Amidst the ongoing terror attacks in the Red Sea by Iranian-backed Houthis against United States naval vessels and commercial ships, new reporting from the U.K. over the weekend revealed that the British government is preparing its military to launch a wave of airstrikes against the terrorist group alongside the U.S.
According to The Sunday Times, the two nations are expected to issue an "unprecedented statement" to warn the Houthis to cease their attacks. Speaking to The Sunday Times, U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps warned that the terrorists disrupting trade in the Red Sea are "drinking in the last chance saloon."
"We cannot allow one of the world's key waterways that serve global trade to be held for ransom," Shapps said. "Attacks on commercial shipping with drones and missiles is an attack on all of us and the culture and freedoms we cherish. If the Houthis continue to threaten lives and trade, we will be forced to take the necessary and appropriate action," he told The Sunday Times.
An anonymous British government source told The Sunday Times the statement from the U.K. Defense Secretary was a "last warning" and that if the Houthi attacks continued, the response would likely be "limited but significant."
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his U.K. counterpart about the ongoing Houthi attacks, stating that such attacks "constitute a significant international problem that demands collective action."
Following the Oct. 7 massacre by terrorist group Hamas against the Jewish state of Israel, the Islamic Republic has called on all its proxies in the Middle East region, ranging from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, to attack Israeli and American forces by all means necessary. Thanks to military and financial support from Tehran, the Houthis have been able to disrupt international trade and the Red Sea. Over the weekend, 10 Houthi terrorist fighters were killed after the U.S. sunk their boats during an attempted attack by the terrorist group against the Maersk Hangzhou container ship in the southern Red Sea.
The container ship sent a distress call after it was attacked by several Houthi small boats that fired on the vessel and tried to board it. Helicopters from the USS Eisenhower and Gravely arrived and rescued the carrier, sinking three of the four boats and killing their crews, while one of the Houthi boats fled the scene.
"The American enemy bears the consequences of this crime and its repercussions, and that its military movements in the Red Sea to protect Israeli ships will not prevent Yemen from performing its religious, moral, and humanitarian duty in support of the oppressed in Palestine and Gaza," said Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sare'e.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Sunday that he made clear to the Islamic Republic's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian that Tehran had responsibility for preventing Houthi terror attacks in the Red Sea.
"I made clear that Iran shares responsibility for preventing these attacks, given their long-standing support to the Houthis," he said on the social media site X (Twitter).
Islamic Republic state media quoted Foreign Minister Amirabdollahian stating that Israel "cannot be allowed to commit massacres of women and children and genocide in Gaza and set the region on fire, while the stopping of a Zionist ship in the Red Sea is seen as endangering the security of this economic waterway."
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