Blinken said Houthi militants in Yemen must know they’ll face “consequences” for continued attacks on ships in the Red Sea, even as a top regional leader warned against military action by a US-led coalition.

US legislators demanded answers from the Pentagon after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin failed to notify the White House about his hospitalisation for four days, saying they weren’t satisfied with the explanation for his absence.

Blinken once again calls for Palestinian state

Secretary of State Antony Blinken made another push for Israel to limit civilian casualties in Gaza and sought to focus on the country’s relationships with Arab nations, part of renewed US efforts to end the conflict. 

In meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials, Blinken repeated that Israel had the right to defend itself in the wake of Hamas’ deadly attack on 7 October. But he also sought to paint a picture of a secure future for Israel, raising the prospect of US-backed regional integration for Israel and Arab nations.

“This is an incredibly challenging time,” Blinken told Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday. “I know your own efforts over many years to build much better connectivity and integration in the Middle East. And I think there actually are real opportunities there.”

Later, in a meeting with Netanyahu, Blinken “reiterated the need to ensure lasting, sustainable peace for Israel and the region, including by the realisation of a Palestinian state”. 

That’s an outcome that many Arab states say must occur to win their involvement in post-conflict Gaza. The problem is that many officials in Netanyahu’s government reject the idea, particularly at a time when Israel has just suffered a national trauma and remains under pressure to free hostages seized by Hamas. 

They have made clear they’re going to press ahead, especially in southern Gaza.

In their meeting, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant “emphasised that operations in the region of Khan Younis will intensify and continue” until Hamas leadership is found and Israeli hostages return home safely, according to a readout.

Read More: Hezbollah says top commander killed as tensions with Israel grow

That dynamic underscored the challenge Blinken faced in his trip to the region, his fourth since Hamas killed some 1,200 Israelis in the 7 October attack and Israel responded with a punishing assault that’s killed more than 22,000 Palestinians. 

President Joe Biden has sought to use US leverage over Israel to shape the course of the conflict and ease the targeting of civilians while also continuing to supply Israeli forces with ammunition and other weapons. And despite US calls to avoid a broader regional conflict, Israel has targeted Hamas and Hezbollah leaders across the border in Lebanon.

Outside the hotel in Tel Aviv where Blinken was holding his meetings, Israeli protesters held up placards, banged drums and called for a ceasefire that might enable the release of more hostages — with Israel’s ongoing military operations making it more likely that hostages will be killed inadvertently before they’re freed.  

Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv late on Monday after stops in Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, where he met officials concerned about the rising number of Palestinian deaths and the chance that the violence in Gaza sparks a broader conflagration. 

Blinken warns of ‘consequences’ for Houthis if Red Sea strikes persist

Blinken said Houthis in Yemen must know they’ll face “consequences” for continued attacks on ships in the Red Sea, even as a top regional leader warned against military action by a US-led coalition.

“We’ve had 40 countries come together to make clear that what the Houthis are doing has to stop,” Blinken told reporters on Monday in Saudi Arabia, after meeting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and before heading to Tel Aviv. “We have other countries that have made clear that if it continues, there have to be consequences.” 

Read more: Shipping shows signs of panic as Houthis menace key trade lane

Over the weekend, the number of transits through the Suez Canal fell to the lowest since the waterway was blocked by the Ever Given container ship in 2021, according to Inchcape Shipping Services, a sign of the wider impact of the disruption on world trade.

“These attacks are having a real effect on the prices that people have to pay for food, for medicine, for energy. Ships have to get diverted to other places. Insurance rates go up,” Blinken said. “And the basic principle of freedom of navigation is what’s at stake. So the international community has a real stake in upholding that principle.”

The US-led coalition, which has launched patrols and intercepted missiles in the Red Sea, has already received pushback from one partner over its earlier warning to the Houthis, which was similar to Blinken’s.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani — speaking alongside Blinken on Sunday evening — rejected a military response, warning it would only raise regional tensions and fuel an endless cycle of violence.

“We never see a military action as a resolution,” Al Thani said.

The Qatari leader’s comments, including calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, underscore the difficult balancing act for Blinken. 

The top US diplomat’s visit to the region also comes as tensions rise between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in neighbouring Lebanon, with Hamas blaming Israel for the assassination of a senior official in Beirut last week, and Hezbollah responding with a volley of rockets into northern Israel. 

The Israel Defense Forces struck back, launching cross-border attacks into Lebanon that killed a Hezbollah commander.

“It’s clearly not in the interest of anyone — Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah for that matter — to see this escalate, and to see an actual conflict,” Blinken said.

Pentagon under pressure over Defense Secretary Austin’s absence

US legislators demanded answers from the Pentagon after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin failed to notify the White House about his hospitalisation for four days, saying they weren’t satisfied with the explanation for his absence.

“Given the extremely serious military decisions that the United States is dealing with, including attacks on our troops by Iranian-backed proxies, the war in the Middle East, and the ongoing aggression by Russia in Ukraine, it is inexplicable that the Secretary’s condition remains shrouded in secrecy,” Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican and vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee and Subcommittee on Defense, said. 

The Pentagon said on Monday that Austin’s top staffers knew about the hospitalisation on 2 January, but did not notify the White House, Congress or the deputy defence secretary for several days. The Defense Department has still not disclosed why Austin was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, or whether he was unconscious at any time during his multiday stay in intensive care, which began on New Year’s Day.  

Massachusetts Democrat Seth Moulton, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a former Marine officer, said, “The fact that this occurred with the secretary of defence — and his own deputy, let alone the president, didn’t know — is astounding.”

The episode presents a problem for President Joe Biden in an election year, highlighting dysfunction at the commanding heights of the US military machine. It has also thrust his intensely private defence secretary into a media storm and raised questions about whether he should resign. DM

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