity actions of the Houthis in the Red Sea see: U.S & Allies Send Naval Force to Red Sea to Support Terrorist Israel against Houthis, 18 December 2023, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/u-s-allies-send-naval-force-to-red-sea-to-support-terrorist-israel-against-houthis/