Key Takeaways
- The UK Defense Secretary warns Iran to force the Houthis to stop, as the world is running out of patience.
- The Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, are in control of northern and central Yemen.
- The US and UK carried out air strikes against Houthi positions in retaliation for attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
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.
The United States and the UK launched air strikes against Houthi positions in the early hours of Friday. 60 targets were hit in 16 different locations in retaliation for attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
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.
