NGOs tell Abela not to send military personnel to Red Sea military operation

NGOs committed to Malta’s policy of neutrality and active peacekeeping have penned an open letter to Prime Minister Robert Abela to stop military personnel from joining the EU’s Red Sea mission Aspides.

Malta is “actively considering” participating in the EU’s Red Sea mission called Operation Aspides to defend commercial ships from Yemeni Houthi attacks, with an officer stationed at the operation’s headquarters in Greece. 

“We are very gravely concerned that Malta is ‘actively considering’ sending AFM personnel to take part in the EU Red Sea Mission Operation Aspides,” spokesperson Yana Mintoff Bland – daughter of late Labour premier Dom Mintoff – said in the name of organisations Graffitti, Għaqda għall-Ġustizzja, Ugwaljanza u Paċi, Young Progressive Beings, YMCA, Alleanza Kontra l-Faqar, Dance Beyond Borders, and African Media Association.

The Houthi attacks are part of a blockade launched against commercial shipping passing through the Red Sea, in response to the Israeli genocide taking place in its attacks in Gaza.

“There is wide consensus that military action in the region has been excessive, that there are strong indications that ongoing atrocities are being perpetrated, and that as a result the world faces a greater risk of escalation of the conflict than any other time in the past half century,” the NGOs said.

Mintoff Bland said Malta’s hard-earned neutrality, a policy brainchild of her late father, was a bedrock of its Constitution. “It was conceived first and foremost for dark times like these. The proposed participation in a military operation in the region at such a time is flagrantly against the spirit and the letter of our Constitution, and would jeopardise Malta’s highly respected standing as a credible, non-aligned and principled state.”

The NGOs said Malta should only be considering military deployment that protects innocent civilians and prevents further loss of innocent life in Gaza. “We urge you to reconsider Malta’s military participation in the Red Sea operations, in the name of Malta’s Constitutional neutrality and in the name of our peace-loving people.”

This will not be the first time that Maltese military personnel will join an EU maritime mission in the region. In the past, an army contingent had been embedded on a Dutch warship off the Somali coast to deter piracy. 

The Houthi militia started attacking merchant ships passing through the narrow Bab al-Mandib Strait last November as a sign of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The attacks have disrupted shipping with some commercial carriers taking the long route around the southern tip of Africa rather than passing through the Red Sea and onto the Suez Canal.