Venu Menon
Wellington, January 25,2024
New Zealand is stepping up its collaboration with Western allies in the Middle East but says it will not compromise its bedrock policy of a two-state solution to the vexed Israel-Palestinian question.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has pledged to deploy a six-member New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) team to support US-led airstrikes in Yemen aimed at protecting “commercial and naval shipping” from attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has seconded the move.
Both leaders have played down the implications to New Zealand’s independent foreign policy, while Defence Minister Judith Collins has emphasised the importance of global stability. “And this deployment shows our commitment to efforts to address a serious threat to that stability,” she has said.
The opposition parties in New Zealand have denounced the coalition government’s decision to send troops to the Middle East.
But the government is drawing a parallel between the NZDF role and that of other multilateral entities in the Middle East such as the United Nations.
It also points to New Zealand’s presence in the 40-member Bahrain-based Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) aimed at stopping piracy and other maritime crimes.
But it is not clear if New Zealand will be part of the Red Sea naval patrol mission, involving over 20 countries, spearheaded by the US.
Instead, the NZDF will join ranks with Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands to support the US and the UK in joint airstrikes on Houthi targets within Yemen.
No NZDF personnel will enter Yemen, the government stresses.
The new NZDF deployment steps up New Zealand’s commitment to the Western axis aimed at protecting maritime security in the Red Sea.
In recent weeks the Houthis have seized a commercial liner in the Red Sea and struck more than two dozen others with drones and missiles.
As a result, major shipping companies are circumventing the Red Sea, through which almost 15% of global cargo crosses, and are rerouting their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa instead, delaying delivery schedules and pushing up overheads and consumer prices.
But New Zealand’s contribution to US-led aerial bombing missions on Houthi targets in Yemen is circumscribed by the limited combat capability of its air force.
That means its involvement in the joint airstrikes is largely symbolic rather than of military value.
The step marks a departure in terms of New Zealand’s foreign policy position in the Middle East.
Foreign Minister Peters has sought to delink the NZDF deployment in the Red Sea from the Israel-Gaza conflict and reiterated Wellington’s commitment to a two-state solution.
But Houthi adventurism in the Red Sea is driven by its opposition to Israel and solidarity with Palestinians.
The Houthis are a breakaway rebel group which advocates for Yemen’s Shia Muslim minority, and controls large swathes of territory in Yemen following a protracted civil war. Currently, a UN-brokered truce is in place in Yemen since April 2022.
New Zealand’s collaboration with Western powers to bomb Houthi targets risks alienating Arab sentiment in a conflict that is expected to spread to the wider region.
New Zealand’s foreign policy is caught between the pincer of protecting global shipping and not attracting the anger towards Israel over the mounting civilian death toll in Gaza.
Wellington is mindful of the foreign policy pitfalls of deploying troops in the Middle East.
Peters posted on social media that “New Zealand is deeply concerned at recent comments by members of the Israeli Government that fuel tensions and imperil the two-state solution. New Zealand has always supported a two-state solution and has consistently engaged with Israel and the Palestinians on that basis.”
But New Zealand’s military deployment in the Middle East appears to sit uneasily with its commitment to peaceful co-existence between Israel and Palestine as part of a two-state solution.
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
