German military to withdraw two vessels from Red Sea: defence ministry

The German navy will move two vessels from the Red Sea region to the eastern Mediterannean "in the coming days", the defence ministry said in a statement Thursday.

The "Fulda" minesweeper and the "Mosel" supply ship were currently in Djibouti, a ministry spokesman confirmed to AFP.

They had been sent last month in preparation for a possible mission in the Strait of Hormuz after the end of the US-Iran war.

However the ministry statement cited the "the volatile political situation... and the absence of any foreseeable near-term start of operations" in the Strait of Hormuz.

Keeping the vessels deployed in the region indefinitely "represented a strain on their technical systems", it said.

Conflict between Iran and the United States has escalated in recent days and on Thursday Iranian-backed Houthis struck Saudi shipping in the Red Sea.

The German defence ministry said the two vessels would be "kept in a state of readiness for deployment" and would return to the Middle East "as soon as reliable indicators for an imminent start of the mission are in place".