Iranian warship ‘enters Red Sea’ amid soaring tensions after US sank three Houthi boats and Britain said it was ‘considering air strikes’ on rebels to stop attacks on merchant vessels

The Iranian warship Alborz has entered the Red Sea, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Monday, at a time of rising tensions on the main shipping route amid the war between Israel and Hamas and attacks on ships by forces linked to Tehran.

Tasnim did not provide details of the Alborz's mission, but said Iranian warships have been operating in open waters since 2009 to secure shipping lanes, fight piracy and perform other tasks.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis have been targeting ships in the Red Sea since November to show their support for the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in its war with Israel.

On Sunday, the US military said its forces opened fire on Houthi rebels after they attacked a cargo ship in the Red Sea, killing several of them. “We will act in self-defense going forward,” a White House official said.

The Alborz warship shown during a military exercise earlier in 2023

Secretary of State for Defense Grant Shapps told The Daily Telegraph that Britain is considering strikes against the Houthi group

“We are prepared to take immediate action, and we will not hesitate to take further action to deter threats to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea,” Shapps said.

The Telegraph report went on to say that Britain and the US are working together to develop strategies for military attacks against the Houthis. It has been reported that the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford is en route to the Mediterranean.

That came as Foreign Secretary David Cameron told his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian that Tehran is also responsible for stopping the Houthi attacks.

In the wake of the recent Houthi attacks, many major shipping companies have switched to the longer and more expensive route around Africa's Cape of Good Hope, rather than through the Suez Canal, which handles about 12 percent of global trade.

The Alborz warship entered the Red Sea through the Strait of Bab al-Mandab, Tasnim said, without saying when. There were unconfirmed reports on social media that it arrived late on Saturday.

“Following the rising tensions in the Gaza war, there has been an acceleration of developments in the Gulf of Aden and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait,” the Tasmin report said.

The Alvand-class destroyer was part of the Iranian Navy's 34th Fleet, alongside the Bushehr support ship, and had been patrolling the Gulf of Aden, the northern Indian Ocean and the Bab Al-Mandab Strait as early as 2015, according to reports the Iranian authorities. Press TV.

The U.S. Fifth Fleet said it could not speak on behalf of the Iranian Navy or comment on the unconfirmed reports of the Iranian ship's movements.

Houthi militants attacked a Maersk container ship with missiles and small boats on Saturday and Sunday, prompting the company to suspend all Red Sea sailings for 48 hours.

The head of the Iranian Navy, Shahram Irani, was quoted in Iranian media on December 2 as saying that the Alborz was carrying out missions in the Red Sea.

Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani said on December 14 regarding the Red Sea that “no one can do anything in a region where we have the upper hand.”

In a series of statements on Sunday, the US Central Command said the crew of the USS Gravely destroyer late Saturday for the first time shot down two anti-ship missiles fired at the Singapore-flagged Maersk Hangzhou, after the ship reported earlier by to have been hit by a missile. that evening as it sailed through the Southern Red Sea.

Four small boats then attacked the same cargo ship early Sunday with small arms fire and rebels tried to board the ship, the US Navy said.

Subsequently, the USS Gravely and helicopters from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower responded to the Maersk Hangzhou's distress call and issued verbal warnings to the attackers, who responded by firing on the helicopters.

The Houthis acknowledged that 10 of their fighters had been killed in the confrontation and warned of the consequences.

In Washington, a White House National Security Council spokesperson sidestepped a question about the possibility of a pre-emptive strike against the Houthis to protect commercial shipping in the vital waterway.