UK to provide Saudi Arabia with military support against Houthis
The UK is set to provide military support to Saudi Arabia against the Houthi advance in Yemen and the group's strikes on the kingdom.
Defence Minister Luke Pollard said the UK would deploy the RAF Voyager plane - operating from a UK base in Cyprus - for "air-to-air refuelling" operations.
Saudi aircraft have been carrying out air strikes against Yemen's Houthis as the country's once-dormant war resumed earlier this month.
The move comes following a Saudi request for military support after the Houthis increased drone and missile attacks on the kingdom in recent weeks.
"We're doing it for national security reasons in support of our own national security," UK Defence Minister Luke Pollard told Sky News.
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"In dangerous times, good friends stand together."
Pollard insisted the support would comply with international humanitarian law. A statement from the Ministry of Defence said the UK "has agreed to provide an RAF Voyager air-to-air refuelling aircraft to support Saudi defensive activity in support of the legitimate government of Yemen".
It added: "The Houthis are a dangerous threat to regional stability in the Middle East, and it is in the UK’s national economic and security interest that they do not succeed."
The air support follows the deployment of air defence equipment and UK military personnel to Saudi Arabia in recent weeks.
The Houthis have targeted Saudi cities, oil infrastructure and Red Sea oil shipments as they captured a swathe of the Red Sea coast in a lightning campaign, giving them control over the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait.
They are demanding an end to the decade-old Saudi blockade on Yemen, in return for which they say attacks on Saudi Arabia and its oil exports through the Red Sea will be halted.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) announced on Tuesday that around 230,000 displaced persons in Yemen and another 10,000 refugees in Djibouti are expected to require humanitarian assistance in the coming months.
More than 130,000 people have been displaced in Yemen and some 3,000 have fled to Djibouti due to the resumption of fighting in early September between the Houthis and pro-government forces.
These figures could rise to 230,000 and 10,000 respectively in the coming months, UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch announced at a press briefing in Geneva.
Multiple sources told CNN on Sunday that despite the US providing additional intelligence and targeting support to Saudi Arabia, it is still unable to push back against Houthi forces.
Anonymous US officials who spoke to CNN said that for months, its intelligence reports indicated the Houthis would attempt to close another key waterway for commercial shipping as Iran did earlier this year.
But despite Saudi Arabia's reassurances for the last decade that it had given effective training to the Saudi-backed Yemeni government to fight the Houthis, according to two US officials, Washington still believes that Riyadh is not capable of pushing back the Houthis.
UK support for Saudi Arabia has been controversial, particularly after the country began launching air strikes on Yemen in 2015 in a war that killed more than 150,000 people.
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