In his Commons statement yesterday, Rishi Sunak was right to characterise last Thursday’s strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen as “limited, not escalatory” and a necessary act of self-defence after the unconscionable attacks on civilian and military shipping in the Red Sea.
In addition to the human cost of these assaults, the Islamists’ campaign has threatened one of the world’s most important shipping lanes and forced many vessels to take detours of 5,000 miles. The moral, military and economic case for the action taken by the US, UK and its allies was irreproachable; and, given the attack yesterday on a US-owned ship in the Gulf of Aden it seems regrettably likely that further air strikes will be necessary to degrade the Houthis’ military infrastructure.
