Yemen Monitor/Larissa/Special:
The Council of the European Union decided to extend its Operation “ASPIDES,” which confronts the Houthi group in the Red Sea, until next February.
This came in a statement – reviewed by “Yemen Monitor” – which said that the Council set 17 million dollars as a reference amount for the operation during the process.
The statement said that “the decision was taken following the strategic review of the operation.”
The statement confirmed that ASPIDES will “collect information, in addition to the data necessary to protect ships, on the trafficking of weapons with the aim of exchanging this information with member states, the European Commission, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
The Houthis have not yet commented on the continuation of the EU operation in the Red Sea. The Houthis have not attacked European ships. The mission of “ASPIDES” is limited to protecting commercial ships from Houthi attacks, not stopping those attacks.
The operation’s headquarters is located in Larissa, Greece, and is headed by Admiral Vasilios Griparis.
