EU plans “purely defensive” Red Sea mission

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said that the EU’s purpose is not to conduct any kind of attack.

“The European Union's mission to protect commercial vessels from Iran-backed Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea will be ‘purely defensive’, and will not conduct ‘any kind of attack’," he said on February 2, according to Politico.

Seeking to differentiate the EU plan from the ongoing American-British Operation Prosperity Guardian, in which air strikes have been conducted against Houthi targets located in Yemen, Borrell insisted that the future EU mission will focus only on protecting commercial vessels and their assets.

“The mission is a shield; it’s purely defensive. Our purpose is not to conduct any kind of attack, but just to defend," said Borrell.

"It will be deployed at sea … [and] will not conduct any operation on land," he added at a speech at the EU-Indo Pacific forum.