US seeks Australian help to protect ships in Red Sea as Middle East tensions soar
The US Navy has asked Australia to send a warship to the Red Sea, a move which would mark a major escalation in Australia’s response to the unfolding crisis.
The US Navy has asked Australia to send a warship to the Red Sea as part of an expanded international task force, in response to growing attacks on shipping by Iran-backed militia that are threatening vital global sea lanes.
The move, under consideration by the Albanese government, would mark a major escalation in Australia’s response to the unfolding crisis in the Middle East and reflect fears the conflict could become a region-wide war.
Any Australian warship sent to the Red Sea in this crisis would be entering a hot war zone where it could easily find itself fired upon and forced to fire back amid a volatile and fast-changing security situation.
The US request came as the government toughened its stance on Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza by breaking from Washington and voting for a UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire despite the resolution failing to recognise Hamas’s role in the October 7 massacre of 1200 Israelis.
The move was criticised by Israel and by Jewish groups, with Israel’s ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon saying: “I find it difficult to understand how Australia can support Israel’s right to defend its people from terrorist aggression, while also voting in support of a ceasefire that will embolden Hamas and enable it to resume its attacks on Israelis.”
The US has been quietly approaching allies this week to contribute to an expanded international naval task force in response to Yemen’s Iran-sponsored Houthi rebels launching an ever-growing barrage of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, US Navy ships and commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
The attacks, including a missile slamming into a Norwegian-Flagged tanker off Yemen, threaten global shipping transiting the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The attacks heighten the chances of a direct military clash between the US Navy and the Iran-backed rebels, which would escalate tensions between Washington and Tehran.
The Australian understands the US Navy-led Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) have requested to Canberra that Australia consider sending a warship as part of a larger naval task force to focus on protecting shipping as it transits the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
A spokesperson for Defence Minister Richard Marles declined to comment on the request except to say: “The Australian Defence Force currently contributes to maritime security in the Middle East region under Operation Manitou through staff embedded with the Combined Maritime Forces.”
About five ADF personnel are deployed with CMF at its headquarters in Bahrain. Australia is one of 39 member nations of the CMF, which promotes security, mostly against smuggling, piracy and narcotics, in international waters around the Middle East. Australia last sent a naval vessel to the Middle East in 2020, when the Anzac frigate HMAS Toowoomba completed a six-month rotation as part of Operation Manitou.
The same warship was involved in last month’s confrontation with a Chinese warship off the coast of Japan when Australian naval personnel were subjected to sonar pulses from the Chinese ship. HMAS Toowoomba returned to the Stirling naval base at Garden Island, south of Perth, on Wednesday after its three-month deployment throughout Northeast and Southeast Asia.
The US wants the expanded naval taskforce to escort commercial ships as they transit in the waters off Yemen amid increasingly aggressive behaviour by Houthi rebels against commercial ships and US warships.
US warships have been forced to shoot down at least three drones in self-defence. Last month, Houthis seized a transport ship linked to Israel in the Red Sea off Yemen, and still hold the vessel.
The International Maritime Security Construct has warned ships transiting the Red Sea to sail as far away from Yemeni waters as possible, travel at night and not to stop because that makes them an easier target.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree has said the group wants to “prevent Israeli ships from navigating the Red Sea until the Israeli aggression against our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip stops”.
But the rebels are now targeting any ship in the region, regardless of whether it has connections to Israel.
The US military’s Central Command said the attacks had jeopardised the lives of international crews from multiple countries around the world. “We also have every reason to believe that these attacks, while launched by the Houthis in Yemen, are fully enabled by Iran,” it said
The attacks by the Houthis are part of Iran’s region-wide strategy of pressuring Israel and the US while the Israel-Hamas war rages. Iran has supported attacks on Israel by its proxy Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and has also backed attacks on US forces by Iranian militia in Iraq and Syria.
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