Yemen’s Houthi rebels report two attacks in Gulf of Aden as Iran officer threatens nuclear attack

Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they were behind two missile attacks on two ships in the Gulf of Aden. According to the rebels, the ships were not hurt and they were from Panama after a person who gives advice to Iran’s top leader said Iran could make a nuclear bomb if it wants to.

Yemeni military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree and former Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi made comments about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. They are supporting Hamas and putting pressure on Israel to stop the war.

The Houthis say they will keep attacking ships in the important waterway that leads to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea as long as the war continues. At the same time, Iran has attacked Israel with drones and missiles like never before, showing the ongoing conflict between the two countries.

Saree said that he was responsible for the attacks on the MSC Diego and MSC Gina in a statement that was recorded before. The Joint Maritime Information Center, a group led by the US and other countries in the Middle East, reported that two missile strikes occurred on Tuesday morning.

No one was hit and all the crew on the ship are safe, the center reported. “The boats were last said to be going to the next port. ”

The center said that the boats were probably attacked because they were thought to be connected to Israel.

Both ships were working for a company called Mediterranean Shipping Co., which is based in Geneva. They did not respond right away when asked for a comment.

Saree did not explain why it took the rebels two days to say they were responsible for the attacks. He said that the Houthis attacked the MSC Vittoria, a different cargo ship, in the Indian Ocean. No one has reported or confirmed an attack on that ship.

The Houthis are attacking ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to force Israel to stop fighting against Hamas in Gaza. Over 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza war, according to local health officials. The fighting started when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct 7 and killed 1,200 people. They also took around 250 people as hostages.

The Houthis have attacked ships more than 50 times, captured one ship, and sunk another since November, according to the US Maritime Administration. Shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has decreased because it is not safe.

On Thursday, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported what Kharrazi said. He was a former foreign minister when Mohammad Khatami was president.

Kharrazi talked to Al Jazeera about his atomic bomb threat to the channel in 2022 during tensions with the West over Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal. The interview was not aired right away.

Kharrazi said, according to IRNA, that if Iran is in danger, we might need to rethink our nuclear plans. The military officials said that Israel can attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and Iran might change its nuclear plans.

Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency have been arguing since 2018, when President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of Iran’s nuclear agreement. Since then, Iran stopped following the rules of the deal and is making uranium stronger, almost as strong as what is needed for making weapons.

At the same time, Iran and Israel are in a very tense situation. Tehran used a drone and a missile to attack Israel last month. This was in response to Israel’s attack on an Iranian building in Syria, where two Iranian generals and others were killed.

Isfahan, a city in Iran, was attacked by Israel recently, even though it is near important nuclear facilities.