Iran rejects US and UK calls to end support for Houthi Red Sea attacks

A mock Houthi missile at a square in Sana'a. The Houthis have said their attacks will continue until Israel allows full supplies of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Photograph: Yahya Arhab/EPA

Iran has rejected US and British calls to end its support for attacks by Houthi rebels on Israeli-linked vessels in the Red Sea and claimed the accusations were baseless interference as its navy dispatched a destroyer to the vital shipping lane.

The Alborz destroyer, operating as a military vessel of the 94th flotilla of the Iranian navy, crossed the Bab-el-Mandeb strait and entered the Red Sea on Monday. It came as Ali Akbar Ahmadian, the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council (SNSC), met Mohammed Abdulsalam, the Houthi spokesperson, praising the rebel fighters’ “brave actions” against “Zionist aggression”.