Iran slams US, British overnight attack on Houthis in Yemen

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani has condemned US and UK military attacks on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, calling them an “arbitrary” action.

“Arbitrary attacks will have no result other than fueling insecurity and instability in the region,” the Iranian Mehr news agency quoted Kanani as saying on January 12.

“These military attacks are carried out in line with the continuation of the full support of the United States and the United Kingdom for the last hundred days of the Zionist regime's war crimes against the Palestinian nation and the oppressed citizens under the complete siege of the Gaza Strip,” he said.

“While the Zionist regime [Israel] continues its attacks and war crimes in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in Palestine, the United States and England are trying to detract the attention of the people of the world from the crimes of this fake, criminal, and aggressor regime against the people of Palestine by expanding their umbrella of support for the Zionist regime,” the spokesman added.

The US and UK militaries launched strikes against multiple Houthi targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on January 11, marking a significant response after the Biden administration and its allies warned that the Iran-backed militant group would bear the consequences of repeated drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

For weeks, the US had sought to avoid direct strikes on Yemen because of the risk of escalation in a region already simmering with tension as the Israel-Hamas war continues, but the ongoing Houthi attacks on international shipping compelled the coalition to act.

The strikes were from fighter jets and Tomahawk missiles. Houthi targets were fired upon by missiles fired from air, surface, and sub-platforms and were chosen for their ability to degrade the Houthis’ continued attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, a US official told CNN.

They included radar systems, drone storage and launch sites, ballistic missile storage and launch sites, and cruise missile storage and launch sites.