CNBC’s Croft: Attacks on Red Sea Vessels Show Gaza War ‘Spreading’ Despite All the Assets We’ve Sent

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Last Call,” CNBC Contributor and Managing Director and Global Head of Commodity Strategy for RBC Capital Markets Helima Croft stated that statements from the Biden administration have made it clear that the war in Gaza has spread “to other fronts and there’s no path to de-escalation at this stage.”

Croft said, “[T]his has been a sort of escalating concern in Washington. Remember, we spoke a couple of weeks ago, and U.S. officials were deeply concerned about the rising attacks on commercial vessels, military vessels in the Red Sea. And on Friday, you had Pentagon officials out saying that Iran was deeply involved in planning these attacks, they provide intelligence to the Houthis on what ships to target, they provide the cruise missiles and drone technology to the Houthis as well. And so, this is a clear indication that this war in Gaza is spreading to other fronts and there’s no path to de-escalation at this stage.”

Later, she added, “[W]e have deployed thousands of troops to the region, we’ve deployed ships to the region to try to basically convince the Iranians it’s not in their interests to target U.S. personnel, but this continues. And so, the question is, do we start to see escalations on multiple fronts?”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett