London: UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, following US and UK strikes against the Iran-backed Shiite movement ruling northern and central Yemen, said Tehran must force the Houthis to stop because the world is running out of patience.
“You must get the Houthi rebels, others who are acting as proxies for you, Lebanese Hezbollah are obvious examples, [and] some in Iraq and Syria, you must get these different organizations to cease and desist because we are, the world is, running out of patience,” Shapps told the Telegraph when asked what his message to Iran would be.
He said it was time to act in self-defense.
“We are acting in self-defense because of the shipping situation, because of HMS Diamond being attacked. Iran has an important part to play here and needs to understand that it needs to be clearer with its many proxies in the region that no good can come from this and everyone loses if they carry on going down this track,” Shapps said.
“We’d issued all the warnings and there comes a point where you simply have to act in self-defense, which is what we did, because our own shipping was being fired upon,” he said.
In the early hours of Friday, the United States and the UK carried out air strikes against Houthi positions in retaliation for attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. The strikes hit more than 60 targets in 16 different locations, US Air Forces Central said.
Russia has condemned the air strikes on Yemen conducted in absence of a UN mandate, calling them a direct threat to global peace and security.
