Australia is the latest country to reject a request from the United States to send warships to the Red Sea under the command of the Pentagon's Operation Prosperity Guardian to protect commercial vessels along the critical maritime trade route from Iran-backed Houthi.

The Houthi war on commercial shipping in the Red Sea just escalated in a big way, at least in the minds of national security officials. Western intelligence sources have issued new statements alleging that Iranian intelligence is directly assisting Yemen's Houthi forces with targeting information, after more than two months of war in Gaza has seen some one hundred or so drones and missiles threaten both US warships and container vessels in regional waters.

The leader of Yemen’s Houthis warned on Wednesday they would strike U.S. warships if the Iranian-backed militia was targeted by Washington, which this week set up a multinational force to counter Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

U.S. officials on Monday expanded a multinational maritime force in the Red Sea to defend against escalating attacks from the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, which have impeded international shipping routes.