Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will address MPs in Parliament for the first time since the UK joined forces with the US to launch strikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The RAF and US Air Force launched targeted air strikes against military sites used by the Houthis, where Tomahawk cruise missiles and fighter jets hit more than 12 facilities. Explosions were heard in the capital, Sanaa and Hudaydah, the Houthi Red Sea port stronghold.
On Sunday, US aircraft shot down an anti-ship cruise missile fired from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen, with no injuries reported. According to the US Central Command, the missile was directed towards the USS Laboon destroyer stationed in the Red sea.
Mr Sunak said on Thursday the strikes had been “limited” and “necessary” to protect lives and commercial shipping. Some ships have been diverted to the Cape of Good Hope route around southern Africa, increasing their journey by two weeks and delaying shipments.
Mr Sunak came under fire from some MPs after he made the decision to join forces with the US without consulting with Parliament.
On Monday afternoon, Mr Sunak will deliver a statement to the MPs explaining the strikes and taking questions.
Over the weekend, some Conservative MPs expressed support for Mr Sunak’s decision, including Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who told ITV News on Sunday: “What was necessary was to send a very clear message to the Houthis that these attacks are illegal and unacceptable and what we have done is use military action as a last result.”
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said the strikes against the Houthis were carried out to send a “very clear message” to the rebels.
He told Sky News on Monday morning: “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.
"We cannot have that situation where they are trying to harass [Red Sea vessels] and we'll keep a very close eye.
"If we have to take further action, then that's something that we would consider,” he added.
Who are the Houthi rebels?
The Houthi movement emerged in Yemen in the 1990s. It is a Shia Islamist organisation, officially known as ‘Ansar Allah’ or ‘Supporters of God’, and was born as an opposition movement to Yemen president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The group accused Saleh of financial corruption and having ties to both Saudi Arabia and the US, and demanded rights for the Zaidi Shias and the Houthi tribe.
The Houthis were originally led by Hussein al-Houthi, a Yemeni politician and political activist, but his death by Yemeni military in 2004 sparked the Houthi insurgency, a rebellion from Zaidi Shia Houthis against the Yemeni military. The insurgency has since evolved into an ongoing civil war, with Houthi rebels currently in control of Sanaa, the country’s capital, as well as the north of Yemen and the Red Sea coastline.
The group, now largely led by Hussein al-Houthi’s brother Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, opposes US and Israeli influence in the Middle East, with its official slogan being: "God is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, A Curse Upon the Jews, Victory to Islam".
Why are the Houthi rebels attacking ships in the Red Sea?
The Houthis are part of an alliance with Hezbollah and Hamas, labelled by Iran as “the axis of resistance” against Israel. These groups, as well as Iran, contest or deny Israel’s legitimacy as a nation. The rebels say they are targeting Israel-linked or Israel-destined ships, with the aim of stopping Israel’s offensive targeting of the Gaza strip following the attack by Hamas on October 7.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree stated that the attacks would continue “until the aggression stops and the siege on our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip ends", while the Houthi movement also said that the “naval operations” were being employed “to support the Palestinian people”.
What will the impact of the attacks be?
The latest attack of commercial vessels in the Red Sea has sparked a new wave of global concern. Dame Barbara Woodward, the UK’s ambassador at the United Nations, stated today (Thursday, January 11) that Britain will not ‘stand by’ and allow commercial vessels to be targeted. She went on to say that, "If necessary, and as previously stated by the UK Defence Secretary, we will not hesitate to take further action", while ex-Navy chief Admiral Lord West has said that air strikes by America and Britain are “almost certain” if Houthi rebels continue targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea.
This comes after severe disruption to world shipping, with shipping companies redirecting vessels around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope rather than travelling through the Suez Canal. UK involvement means that the Royal Navy have set up a taskforce to protect international shipping from attacks from the Houthi rebels, with the HMS Diamond reported by Defence Secretary Grant Shapps to have “successfully repelled the largest attack from the Iranian-backed Houthis in the Red Sea to date”.
