The warship Alborz enters the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, Iranian media report, a day after Yemen’s Houthis killed 10 militants.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that the Iranian warship Alborz has entered the Red Sea via the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait, at a time of heightened tensions over the globally vital waterway.

“The Alborz destroyer entered the Red Sea … by passing through the Bab al-Mandeb waterway” at the southern tip of the Red Sea and connecting to the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean, the news agency said on Monday.

It added that the Iranian navy has been operating in the region since 2009 “to secure shipping routes and deter pirates, among other things.”

The United States set up a multinational naval task force for the Red Sea in early December after a series of missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels on merchant vessels, leading shipping companies to cancel Transits through the now heavily militarized area had stopped.

The Houthis say the attacks came in solidarity with Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, where Israel continues a months-long bombing campaign.

According to the International Chamber of Shipping, 12 percent of world trade passes through the Red Sea, which offers a shortcut past Africa via the Suez Canal.

The Tasnim report comes a day after the US Navy helicopters shot at Houthi rebels An attempt to board a cargo ship off Yemen was reported by the rebels 10 fighters dead.

This also comes after Sayyed Razi Mousavi, one of the top commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in Syria, was killed in an Israeli airstrike outside Damascus last week.

Britain threatens “direct action”

Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said in a report from Djibouti that Iran’s deployment of a warship to the region was not a “new” development.

Iranian warships have been operating in the area “from time to time,” he said. “These waters are open to Iranian warships, as they are open to many other countries.”

Serdar said “more and more warships” are in the region, including those from the US and Britain.

According to the state news agency IRNA, Iran’s security chief Ali Akbar Ahmadian met separately with top Houthi negotiator Mohammad Abdulsalam.

It is unclear where and when the meeting took place, but Iranian media quoted Ahmadian as saying Tehran praised the Houthis for supporting the Palestinians and opposing Israel.

Regional tensions have increased since Israel’s assault on Gaza began following the October 7 Hamas attacks.

On Monday, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said Britain was “ready to take direct action” against the Houthis “to deter threats to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.”

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron spoke to his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Sunday about tensions on the Red Sea.

“I have made it clear that Iran shares responsibility for preventing these attacks,” he said on social media, citing Tehran’s “longstanding support” for the Houthis.

Abdollahian criticized the “double standards” of some Western countries and said the “Israeli regime … should not be allowed to set the region on fire with the Gaza war,” according to a statement from the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

The US previously accused Iran of being “deeply involved” in Houthi attacks. Iran has rejected such accusations, saying the Houthi rebels acted on their own.

In 2021, the Alborz repelled a pirate attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Aden.

And in 2015, it was one of two Iranian warships sent to the strait “to ensure the safety of commercial vessels,” which was seen at the time as a sign of tensions with Saudi Arabia.