No. of Recommendations: 4
Since you mentioned Maritime Law, what does it say in Concept about The Freedom of The Seas and those who attempt to deny it?
It's in favor of it. The Houthis are breaking maritime law by attacking commercial vessels. The Iranian government, though, is not directly engaged in that activity.
So my calculus is that I'd rather have to have the State Department call up some government whose flagged ship was just impounded for carrying missiles to the Houthis vs. having to explain why I didn't do everything in my power to protect the sailors I put in harm's way.
That's not the only calculus. You think it's just a phone call to some government? Another consequence is that the Chinese Navy starts boarding all of the ships traversing the sea lanes in Southeast Asia on some pretense, using the precedent set by the US that this is legal. Or perhaps Iran calls up the Chinese PLAN and asks for help escorting their ships in the area, leading PLAN to bulk up their resources in their base in Djibouti and start expanding their footprint in the Gulf of Aden. Or worst of all, perhaps Iran invites the Chinese to establish a naval base on their territory on the Persian Gulf - so far, China's only been able to establish one foreign military base (again, in Djibouti), and they would be itching to get a toehold in the Gulf. To say nothing of the very real possibility that Iran starts send military vessels to escort their cargo ships and they decline the US permission to board....leading to a risk of an actual conflict breaking out.
Yeah - forced boarding of foreign-flag vessels in violation of international law is not a costless endeavor. A little more complicated that Superman punching a bully.
They're currently shooting Iranian weapons at us with pretty much impunity and have been for...8 or 9 months? That's a long time to roll the dice.
Again, you have to pay attention to who "they" is. The Houthis are a rebel group that's trying to overthrow the existing Yemeni government, which is supported by Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf states. So we're not being attacked by the Yemeni government or the Yemeni military, but instead by rebel forces that the official government is trying to suppress. So we're not going to declare war on Yemen or blockade their ports.
