As a correspondent in Washington in the 1980s, I vividly recall taking a call from a source at the British embassy asking me to come over as they had something urgent to share.
The UK Government was alarmed by reports that the US, in its battle with the Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua, was considering mining the country’s strategically important ports with access to Caribbean and Pacific waters.
The UK, home to the International Maritime Agency, has an immediate and historic obligation as a great trading nation to support freedom of the high seas.
Despite the excellent relations between President Reagan and Mrs Thatcher, I was told that Britain would look very dimly at any effort by the Americans to interfere with that principle. The dispute over Nicaragua’s ports made something of a splash.
As Israel’s military response to the rape, pillage and killing of 1,195 Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023, and the seizure of 250 hostages by Hamas fighters unfolded, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen began firing at Red Sea shipping and sent armed drones into Israel.
Hostilities with the Houthis has reached new intensity in the past 48 hours as they lob missiles into Tel Aviv, injuring a dozen or so citizens.
The UK has an immediate and historic obligation as a great trading nation to support freedom of the high seas
The attacks came after Israel targeted ports and energy infrastructure in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. The Houthis have been threatening Western energy supplies for almost a decade by aiming at Saudi Arabian oil fields.
In 2022 they temporarily interrupted refining by hitting a Jeddah oil terminal. The Saudi air force, armed with British-made Tornado fighters and supported by British and US weaponry, has fought to suppress the Houthis with a ruthless bombing campaign.
Many shoppers in Europe may not have noticed. But the Houthi threat to the Red Sea – in support of Hamas – has been having a significant impact on supply chain in this holiday season.
Freight costs have climbed, adding pounds to shopping bills, as some ships from Asia have been diverted around the Cape of Good Hope. US and British naval vessels have been deployed to keep shipping lanes open.
One would have to listen very carefully to the rhetoric of politicians in London to hear any commitment to maintaining the freedom of the seas.
Indeed, because oil prices have remained subdued during the current geo-political tensions in the Middle East, British and US politicians, diplomats and humanitarian groups have been largely silent on broader strategic issues.
References in G7 communiques and from the International Monetary Fund and central banks have been determinedly neutral, archly referring to geo-political tensions without spelling them out.
Israel’s merciless hounding of Hamas in Gaza has claimed 45,000 lives, according to Hamas/Palestinian data.
It has attracted condemnation from all corners of the earth and has led to Israel’s leaders, including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, being indicted for possible humanitarian crimes. The loss of civilian life, including those of Palestinian children, is an enormous tragedy.
The consequences for Israel’s ‘start-up’ nation have been severe. The boycott organisation BDS has claimed some significant victories and propagated a new social media hashtag ‘#ShutDownNation’. It claims these victories include the cancellation of a $25bn (£20bn) investment by chipmaker Intel.
Israel’s avowed promise to eliminate the Houthi threat and decapitate the rebels’ leadership provides a reminder of how the much-disparaged Netanyahu government, aided by US war material, has been doing the West’s work by eradicating Iran’s ‘arc of resistance’ in the Middle East.
The defanging of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, and the fall of the horrendous Assad dynasty, is a devastating blow to the supporting powers of Iran and Russia. What comes next in Damascus is a known unknown.
Whether Israel can repeat its military success in Yemen, given Saudi aggression only strengthened the Houthi rebels, is unclear.
Yet if the country can help restore long-term security to oil supplies, keeping long-term energy prices lower, that must help economic stability.
And by upholding free passage on the high seas, Israel could help provide a much needed boost to a fragmented world trading system.
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