UK and US strikes on Yemeni Houthis are self-defence, says Sunak
The combined British and American naval strikes on Houthi command centres, munitions depots and air defence systems on Yemen’s Red Sea coast in retaliation for the group’s attacks on shipping was an act of self-defence, according to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Speaking from Ukraine where he had just authorised a £2.5bn aid package for the war-torn country over the coming year, Sunak said that the destabilising Houthi attacks could not be allowed to continue.
“Over the last month, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea,” he said. “That’s putting innocent lives at risk, it’s disrupting the global economy and it’s destabilising the region. And in that time we’ve also seen the single biggest attack on a British navy warship in decades. Now it’s clear that type of behaviour can’t carry on.”
The retaliatory attacks – with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands – come after a sustained period of Houthi disruption in the area as the group pledges its support for Hamas’s war against Israel in Gaza. The Houthis pledged to attack every ship en route or connected to “the Zionist entity”.
On 18 December, the US announced Operation Prosperity Guardian in an attempt to keep the Red Sea region safe for global shipping. On 31 December, the US made its initial move against the increasingly dangerous Houthi forces by sinking three boats after the militants attempted to board a Maersk container ship.
But today’s attacks mark the first British involvement and first strikes on land. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party supports the moves and criticism domestically has been minor, with some murmurs that there should have been a vote in the Commons before such a decision was taken.
Predictably, criticism has been loudest from the anti-Western contingent abroad. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “The US air strikes on Yemen are another example of the Anglo-Saxons’ perversion of UN Security Council resolutions.” While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the US and UK of trying to turn the Red Sea into a “sea of blood”.
As Tim Marshall recently pointed out in Reaction, Red Sea shipping is incredibly important to the global economy: “About 15 per cent of global seaborne trade passes through the Red Sea, including 12 per cent of the world’s traded oil and 8 per cent of its liquefied natural gas.”
What’s more, Houthi opposition to Israel completes Iran’s Unity of the Arenas strategic plan, surrounding Israel with adversaries: Hamas to Israel’s west in Gaza; Hizbullah to the north in Lebanon; Iran-backed Shi’a militias in the east in Iraq and north-east in Syria; and now the Houthis to the south.
Although undeniably important, there are disagreements about the extent of the possible ramifications of the strikes on Yemen’s Houthis. The clamour of impending doom was voiced by the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen. He opened his analysis with: “It is time to stop talking about the risk that the war in Gaza will spread elsewhere in the Middle East. It has already happened.”
In the more reserved camp, Shashank Joshi, The Economist’s defence editor said: “Honestly, you’d think we were on the cusp of invading Iraq. We’re likely talking targeted & limited attacks on Houthi missile facilities. Good or bad, effective or futile, it’s not major escalation & it’s not going to lead to a major war.”
Hopefully Joshi’s assessment is the more accurate of the two.
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