Red Sea: US Commander George Wikoff calls for more ships from allies such as Australia to fight Houthi threat

The Commander of the US-led mission to try and quell Houthi strikes on commercial ships in the Red Sea has said it would be helpful if more allies contributed warships to the operation.

The Iranian-backed Houthis have been lobbing missiles and drones at commercial ships from bases in Yemen in protest against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’ deadly raids on southern Israel on October 7.

While 20 countries, including Australia, have signed onto Operation Prosperity Guardian, only the UK has sent a warship to work alongside the Americans in shooting down Houthi weapons, some of which have hit and sunk ships.

Australia declined the United States’ request to send a warship and this plea was not reissued at AUSMIN talks involving the Defence and Foreign Ministers in Washington overnight.

As those meetings took place, Vice Admiral George Wikoff, Commander of the Fifth Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces was asked if more allied help was needed from the United States partners.

He said the area that the US was trying to defend on behalf of global commerce stretched 11,000 nautical miles – a distance equivalent to that between Miami and Boston.

“We would certainly like to have more partners involved in providing ships but those are national decisions based on national resources and what’s available at the time,” Vice-Admiral Wikoff told the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

“More steel on the water would certainly be helpful.

“But the area we’re talking about is vast and really what we need to have is a diplomatic solution.”

The Opposition’s foreign spokesperson Simon Birmingham said Australia’s inaction was becoming an embarrassment.

“Sometimes it’s just as important to be seen to be contributing as it is to contribute itself,” Senator Birmingham said.

“The lack of will shown by the Albanese Government is becoming embarrassing.

“The Red Sea is a crucial trade route and keeping it open against Iranian-sponsored terrorism is everybody’s business not just the US.

“It’s logical that contributing a ship would be much more warmly welcomed by the US, providing both a practical boost to this critical operation as well as a symbolic one to our most important alliance.”

Australia has contributed personnel to work out of headquarters in Bahrain but Defence Minister Richard Marles has said he has no intention of making a hard-power contribution that would help down the Houthis’ missiles.

The militant group’s attacks have spiked the cost of shipping everyday goods around the world, including to Australia and sunk civilian ships.

Mr Marles has defended his decision saying he wanted to prioritise defence resources for the Indo-Pacific.

But this week it was revealed that Australia will only contribute a surveillance aircraft, instead of a ship, to joint exercises alongside the US, Canada and The Philippines in the South China Sea where China has been harassing Filipino sailors in violation of an international ruling.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a specialist at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies, who regularly advises Congress on Iranian security issues, said that given Iran was exporting its threats to global security via proxies in the Middle East and through its deepening partnerships with Russia, China and North Korea, Australia had a stake in stopping the Houthis.

“A broader multilateral coalition that does more than track and defeat these projectiles is needed to make a change in the ground in Yemen where the problem lies,” Mr Taleblu told The Nightly.

“This is where Canberra can help.

“Just as the world did not come to a standstill when Canberra joined Operation Sentinel in 2019, it will not come to a standstill in 2024 with Operation Prosperity Guardian in the Red Sea.”

Separately, Prime Minister Albanese is under pressure to evict the Iranian ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi who said on his X account that a “wiping out of the Zionist plague” was “a desirable happening”, and a “brilliant prospect” with “heavenly and divine promise”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the comments as “abhorrent,” “hateful” and “anti-Semitic” and said: “We have called in the Iranian Ambassador to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as is the protocol when something like this happens.”

On Monday ASIO raised the security threat level to warn that the likelihood of a terrorist attack occurring in Australia was not imminent but was now probable.

ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess said the war in Gaza had accelerated the already growing trend of polarisation and people willing to embrace extremist views and support politically motivated violence as reasons.

Mr Tableau said Australia should not tolerate threats made on its territory to eradicate a member state of the United Nations from the representative of the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism.

“Just as the Islamic Republic should not be permitted a free hand to wage the 10-month-long multi-front proxy war against Israel, its representatives should not be granted immunity to spew invective and incitement to genocide in free societies and Western capitals,” he said.

“If Canberra really wants to send a signal, it should join other members of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing organisation and like the US and Canada, proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in its entirety as a terrorist organisation.”

Defence Minister Richard Marles declined to comment.