Italy’s defence minister on Friday called for a stronger naval presence in the Red Sea to protect merchant shipping amid concerns over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital waterway threatened by the widening Middle East conflict.
The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen have made rapid advances in recent weeks along the Red Sea coast, further complicating routes in a region that also includes the Strait of Hormuz, where traffic had already dwindled because of the US-Iran war.
Italy, part of the European Union’s Aspides mission, launched in 2024 to protect shipping from Houthi attacks, on Thursday said it was preparing a naval mission in the area, saying it could not wait for the EU to respond to the new crisis.
“After what I said, something moved within Aspides, but we need more ships,” Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, a senior ally of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, told Reuters.
“The only nations really supporting (security efforts) are Italy and Greece,” he said, declining to estimate how many vessels would be needed to secure the area.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is 18 miles (29 km) wide at its narrowest point and is one of the world’s most important maritime routes, carrying goods and commodities from Asia to Europe through the Suez Canal.
