Iran says US, UK strikes on Houthis ‘contradict’ their desire to avoid Mideast escalation

In this photo released by the US military’s Central Command on February 3, 2024, US Central Command forces stand next to a fighter jet on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier as strikes are carried out against Houthi targets in Yemen. (US Central Command/AFP)

Iran denounces the latest US and UK strikes on targets in Yemen, saying they “contradict” those countries’ declared intention of avoiding a wider Middle East conflict.

These attacks are “in clear contradiction with the repeated claims of Washington and London that they do not want the expansion of war and conflict in the region,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanani, says in a statement.

He accuses the United States and Britain of “fueling chaos, disorder, insecurity and instability” by supporting Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza.

Further strikes on Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels in response to the group’s attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea are “a threat to international peace and security,” Kanani says.