Greece will command the new European Union naval mission in the Red Sea.
A Greek commander will lead the new operation to accompany and protect European ships from attacks by the Yemeni Houthi militia, according to community sources.
He will do so from an operational headquarters that will be at sea, aboard an Italian ship.
The Foreign Ministers of the Twenty-seven plan to approve this Monday the new protection and accompaniment mission, called Aspides, made up of four frigates and which will last at least a year.
EU ships will have the capacity to shoot down missiles and drones and will defend the European ships that their mission is to escort, but they will only respond to attacks launched from the sea.
They will not fire towards the mainland, according to diplomatic sources.
The mission will be independent of the one led by the United States in the area, Guardian of Prosperity, with which it will collaborate and share information, including intelligence.
The operation has been mounted in a very short time due to concern about the deterioration of maritime security in the area.
Commercial ships are already avoiding the Red Sea and taking longer routes, which implies an increase in costs, the European proposal, to which EL PAÍS has had access, justifies the mission.
The Houthis, who claim to attack ships linked to Israel - although they attack Western vessels - have assured that they will continue the campaign of attacks until Israel ends the offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
France (which will be second in command of the operation), Germany (which has already approved the provision of military personnel), Belgium and Denmark will provide ships to the delicate mission and other Member States will support it with technical means.
In the preparation meetings, the new operation, which will cooperate with Guardian of Prosperity and other allies, received the support of all partners.
Also those that, like Spain, will not participate.
The operation could cost about 5.1 million euros per year and will be modeled on the Agenor mission, led by France in the Strait of Hormuz and with headquarters in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates).
Tensions with Washington
The new Aspides mission, which this newspaper announced, has been created after the community club decided not to follow the mission led by the United States in the area and create its own.
An option that crystallized after, at the end of December, Spain rejected entrusting the Atalanta mission—created in 2008 to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia and which has only one ship, the Spanish frigate
Victoria—
with the task. to patrol the area to support the American Guardian of Prosperity.
This sparked some tensions with Washington.
Spain then demanded a European device.
Aspides, which according to the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, has been claimed by numerous European companies affected by the increase in costs derived from the attacks in the Red Sea, began to take shape just before the first attacks by the United States and the United Kingdom against Houthi targets in Yemen.
The situation in the region is volatile and very complex.
The effects on freight traffic are already being felt.
The crisis has led some of the world's largest shipping companies to reroute ships traveling to and from Europe away from the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
They have opted, instead, for navigation around the Cape of Good Hope, in Africa, despite the increase in costs and time (about two weeks) that this entails.
Maritime container transport through the Red Sea fell almost 30% compared to last year, according to data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the beginning of the month, in a context of attacks by the Houthi rebels.
The delivery price of a container has quintupled on the Shanghai-Genoa route, according to a report by the Institute for Analysis of International Relations, which details that the average cost of global shipping has increased by 179% since the start of hostilities in comparison to average rates in 2019 (before the pandemic).
The Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense of Spain have disagreed on the country's participation, but the Government of Pedro Sánchez has leaned towards the Defense position, with Minister Margarita Robles at the helm, by refusing to participate for the moment in one of the most commitments of the EU.
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