Iran says Yemen strikes ‘contradict’ US, UK policy

TEHRAN: Iran on Sunday denounced the latest US and UK strikes on targets in Yemen saying they “contradict” their 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, said in a statement.

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

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

On Saturday the US and the UK struck dozens of targets in Yemen over Huthi attacks in the Red Sea, which the rebels say are in solidarity with Palestinians in war-battered Gaza.

The previous day, the US military struck targets in Syria and Iraq, in retaliation for a January 28 drone attack on a base in Jordan that killed three US soldiers.

President Joe Biden has blamed “radical Iran-backed militant groups” for that attack, but said the United States does not seek a wider conflict in the Middle East.

“I don’t think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That’s not what I’m looking for,” Biden said on Tuesday.