Madrid, January 9 (European Press) –
The United Kingdom announced on Tuesday that it will deploy another Royal Navy frigate to the waters of the Arabian Gulf to protect maritime trade in the face of attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen in response to the Israeli military attack on the Gaza Strip.
British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement that the deployment of HMS Richmond, which has a Sea Ceptor anti-missile system, would allow “flexibility to the UK's presence in the Gulf.”
In this way, the ship “HMS Richmond”, which stopped in Gibraltar to refuel before departing for the Middle East, will join the destroyer “HSM Diamond” and the frigate “HSM Lancaster” to patrol the waters as a deterrent measure against new attacks on merchant ships.
The dispatch of this frigate comes after the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East following the attacks carried out by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on October 7 against Israel, which left about 1,200 people dead and about 240 kidnapped.
In response, the Israel Defense Forces launched a bloody counterattack that, according to authorities in Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamist movement, killed more than 23,200 people in the Palestinian enclave.
In this context, the Houthi rebels announced that they would carry out attacks against Israel from Yemen and would operate against ships owned by or flying its flag in the waters of the Red Sea, after which they hijacked a ship in the region.
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