Germany is expected to participate in
a European Union naval mission to protect shipping in the Red
Sea that EU foreign ministers will approve this month, the head of the German
parliamentary defence committee said.
Speaking at her party's reception for
the New Year on Sunday14 Jan, Maria-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann said
the aim of the mission would be for EU frigates to protect commercial vessels
passing through the strait.
The
approaches to the Suez Canal,
one of the world's most important shipping lanes, have been all but paralysed
by attacks on passing vessels by Iran-backed Houthi forces on the Yemen coast.
"This is an attack on free trade
and has to be countered," Strack-Zimmermann said. Newspaper Welt am
Sonntag earlier reported that the German frigate Hessen would set sail for
the Red Sea on February 1.
Parliament must approve any foreign
deployment of Germany's armed forces.