The UK defence minister Grant Shapps said Houthis are indulging in ‘thuggery’ in the Red Sea and suggested that the country remains open to carrying out more airstrikes in Yemen.
The UK with the US carried out airstrikes on Houthi bases in Yemen as part of the Operation Prosperity Guardian and destroyed some of its arsenal which it uses to target international trade in the Red Sea in its key shipping lanes.
Shapps, while speaking to UK broadcaster Sky News said the UK does not plan an escalation but would monitor the situation very closely. “Our intention is not to go into Yemen or anything like that, but simply to send a very clear, unambiguous message to the Iranian-backed Houthis that their behaviour in the Red Sea is completely unacceptable,” Shapps was quoted as saying by Sky News.
The US carried out more airstrikes over the weekend but it has been able to damage on 25-30% of the Houthi capability to carry out attacks on cargo ships. “(This is) almost like thuggery. We are waiting to see what happens now. International waterway in the Red Sea should be open to international shipping. That is international law,” Shapps told the broadcaster.
“We got increasingly concerned that international shipping was having to reroute and adding hugely to the cost of shipping. We took the action that you saw last week and we’ve made it clear that we will wait and see what happens next,” he further added.
He also blamed Iran-backed Houthis of harassing shipping and said that a situation where freedom of navigation and ‘the ability for ships to move around the world in international waters’ is ‘effectively impugned’ because of the Houthi actions.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will make a statement on the military action in the UK parliament on Monday. The Sky News report said that Sunak briefed Labour leader Keir Starmer ahead of the strikes on Thursday and also apprised UK speaker Lindsay Hoyle of the UK military actions under Prosperity Guardian.
The report also said that some UK MPs are angry because the government did not discuss the issue in the parliament before joining the US-led airstrikes.
The Liberal Democrats demanded a retrospective vote on the issue, the report further added.
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