Yemen’s rebels criticize new, US-led task force in Red Sea

Yemen’s Houthis have criticized a new U.S.-led task force that will patrol the Red Sea following a series of attacks by the Iran-backed rebels in a waterway that’s essential to global trade

CAIRO -- Yemen’s Houthis criticized a new U.S.-led task force that will patrol the Red Sea following a series of attacks by the Iran-backed rebels in a waterway that’s essential to global trade.

Mohammed Abdul-Salam, the Houthis’ chief negotiator and spokesman, said late Friday that the U.S. move in the Red Sea, which comes amid a cease-fire in the country's civil war, contradicts Washington’s claim of supporting the U.N.-brokered truce.

The task force “enshrines the aggression and blockade on Yemen," he claimed on his Telegram social media account.

Abdul-Salam apparently referred to a Saudi-led coalition the rebels have been fighting for years. The coalition, which until recently was backed by the U.S., imposes an air and sea blockade on Houthi-held areas.